Category: News and Events

BIRN BiH Editor Featured in Bosnian TV Show

BIRN BiH editor Erna Mackic featured this week on the Federal TV political magazine show ‘Posteno’ (‘Honestly’), discussing false testimonies at war crimes trials and the way that the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region reports about them.  

Mackic spoke about journalistic standards and ethics, saying that no one should be ‘convicted’ in the media before a verdict is announced because the press can’t do a court’s work.

The televised interview was sparked by a recent statement by Goran Golub, a witness at a trial for war crimes committed in the Silos detention camp, who accused famous singer Hanka Paldum of coming to the camp and abusing him while he was imprisoned.

Golub’s lawyer then told the media that he would sue Paldum for alleged physical and sexual abuse and mental suffering. 

Mackic said that the media, particularly in Serbia, had reported about this case as if a second instance verdict had already been given.

She said that attorneys had to be more careful when providing journalists with unchecked and sensationalist information.

Courtroom slander could be prevented by prosecuting offenders, Mackic suggested, noting that the Hague Tribunal has sentenced several people for lying on the stand. 

Besides Mackic, other guests on the show included Paldum and another singer, Ljubica Berak, who visited the frontline and sang for Bosnian Army troops during the war, as well as two influential attorneys, Vlado Adamovic and Josip Muselimovic.

The show can be viewed at: http://www.federalna.ba/bhs/vijest/55725/posteno-s-duskom-jurisic

Balkan Insight Expands Its Subscriber Base

Balkan Insight attracted Premium Content subscriptions from 75 institutions and 225 individuals in 2012, increasing its institutional subcriber base by 150 per cent.

A portal offering in-depth analysis, investigative reports, commentaries and interviews, the Premium Content section of Balkan Insight offers readers exclusive and independent information on a range of important issues affecting the region.

This section was restricted to subscribers in 2008 and marketed as BIRN’s primary commercial product in an effort to cover production costs and help provide self-sustainability.

Our subscriber base has also expanded to Australia, and subscribers now include the University of Melbourne as well as the University of Michigan in the United States, the Council of the European Union and the US State Department.

Access: Balkan Insight Premium, Facebook, Twitter

Kosovo Campaign Targets Proposed New Power Plant

The Kosovo Civil Society Consortium for Sustainable Development, KOSID, and a group of other organisations including BIRN Kosovo, launched a media campaign on Friday to raise awareness about the environmental damage that the project to build a new power plant will cause.

The campaign was launched at a press conference in Pristina on the same day as Kosovo’s government began consultations about the proposed new coal-fired power station which is slated to be built in the Obiliq/Obilic region, where two other power plants are already operating.

KOSID said that institutions like the World Bank that support the project must “explain why they are investing in projects which take people’s lives, impoverish them and destroy the environment they live in, when there are more feasible and ecologically sound options that cost less”.

Investments in hydropower plants, wind, biomass, geothermal and solar sources would cost less and safeguard the environment, KOSID argued.

“These investments would also create three times more employment possibilities, which is very significant taking into account that over 40 per cent of our workforce is unemployed,” KOSID said

KOSID referred to a World Bank Report published last year which said that in 2010 alone, environmental pollution in Kosovo caused 835 early deaths, 310 new cases of chronic bronchitis, 22,900 new cases of respiratory diseases among children (mostly asthma), 11,600 emergency visits to country’s hospitals and over 100 million euro in direct costs connected to this problem.

“Despite being aware of these facts, the government of Kosovo and the World Bank continue to support the development of a new thermal power plant in the country, although this project will pollute the Kosovo environment for the next 40 years, which means that our children would be threatened even when playing in their backyards,” KOSID said.

BIRN Kosovo has been a member of KOSID since it was established and has been directly engaged in organising the campaign.

“Being a mother of two children, I was shocked when I saw the data,” said Jeta Xharra, BIRN director for Kosovo.

For more information on the subject please visit www.kosid.org and KOSID and Sierra Club blog sierraclub.typepad.com/compass/2013/02/new-ads-highlight-world-banks-deadly-coal-plans-for-kosovo.html.

Skopje Debate Demands More Freedom of Information

Macedonia’s Centre for Civic Communications, in partnership with BIRN Macedonia, organised a public debate in Skopje on February 1 entitled ‘Initiative for Changes to the Law on Free Access to Public Information’.

Several recommendations were suggested by journalists and NGO members during the debate, including shortening the legal deadline for issuing information from 30 to 15 days, increased use of freedom of information legislation and greater authority for the parliamentary Commission for Free Access to Public Information.

