Category: News and Events

BIRN Macedonia Launches Third Call for Investigative Reports

BIRN Macedonia, together with Centre for Investigative journalism – SCOOP Macedonia and the Centre for Civil Communications launched the third call for investigative stories on January 10.

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 February 4, 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.

BIRN Macedonia Holds Promotion For Balkan Fellowship

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network office in Macedonia on December 25 organized a reception to promote the 2013 Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence.

BIRN Macedonia Director Ana Petruseva explained the program to representatives of different media and non-governmental organizations and encouraged Macedonian journalists to apply for next year’s program, which opens in January under the topic “Generations”.  

In the premises of the Journalism Club in Skopje, two Macedonian Fellows for 2013, Meri Jordanovska and Goran Rizaov, shared experiences of working and investigating in the framework of the Fellowship.

Both agreed that it had been a valuable experience for them and had offered them important opportunities to conduct in-depth research.

“This was a one of the best experiences for me. It was hard and exhausting but very interesting and valuable,” Jordanovska said.

The Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence program was founded in 2007. It is supported by Erste Foundation and implemented by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

BIRN Serbia Debates Holes in Patients’ Rights Law

Efficient application of the Law on Protection of Patients’ Rights, problems concerning its application, and the role of local government in appointing councilors for patients’ rights were key topics in the debate, “Law on Protection of Patients’ Rights – law without application?”, organized by BIRN Serbia on December 20.

The debate gathered more than 30 participants from government, independent institutions, local authorities, the NGO sector and the media.

More details about the law are available at: http://www.meravlade.rs/zastita-prava-pacijenata/  

BIRN Serbia organized the debate, aware that some 47 per cent of municipalities had not fully applied the Law on Patients’ Rights and appointed councilors for patients’ rights by a December 1 deadline.

The NGO Serbia on the Move, BIRN Serbia’s partner organization, presented data from its research carried out among 105 municipalities all over the Serbia, which showed that by early December only 42 of them had appointed such councilors and formed Councils for Patients’ Rights.

More details of the debate are available at: http://www.meravlade.rs/odrzana-debata-zastita-prava-pacijenata-zakon-bez-primene-20-12/ 

Dr Ivana Rodic, from the Ministry of Health, outlined the activities of the ministry in regard to the two laws, saying the Ministry had implemented all the steps it needed to take.

Dr Predrag Stojičić, from Serbia on the Move, and Marina Mijatovic, from the NGO Law Scanner, responded that the authorities had left matters far too late, saying that essential communication with citizens and doctors had been left out.

Gordana Stevanović, from the Ombudsman’s office, explained the role of this institution in the process and pointed out both positive and negative sides to the new law. She also presented the Ombudsman’s plan to organize similar debates and round tables to monitor and support the process of patients’ rights protection.

Marija Djordjevic from Kragujevac shared her town’s positive experiences about the provision of patients’ rights protection, in force for some months now already, since the town participated in the pilot project implemented by SCTM (Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities). She explained how certain procedures were established, where difficulties had occurred and how they were resolved.

In the debate that followed, members of the audience took part, including representatives of the Republican Health Insurance Fund, the municipality of Indjija, and several patients’ associations.

BIRN Serbia will announce and promote a set of recommendations in regard to better implementation of this law and will continue to evaluate trends in the health sector as part of its monitoring project.

New Website by BIRN Serbia

BIRN Serbia invites you to visit our new web portal Mera Vlade at www.meravlade.rs.

Mera Vlade is the first online platform that provides 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.

This innovative watchdog tool 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 has collected various items of information from the spring 2012 campaign, including statements, programs, election platforms, the Prime Minister’s inaugural speech and the Coalition agreement.

In addition, Mera Vlade monitors the progress of reforms in five key areas that citizens have rated as most important for social development and quality of life: public finances; the economy; the fight against corruption; health; education.

Mera Vlade is intended for the use of all the citizens, but especially for voters, who are now gaining a user-friendly tool to monitor the government’s performance and accountability.

Within this portal, citizens, organizations, and both state and non-state institutions can also follow announcements about our own debates and other events organized within the project, which will review the government’s performance with a special emphasis on promised and implemented measures.

We invite you to contribute to the creation of a clear overview and objective picture of government activities by posting your comments and additional information related to project themes, either directly on the website or through BIRN Serbia.

For more information, contact Tanja Maksić, the project coordinator, at [email protected].

Balkan Fellowship wraps up for 2013

The 2013 edition of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence has concluded with panel discussions and an awards ceremony in Zagreb.

