Category: News and Events

BIRN Journalists Win Serbian Investigative Reporting Award

The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia and the US Embassy in Belgrade have awarded BIRN journalists Slobodan Georgiev and Aleksandar Djordjevic the 2014 prize for investigative journalism in the print media category.

Georgiev and Djordjevic won the award for their report entitled ‘Marketing Stars in the Political Field’, which was published in the weekly magazine Vreme in March 2014. The investigation showed how Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s party entered the advertising market after coming to power in 2012, pushing out the Democrats who previously held a dominant influence in this sector.

The journalists were presented with the awards, which carry a $1,200 prize, by US ambassador Michael Kirby at a ceremony on Thursday.

Kirby said that he respects the work of the Serbian prime minister and changes to the Serbian media laws, but also said that “these laws do not cover the biggest challenge for the media, and that’s lack of money. Media need money to survive, provide salaries to journalists, but also to pay other bills.”

Separate prizes were also awarded in two other categories, electronic and online media.

The electronic media (radio and television) award went to Vesna Radojevic and Andjela Milivojevic from TV Mreza and the Centre for Investigative Reporting in Serbia (CINS) for their story about a housing swindle.

The online media award was given to Dragana Peco, Dino Jahic and Jasna Fetahovic from CINS for an article about corrupt practices in the awarding of prizes to Serbian business leaders, which was published on the website of CINS and CIN Sarajevo in August 2013. Jahic is an alumnus of BIRN’s Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence.

Another BIRN Serbia journalist Ana Novakovic, was nominated in the online media category together with Georgiev, for their story ‘TV Viewers Force Fed State Spin’ about the Serbian state hiring three private companies to produce material that TV stations use for free without informing viewers that it is not news, but PR.

The winners were chosen by a jury composed of journalist and media consultant Sasa Lekovic, director of the Center for Investigative Reporting Branko Cecen, ‘Insajder’ TV show journalist Ivan Angelovski, and investigative journalist and editor of Novi Magazin Milorad Ivanovic.

BIRN Serbia Journalists Shortlisted for Investigative Award

BIRN Serbia journalists Ana Novakovic, Slobodan Georgiev and Aleksandar Djordjevic have been named as finalists for the National Investigative Journalism Award 2014 by the Independent Association of Journalists in Serbia.

Novakovic and Georgiev were selected in the online media category for their article for Balkan Insight about the Serbian state hiring three private companies to produce material that TV stations use for free without informing viewers that it is not news, but PR.

The investigation showed that the state spent at least €3.8 million over the past nine years, despite already financing two costly public media outlets. The story can be found at http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/tv-viewers-force-fed-state-spin

Georgiev was also nominated together with Djordjevic in the print media category for their investigation that showed how Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s party entered the advertising market after coming to power in 2012, pushing out the Democrats who previously held a dominant influence in this sector.

The article was published in weekly news magazine Vreme, but can also be found online at http://javno.rs/istrazivanja/oglasavanje-kao-privatni-posao-vlasti/

Others nominated in the online media category are three journalists from the Centre for Investigative Journalism in Serbia, Dragana Peco, Jasna Fetahovic and Dino Jahic, who is also a Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence alumnus.

In the print media category, the other selected journalists are Nikola Lazic from the weekly Vranjske and Jelena Veljkovic, a freelancer.

The Investigative Journalism Award is organised by the Independent Association of Journalists in Serbia and is supported by the US Embassy in Belgrade. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Belgrade on May 8.

 

BIRN World War I Investigation Sparks Debate in ‘The Guardian’

An investigation into what schoolchildren in former Yugoslav countries are taught about the outbreak of World War I, and the way this teaching reflects the conflicts of the 1990s, was republished on May 6 in leading British newspaper The Guardian, sparking a wide-ranging debate among readers on the paper’s website.


The investigation by journalists from BIRN’s Balkan Transitional Justice project examined school textbooks and gathered opinions from experts and parents in five Balkan countries – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. It is being published in Albanian, Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian and Macedonian as well as English on the Balkan Transitional Justice website.

The article immediately drew around 140 comments from readers of The Guardian after appearing on the newspaper’s website, which is one of the most popular and well-respected news site in the world.

The Guardian readers took part in intense debates about whether Gavrilo Princip, whose assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 helped to spark the outbreak of WWI, should be seen as a freedom fighter or a terrorist – echoing the issues raised by the textbooks in the various former Yugoslav countries which were the focus of BIRN’s investigation.

They also debated what impact the 1990s conflicts have on teaching in schools in the various former Yugoslav countries.

Some praised BIRN’s cross-border collaborative reporting methods.

“Great article, and a very interesting collaborative approach. The comparative perspective both from country to country and across time (1914-1990s-now) is fascinating and thought-provoking. Well done to the various contributors,” one reader posted in the newspaper’s comments section.