The CCC’s analysis shows that Macedonia’s freedom of information act has been used by journalists very rarely. Journalists are discouraged by the long deadline for responses, but also by the often incomplete and unsatisfactory answers they get from public institutions.

According to the CCC’s analysis, only 50 per cent of journalists know about the right to obtain public information, and 56 per cent of those do not believe they will get the right information within the legal deadline.

The debate concluded that journalists should use this right as much as possible.

“Our goal is that the use of this tool by journalists is increased. We want to improve the quality of reporting. There are millions of pieces of information lying somewhere in some drawers, information that is important and vital for people, their life, work and for the whole society,” said German Filkov from CCC. 

BIRN BiH Editors Give Expert Interviews to Media

Over the past week, the chief and deputy editor of the Bosnian BIRN offices have appeared on several radio and television shows to discuss the work of the state prosecutor’s office.

BIRN BiH editor-in-chief Erna Mackic was a guest on a special show broadcast by the federal radio station about the pace of war crimes prosecutions in the country on January 24.

Mackic discussed the work of the Bosnian state prosecution, the institute for missing persons and the newly-published “Bosnian Book of the Dead”, a research project by a local NGO containing the names of all the victims of the early 1990s conflict.

Deputy editor Denis Dzidic was also a guest on Bosnian state television’s main news show on January 29. He commented on the inauguration of the newly-inaugurated Bosnian chief prosecutor Goran Salihovic and stressed the upcoming challenges that the state prosecution will face as it tries to finish some 600 pending war crimes investigations.

A day later, Dzidic also spoke on a programme on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Radio 1, in a special show about the upcoming signing of a protocol on cooperation in war crimes cases between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dzidic expressed the hope that the protocol would significantly improve the pace of war crimes prosecution and enhance regional cooperation, but stressed that there were a lot of objections from victims to the transfer of cases between the two countries.   

You can watch the entire news programme by following this link:
http://www.bhrt.ba/video/?id=777777973&v=dnevniktv29012013.flv

 

BIRN at CEAS International Conference on Security and Defense

BIRN Director Gordana Igric took part in a Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies conference entitled ‘Serbia, the Western Balkans and the EU: What Do We Have in Common in the Areas of Security and Defence and How to Make the Most of it for Stability and Progress in the Region’ on January 29 in Belgrade, on a panel dedicated to the challenges facing transitional justice in Serbia and the Balkans region.

Together with Sandra Orlovic from the Humanitarian Law Centre, retired Serbian Army military prosecutor Lakic Djorovic, Dragan Popovic from the Policy Centre and publicist Zoran Janjic, Igric discussed the impact of security sector reforms on transitional justice.

BIRN at CEAS Conference on Defense and Security in Belgrade, 2013All the participants agreed that Serbian society has failed to accept its responsibility for the crimes committed in the 1990s, and considered it unlikely that the Serbian government will raise new indictments for war crimes given that the great number of its members were part of the 1990s war machine. Orlovic said that the security sector reforms appear to be nominal because reform of the security sector’s personnel has failed – a fact that has direct implications on transitional justice processes.

The presence of compromised personnel at the security sector directly contributes to a climate of impunity, she said. Orlovic added that is unlikely that security sector reform will ever achieve its goal of re-establishing citizens’ trust if people who took part in the 1990s conflicts are still part of the sector.

Igric said that all ex-Yugoslav countries have developed their own war narratives which, through the media, have entered their education systems. Each country has declared the conflict to have been defensive and has no will to prosecute the perpetrators, while Serbia acknowledges only the NATO bombing as a genuine war. She added that the opening of secret files should lie at the core of security sector reform.

The Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies, CEAS, is an independent, non-religious, socially-oriented left-liberal think-tank founded in 2007 in Belgrade. With its research work, CEAS generates precise analysis of Serbia’s foreign, security and defense policies.

Apply Now for the 2013 Fellowship

Your chance to investigate cross-border stories with funded research, travel expenses, one-to-one mentoring and the potential for publication in the regional and international media.

Experienced journalists across the Balkans are invited to apply for the seventh annual Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence.

To apply, read or download the following:

For this year’s programme, we encourage applicants to consider the theme of Integrity. We expect the best proposals to put some of the broad ideas evoked by the theme into sharp focus.

We also expect applicants to reflect on the role society plays in their stories. It is ultimately the relationships between people that makes politics and other processes interesting.