On December 12, the ten fellows took part in a critique of their work during a final editorial evaluation session. They reflected on what they had learned over the year, and debated the strengths and weaknesses of their stories.

They also gave their suggestions for improving the format of the fellowship.

Earlier that day, the fellows attended a discussion about Croatia’s path following its admittance into the EU earlier this year.

The panel described how the country’s politics had lurched towards the right after its entry into the bloc. The speakers were Sandra Bencic, programme director of the Centre for Peace Studies; Vedran Horvat, director of the Croatian office of the Heinrich Boll Foundation; Davor Gjenero, a political analyst; and Irena Frlan, a journalist at Novi List.

The fellows also attended a discussion about the problems facing the Croatian media, which is struggling to survive in an overcrowded landscape. The speakers were Boris Postnikov, a senior adviser at the Ministry of Culture; Ivana Dragicevic, an editor at the foreign policy desk of Croatian National TV; Tena Perisin, a professor at Zagreb University’s journalism faculty; and Danela Zagar, from the NGO, GONG.

Later that afternoon, the fellows went on a sightseeing tour of Zagreb.

On December 13, the fellows spent the morning and early afternoon presenting their research to the independent selection committee.

The winners of this year’s fellowship were announced on Friday evening at a ceremony at the Croatian Journalists’ Association.

On the final night, an independent team of judges selected the three top stories from the year’s output.

The first prize in the 2013 fellowship, worth €4,000, was won by Vlad Odobescu, a Romanian reporter who described how his country’s politicians have bounced back from corruption investigations.

The second prize, worth €3,000, was won by Dino Jahic, a Bosnian reporter who investigated bribery in the education system. The third prize, worth €1,000, was won by Elena Stancu, a Romanian reporter who examined corruption in the job market for doctors.

The theme for this year’s competition was “integrity”. Journalists on the programme covered topics spanning the legacy of war, bad government and the politicisation of civil society.

The call for applications for next year’s fellowship will be announced in January.

Initiated by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation in 2007, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, the annual fellowship provides financial and professional support to foster quality reporting in the Balkan region.

The programme also seeks to encourage regional networking among journalists and to provide balanced coverage of complex reform issues that are central to the region and the European Union.

This year’s ten fellows were selected from more than 120 applicants from nine Balkan countries.

BIRN Macedonia Launches Prizma.mk Website

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Macedonia has launched a new website designed to mutually benefit the independent media and the civil society sector.

The website, launched on Tuesday, is part of the project for investigative journalism and cooperation between media and civil society, which is part of USAID’s program for strengthening independent media in Macedonia.

Prizma is a project website designed to promote investigative journalism as well as cooperation between journalists and non-governmental organizations.

The interactive website will publish investigative stories, analysis, reports, blogs, but also news from civil society organizations as well as publications, tools, books and guides published by the NGO sector.

The core idea is that Prizma will foster the creation of networks between journalists and editors as well as between media workers and NGO representatives with the goal of closer cooperation, which will then encourage publication of more credible and more precise reports by journalists while increasing the visibility of NGOs. 

Patients Rights Put Under the Microscope

BIRN Serbia is organizing a public discussion on “Protection of patients’ rights – the law without implementation at the Media Center in Belgrade on Friday, December 20.

The speakers will be Perisa Simonovic, state secretary at the Health Ministry, Gordana Stevanovic, a representative of the ombudsman’s office, Marina Mijatovic, director of the NGO Legal Scanner, Predrag Stojicic, director of Serbia on the Move and representative of the council for patients’ rights in Kragujevac.

From December 1, under the law on the protection of patients’ rights, people have a right to better protection of their rights in the health care system in cooperation with a patients’ rights advisor in their local authorities.

However, a survey by Serbia on the Move shows that some municipalities have not yet appointed such advisers and are delaying implementation of the law on protecting patients’ rights.

The main obstacles in implementing the law, examples of good practice and the responsibilities of each actor in this process are all questions that the debate will cover.

BIRN Serbia in cooperation with NGO Serbia on the Move is organizing the discussion as a part of its monitoring project ‘’Mera Vlade’’.

Within this project, BIRN Serbia has been monitoring government policies in the fields of the economy, health, education and the fight against corruption since 2012.

The project aims to foster a greater degree of political accountability, transparency and efficiency in the implementation of reforms.

Romanian Reporter Wins 2013 Balkan Fellowship Award

The top prize in the 2013 Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence has been awarded to Vlad Odobescu, a Romanian reporter who described how his country’s politicians have bounced back from corruption investigations.