See the full BIRN investigation.

BIRN Macedonia Launches Fourth Call for Investigative Reports

BIRN Macedonia, together with Centre for Investigative journalism – SCOOP Macedonia and the Centre for Civil Communications launched the fourth call for investigative stories on May 5th.

The call is part of the ‘Project for Investigative Journalism and Cooperation Between Media and Civil Society’, part of a USAID programme for strengthening independent media in Macedonia.

In this call that closes on May 26, at least five journalists will be awarded a grant to cover their expenses while doing the investigation and writing the story. More calls for investigative grants will follow, for a total of 40 stories until June 2015.

Journalists will have about three months to dig deeper and research their ideas, but also will have the opportunity to work with experienced editors as their mentors to guide them through the process of writing to BIRN standards.

Topics for investigations include: health; cultural policy; education and youth; human rights; EU integration; good governance; inter-ethnic relations; environment issues; marginalised groups; quality of life.

The call only applies to journalists from Macedonia.

Click for more information about the application procedure, with details in Macedonian.

Research on Soft Censorship in Serbia Published

‘Soft Censorship: Strangling Serbia’s Media’, a piece of research conducted by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), in cooperation with the Center for International Media Assistance – CIMA, is published today and will be presented at the ‘Media Freedom and Accession talks – Speak Up! Serbia’ conference in Brussels.

The report describes the mechanisms of a growing ‘soft censorship’ that denies Serbia’s citizens their right to a free and independent media and offers recommendations that can help tackle such practices.

The EP’s rapporteur on Serbia, Jelko Kacin, one of the conference organizers, said that adoption of media laws is one of the main tasks of the new government. 

According to Kacin, the three biggest problems of the Serbian media sector are self-censorship and a lack of investigative journalism, non-transparency of ownership, and the rise of tabloids. 

BIRN’s regional director, Gordana Igrić, presenting an overview of the research in Brussels, said that the system of censorship in Serbia has been established earlier, during the Democratic Party’s time in office.

Serbia’s chief negotiator with the European Union, Tanja Miščević, emphasized that the government will submit media bills to the parliament as soon as possible, but pointed out that it is more important for such laws to be implemented in practice. 

The main researcher on the project was Jovanka Matić, and it was supported by Open Society Foundations.

BIRN Serbia Website Launches 2014 Elections Page

Helping Serbian voters to make an informed electoral decision, BIRN Serbia redesign its MeraVlade website introducing new page dedicated to the 2014 parliamentary elections, featuring seven political parties’ promises related to the primary topics of citizens’ concern: economy, the fight against corruption, health and education. 

The new web page serves as an easy-to-use online tool which provides information about the parties, their statements and promises made to the electorate, as well as up-to-date news from the campaign.

BIRN’s monitoring of the Serbian election campaign shows that most common promises from the parties are about economic development (particularly unemployment and new jobs) and the consolidation of public finances. Almost 60 per cent of all promises referred to these topics.

During the election campaign, the parties paid little attention to other issues, such as health, education and the fight against corruption.

The Serbian Progressive Party was the main party making promises about economic development – 56 per cent of its promises in election campaign were about this issue. On the other hand, the New Democratic Party too the leading position in promises about education, with 33 per cent of all promises about education coming from this party. The Democratic Party made 35 per cent of its promises about public finances, 24 per cent about economic development, 6 per cent about fight against corruption, 11 per cent about health and 24 per cent about education. The fight against corruption was least mentioned by the parties.

BIRN’s web site www.meravlade.rs is an innovative watchdog tool launched in December 2013 which enables people to evaluate to what extent, and in what way, the government has matched the promises that the parties of the ruling coalition made in the election campaign and at the beginning of their term in office.

 

BIRN Serbia Launches Government Performance Report

BIRN Serbia has launched new summary report assessing the overall 2012-14 performance of the Serbian government. The report is published on the website www.meravlade.rs, and examines the electoral promises of the ruling parties, the Serbian Progressives and Socialists, and their fulfillment, as monitored through the entire period of the government that was in office from July 2012 to January 2014.

The report covers the policies position in four areas considered primary concerns by Serbian of citizens: the economy and public finances, the fight against corruption, health and education.

Electoral promises and policy reforms are graded into three categories: ‘complete success’, ‘partial success’ and ‘unfulfilled promise’.

According to BIRN’s monitoring, the least success was achieved in the sector of education, where none of the government’s promises was fulfilled. Mild success was achieved in the area of economy and health, where approximately 10 to 15 per cent electoral promises were graded as a ‘complete success’ and some 60 per cent as a ‘partial success’.

The report shows that the ruling parties had the most success in the fight against corruption, in which five of the seven announced reforms achieved a complete or partial success, with two completely unfulfilled promises.