Ensure you think about your story’s significance not just in your home country, but also in at least one other regional state and within the European Union. Choose phenomena that are relevant and current.

Journalists selected for the fellowship by our independent committee will receive a €2,000 bursary and up to another €2,000 for travel expenses. They will also be expected to participate in career development seminars in Vienna and the region.

Completed articles will be published in English and other languages in the regional and international media.

In addition, the top three articles, again judged by an independent committee, will attract awards of €4,000, €3,000 and €1,000.

Journalists who have taken part in the fellowship say it has developed their skills and extended their expertise to other countries.

“I am grateful that the fellowship programme allowed me to carry out an in-depth investigation on a subject matter I had been researching for a long time,” says 2012 Fellowship winner, Sorana Stanescu. “The best part was the opportunity to work with a very scrupulous editor, an experience you rarely get in the Romanian media and that can only enhance one’s storytelling.”

The fellowship programme aims to develop and support Balkan journalists reporting on complex reform issues. It was established by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

Fellowship Stories Available in Single Publication

The stories produced by the ten journalists who participated in the 2012 Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence are now available in the online publication, Communities – The New Ties Reshaping the Balkans.

The publication provides a snapshot of the past year in south-eastern Europe, capturing some important truths behind the news.

Original research by the journalists focused on issues ranging from religious radicalism, the exploitation of migrant workers in the EU, football hooliganism, environmental activism, bad privatisation deals, and the exclusion of youth from a politicised job market. The stories were grouped under the annual theme, Communities.

The journalists were selected through open competition to receive funding and professional support that would help them conduct cross-border research into a topic of regional and EU significance.

The stories produced under the programme were re-published by prominent outlets in the region,as well as by international media including The Guardian, The New Statesman, The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, Der Standard, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, The Huffington Post and the EU Observer.

The work of the fellowship and of its editor, Neil Arun, has been shortlisted for the 2013 European Press Prize in Amsterdam.

One of the participating journalists, Eldin Hadzovic, has also received an award from UNICEF for his fellowship story which examined the failure of Bosnia’s orphanage system.

“The publication of the fellows’ articles in the most important media in the region and internationally is clear proof that this project is a worthy venture,” said Remzi Lami, the director of the Albanian Media Institute and a member of the programme’s selection committee.

The 10 articles from 2012 were re-published by more than 400 outlets, supporting the fellowship’s ultimate goal – to promote and reward excellence in journalism.

The new cycle of the programme will be launched on January 28, when journalists will be invited to submit applications under the annual topic for 2013, Integrity.

BIRN BiH on Bosnian state television

BIRN BiH deputy editor Denis Dzidic was a guest speaker on Tuesday on Bosnian state television’s evening news show, discussing the pace of war crimes prosecutions in the country.

Dzidic talked about the Bosnian state prosecutor’s recent decision to halt an investigation into more than 400 people suspected of crimes against Bosnian Serbs in the neighbourhoods of Hadzici, Igman and Hrasnica around the capital Sarajevo during the 1990s conflict.

He also highlighted how many war crimes investigations are still being conducted by the state, and spoke about the challenges that newly-appointed chief prosecutor Goran Salihovic is facing in order to prioritise work on war crimes cases.

During the show, there was also a discussion about the reasons why war crimes prosecutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina last for several years.

You can watch the entire news programme by following this link: http://www.bhrt.ba/video/?id=777777918&v=dnevnikdva22012013.flv

BIRN Serbia launches campaign to promote EU values

BIRN Serbia begins its new campaign titled “Europe, It is You” in February in 25 municipalities and cities across south-east and south-west Serbia. The campaign is part of an EU Progress programme to find the best idea for the promotion of EU values in that part of the country.

BIRN Serbia and its local partners will organise several different programmes until June 2013 with the help of the EU Commission Office in Belgrade and the European Integration Office in Serbia.

The “Europe, It is You” campaign aims to promote the process of joining the EU and present positive examples from Serbia showing a series of EU values that have already been put into practice.

By connecting local media, local administrations and various other groups, BIRN Serbia will bring together all stakeholders to improve conditions in these areas of Serbia.

Anyone interested will be able to follow work of the campaign online and can also contribute by posting their own video clips or impressions of the campaign on a specially-designed web page.  There will also be several training activities and street actions.

The campaign’s keynote event will take place on Europe Day on May 9th, when synchronised street actions will be held in five cities in the region.