The second prize was won by Dino Jahic, a Bosnian reporter who investigated bribery within the education system.

The third prize was won by Elena Stancu, a Romanian reporter who examined corruption in the job market for doctors.

The top prize is accompanied by an award of €4,000. The second prize is worth €3,000 and the third prize is worth €1,000.

The winning articles were selected by an independent panel of judges, comprised of Florian Hassel, Balkans correspondent for German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung; Remzi Lani, the executive director of the Albanian Media Institute; Gerald Knaus, founding chairman of the European Stability Initiative; Milorad Ivanovic, executive editor of the Serbian weekly, Novi Magazin; Markus Spielman, editor of the Swiss newspaper, Neue Zurcher Zeitung; and Adelheid Wölfl, an editor at the Austrian daily, Der Standard.

The jury members praised Odobescu’s report for its use of a strong storyline with a colourful central character to illustrate a region-wide problem.

Odobescu says the fellowship helped him “prioritise and structure information, especially when huge amounts of data are gathered”.

The winners were announced on the evening of Friday, 13 December, at a ceremony at the Croatian Journalists’ Association in Zagreb.

The theme for this year’s competition was “integrity”. Journalists on the programme spanning the legacy of war, bad government and the politicisation of civil society.

Initiated by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation in 2007, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, the annual fellowship provides financial and professional support to foster quality reporting in the Balkan region.

The programme also seeks to encourage regional networking among journalists and to provide balanced coverage of complex reform issues that are central to the region and the European Union.

This year’s ten fellows were selected from more than 120 applicants from nine Balkan countries.

Next year’s programme will be open for applications from January 2014.

 

 

 

Deputy stands in for jailed mayor in Skenderaj

In the debate held on Thursday evening in Skenderaj, the current local government was accused of or criticized for the following: employing people on a partisan basis and through family connections, economic discrimination, presiding over a 67 percent unemployment rate, not dealing with the lack of running water and others. The mayoral candidates stated that the situation will change if they come to power.

Most of the candidates showed zero enthusiasm during the Tuesday evening debate with the exception of the Vetevendosje candidate and the authorized representative of the current mayor Sami Lushtaku. Lushtaku was unable to attend the debate due to his detention on suspicion of war crimes.

Fadil Nura, representing  Lushtaku, was confronted about employing members of his family.

The mayoral candidates tackled the main problems of the Municipality of Skenderaj starting from the high unemployment rate of 67 percent, lack of running water, lack of cemeteries and appropriate facilities promised for families of war veterans or martyrs.

Nura’s nepotism

 Nura, the deputy mayor of the Municipality of Skenderaj, was accused of hiring Lushtakus’s wife, sister and brother, without adequate qualifications relevant to the position.

Nura initially hired the mayor’s wife, Qamile Lushtaku, as a teacher in primary school in Kline e Eperme,  then later on in the secondary professional school in Skenderaj, without any required training.

He also employed the mayor’s brother at the same school although he did did not qualify for the job position.

Nura also used his political influence to employ his sister, too. She got a job position at the children with special needs school in Prekaz. Like the previously mentioned family members, she too didn’t have the required qualification at the time of employment.

However, Nura denied these allegations insisting his family members had the required qualifications.

 Nura said the current government paved all roads of the town and this good practice will continue during the next mandate.

Former associates now political enemies

Skenderaj citizens were curious to know more about the governing program of Ajnishahe Shala- Halimi representing Vetevendosje. Shala was once a close associate of Lushtaku, but is currently known to be the biggest critic to his local government.

According to citizens of Skenderaj,  Shala-Halimi had cooperated with  Lushtaku on several issues, including the petition for the removal of an imam from a village near Skenderaj. Shala–Halimi was supported by the current mayor and succeeded in imam’s removal. People were interested to know about the hostility between Shala-Halimi and the mayor of Skenderaj, considering that Shala-Halimi’s husband is employed in the same municipality.

But Vetevendosje’s candidate, known for her work in human rights and gender equality, reasoned that the cooperation was in the public interest.

During the debate, Shala – Halimi was often interrupted by applause from the people attending the debate held in the hall of the Hasan Prishtina House of Culture “in Skenderaj.

“Anathematized” by the municipality

The candidate of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) in Skenderaj, Cene Behrami, accused the current local government for discriminating against his village, Klina e Mesme.

According to Behrami, residents of this village have always been tagged as supporters of LDK and economically discriminated as a result. According to Behrami and other citizens from Kline e Mesme, the village lacks paved roads, although the works have begun two days prior to the debate.