In December 2013, BIRN Serbia launched a new website, meravlade.rs, the first online platform to provide clear, critical and unbiased insight into the progress of reforms and delivery of public policies, comparing them to the pledges made during the last election campaign.

MeraVlade offers full information on BIRN’s monitoring, along with news, analytical reports and information about the project’s public debates.

Full report in Serbian for download

BIRN BiH to Hold Two Events at the Global Summit

BIRN BiH representatives will participate at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict set to take place 10-13 June 2014 at ExCel London.

In addition, BIRN BiH will hold two events at the Summit’s Fringe. A debate that will gather worldwide media professionals as well as the BIRN’s experts in war crime trials monitoring to discuss the importance of reporting about sexual war crimes processing, and screening of selected video testimonies of victims of sexual violence from the Bosnian war followed by a Questions and Answers session.

The event will be hosted by the UK’s Foreign Secretary William Hauge and Angelina Jolie, Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. It will be the largest gathering ever brought together on this subject, with a view to creating irreversible momentum against sexual violence in conflict and practical action that impacts those on the ground.

More information about the Summit is available at the End Sexual Violence in Conflict Facebook page, and the Official Website, People can also receive updates about the Summit via twitter @end_svc or through #TimeToAct and #SexualViolence hashtags.

Maintenance of Schools

The National Institute of Public Health in Kosovo has claimed that the lack of maintenance in schools, especially the toilets, can be cause to many mini-epidemics that will hurt the children. While in the other hand, politicians keep promising the digitization of schools. 

To discus about this issue, Life in Kosovo invited: Nehat Mustafa, the vice minister of Education; Naim Ismaili, mayor of Shtime; Shaip Surdulli, mayor of Kamenicë; Pal Lekaj, mayor of Gjakovë; Petrit Popova Ministry of Finance official; and Agron Demi, executive director of GAP institution.

A number of schools in Kosovo are in a filthy and disastrous situation, more specifically the toilets. This is a cause of many mini-epidemics that children who attend these schools are exposed to. BIRN has recorded the situations of some schools during May and June when the classes were over. The situation on which these schools were found was catastrophic. Moreover, the new semester will start on September and there is still no action taken to fix these toilets. 

For instance, in elementary school “Mustafa Venhari” in Vushtrri the water pipes do not function properly, ceramics are outdated, the toilets are extremely dirty, and also smells really bad. There are also cases where the toilets are completely closed because of the lack of maintenance.

Developments in the Parliament

On September 26, 2013, Life in Kosovo discussed about the developments in the parliament.

Life in Kosovo invited in the debate: Behar Selimi, MP of PDK; Vjosa Osmani, MP of LDK; Dardan Sejdiu, Vetëvendoje Movement; Driton Selmanaj, Kosovo Democratic Institute; and Besa Shahini, European Initiative for Stability.

Among the things discussed was the privatization of Kosovo Post and Telecom. In the plenary session that was held for this issue, the government could not collect the votes in favor of privatization. The biggest opposition party voted against PTK privatization. Behar Selimi, the MP of PDK, stated that “PTK privatization is one of the most discussed issues in the assembly. There were many reasons that prevented the closing of this issue, such as technical problems, no uniformity between individuals in one group/party, and because privatization is not seen as indispensable yet”.

Moreover, during the plenary session LDK left the assembly room. Vjosa Osmani, MP of LDK, states that “PTK privatization is one of the most sensitive issues and every time the parliament discuses about this issue LDK always opposed it.”LDK asked to return this process in the initial state because every tender that is released should have in prior the assembly decision and the privatization of PTK did not have the assembly decision.

Moreover, Driton Selmanaj, from KDI, says that “in 2011 the government contraband this issue by adding an annex of privatization in the budget law.”

In addition, Dardan Sejdiu, from Vetevendosje, said that “Mr. Fadil Ismaili, minister of Economic Development, did not answer some of the questions asked in relation to this issue. We need to know where does the money comes, the financial reports, and the auditor’s report because PTK is one of the biggest national assets that controls 1.2 million subscribers”.

Furthermore, it is predicted that in spring of 2014 early elections might take place in Kosovo and in Serbia as well. Mrs. Besa Shahini said that “usually we do not decide to do things that are good for the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia which is very important for Brussels, Serbia and also for Kosovo.” Whereas, Vjosa Osmani said that she agrees that the Kosovo – Serbia dialogue might have an impact on the elections of 2014 but she also said that there is a chance that the leading party will chose the time that they want without asking the other parties.

In this debate it was also mentioned that the upcoming elections (national and local) will be very important because Kosovo will show if the elections are followed by fraud and irregularities or if Kosovo improved and the major irregularities during elections will be reduced.

Finally, the debaters concluded the debate by talking about the election abuse. They said that it is important to have many local and international observers that do not allow the ballot to be abused. If these elections are passed without irregularities we will show that Kosovo is progressing and also shows that we have representative institutions.