Residents of the village have disrupted the work due to the fact that the village lacks sewage, which needs installing before the road pavement is done.

Nura  initially hesitated to say whether the work has started in the village. He justified the lack of investments in this village by stating that the municipality has invested in villages one after another and now it is Klina e Mesme’s turn for investments.

Cene Behrami promised that 30 percent of the municipal budget will be spent on the water supply network for the municipality of Skenderaj.

The candidate who doesn’t know how to open an email

One of the questions asked by citizens present at the debate was whether AAK’s mayoral candidate, Qazim Xani, knows how to communicate through email. Xani acknowledged the fact that he doesn’t use an email to communicate but that this wont restrict him in leading the local government in the next four years.

Abandoned by his members

AKR’s candidate, Ramiz Polaci, unveiled his government program too. However, citizens were more interested to know why AKR members abandoned him and the party in 2007.

BIRN investigations, confirmed by former members of the party’s presidency, say 11 members of the AKR presidency abandoned the party in 2007 on the grounds that Ramiz Polaci had misused the campaign funds at that time for his personal benefits.

Ramiz Polaci, however, denied these accusations saying he is not the reason why members of this party abandoned him and the party. According to him,  AKR is a big political subject and anyone is free to join or leave it.

The Social Movement of Kosovo’s candidate, Musli Ahmeti, did not attend the debate in Skenderaj due to the health reasons.

Belgrade-backed candidate refuses to participate in the Novo Brdo debate

The Belgrade-backed Serbian Citizens Initiative list candidate for mayor of Novo Brdo was the only one who did not take part in the TV debate of “Life in Kosovo.” Candidates from this party refused to participate in similar debates in Partes, Ranillug and Kllokot.

The mayoral candidates of the municipality of Novo Brdo, which debates on RTV2, on Monday, spared no promises for their fellow citizens.

Avdullah Gashi from AAK said he would fight corruption and the mismanagement in the municipality whereas Srdjan Jovanovic of “Buducnost za Novobrdo ” (Future for Novo Brdo) said he would improve the life of citizens

Ranko Makic, of the SLS, praised his party for good governance in municipalities where it holds power. He implied that his governing of the municipalities would not be infused with politics, but would be committed to the welfare of citizens.

Nazmi Siarina, PDK’s candidate, said he would restructure the municipality by reducing the number of directors from nine to five. Siarina planed to create three separate municipal sectors, while Zeke Zeka from Vetevendosje promised 24-hour water and 50 flats for new couples with housing problems.

The current mayor, Ymer Bajrushi, of LDK, praised the work he has done as the mayor of this municipality in the last two mandates, saying he was running for the third term in order to continue with the good work.

The mayor has no plans for agriculture

Ymeri did not have any actual projects for the development of agriculture, while AAK’s mayoral candidate, Ymer Gashi accused Bajrush Avdullah of neglecting the Director of Agriculture’s participation in the allocation of subsidies to farmers. This, however is carried out directly by the deputy mayor who provides the other directors with a list specifying which farmers should receive agricultural subsidies.

In contracts to the above, other candidates did have plans for  agricultural development.  Jovanovic  said he would increase the budget of this sector by 50 percent and help build dairy milk farms.

Zeka also promised a budget increase for agriculture, while Siarina said he would establish a municipal office, which would help farmers design their projects by providing support from the municipal finances.

Makic said he would increase subsidies for agriculture and build small livestock farms.

Dysfunctional sewage

The SLS representative complained about the municipal sewage network, considering it disastrous and stated that it needs reconstructing.

Zeka said that the sewage system is not functioning properly, citing the case of Llabjan village, where sewage flows into the private fields. Gazeta Jeta ne Kosove wrote about this issue in September.

Jovanovic and Gashi  guaranteed solutions to the sewage issue. Mayor Ymeri said that in general the sanitation network is functional, while acknowledging that there may be defects which require repair.

Water shortage

Novo Brdo  has no company that manages the water supply, although the current mayor implied that in 2011 the Kosovo government had decided that the Hidromorava  regional water company would manage the water supply.

Ymer complained that this responsibility has not been taken yet by this company, while  Siarina said Hidromorava would not be able to do so due to the high maintenance cost.

Zeka accused the current mayor for not convincing Hidromorava to take responsibility.

Candidates promised to open new clinics and extend the operating hours for the family medical center, but Ymer told his opponents not to promise things that are financially impossible.

The health center in Novo Brdo currently closes at 4 pm.