Category: News and Events

BIRN Investigative Journalists meet in Belgrade

BIRN investigative reporters met for the first time this year to discuss story ideas and possible regional cooperation in the Serbian capital on October 29, 2012.

Balkan Insight’s Besar Likmeta of Albania, Elvira Jukic of Bosnia and Bojana Barlovac of Serbia, along with Belgrade Insight’s Gordana Andric, BIRN Serbia’s Aleksandar Djordjevic, and Semir Mujkic, an investigative journalist for the Bosnian Zurnal magazine, gathered in Belgrade and brainstormed ideas for regional cooperation on investigative pieces.

BIRN Regional Director Gordana Igric and Balkan Insight Managing Editor Ana Petruseva guided the journalists through different topic possibilities.

Investigations are an important part of BIRN’s publishing activities and the BIRN team is always preparing new stories.

Over the next year, BIRN journalists will work on several regional investigative projects that are relevant to the Balkans and beyond.

BIRN Bosnia Holds Training for Journalists

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina, supported by the OSCE, is organizing a five-day training for journalists from various parts of the country, aimed to improve court reporting on war crimes trials.

The training takes place in Sarajevo from December 10 to 14 and journalists will have an opportunity to listen about the work of judicial institutions from judges and prosecutors, legal experts and other assistants directly involved in war crime trials.

Ten journalists from Doboj, Livno, Mostar, Travnik, Bijeljina, Sarajevo, Brčko, Trebinje, Tuzla and Gorazda will attend the training. The journalists will attend war crime trials and report about what they witnessed in court. They will also have the opportunity to work closely with BIRN editors and journalists, in order to learn about the court reporting process, how to avoid mistakes and how to recognise ethical and professional traps in their work.

In addition, the journalists will get to learn about the importance of reporting on facts and the dangers of irresponsible reporting, which can lead to lawsuits and contempt of court charges.

BIRN and OSCE recognised the need to organise such a training as many war crimes cases have been transferred to the Cantonal, District and Brcko district Court from the Bosnian State Court. The goal of the training is to improve reporting on war crime trials at the local courts.

The aim of the raining is to develop journalists’ court reporting skills in line with International and domestic standards and become certified court reporters in their media.

BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the key actors in brining justice processes to citizens of the country and the region since 2004. In the past seven years, BIRN BiH has informed the public daily about war crimes prosecutions and transitional justice issues which affect their lives.

Media on Mladic: Parallel Universes

Balkan Investigating Reporting Network (BIRN) has presented on Tuesday its publication “Spotlight on Mladic: Villian or Celebrity?”, which analyses how the media in the region reported on the arrest and trial of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army commander.

The book, published with the support from the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, concluded that the media in the former Yugoslav countries presented these events from different angles.

It was pointed out at the promotion that media reports from Bosnia and Herzegovina reflected the entity division of the country, while in Serbia, Mladic, charged with genocide and other crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was painted as a celebrity.

The media in Croatia focused on the disappointment that the Hague Tribunal did not charge Mladic with crimes committed in that country.

“It is sad we don’t share the same views and I think we are trapped in parallel universes which are completely different,” said Gordana Igric, the publication’s editor.

Marija Ristic, the journalist who analysed the media reports in Serbia, described them as trivial and that more attention was dedicated to what Mladic was doing at the time of his arrest or the treatment he had in the Hague Tribunal than the crimes he is accused of.

“That kind of reporting is actually the testament to the unwillingness of Serbia and its citizens to face their past,” said Ristic.  

Erna Mackic, who analysed the texts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that the journalist reports in the entity media reflected comments made by politicians during the arrest and Mladic’s trial.

“In the Federation, people were delighted, while in Republika Srpska it was said that the court should be left alone to establish whether Mladic was guilty of committing crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina or not, also neglecting statements from victims,” said Mackic.

Speaking at the presentation of the book, Boris Pavelic, journalist from Croatia, said that the Hague Tribunal was condemned as the worst court possible up until November 16, 2012, when it acquitted the Croatian generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac,  becoming the best court ever.

Christian Axboe Nielsen, a historian, talked about the issues that media failed to deal with, as well as the Hague Tribunal itself, emphasising that the court’s achievements would not matter historically if the national courts did not resume its work.

According to Nerma Jelacic, the spokesperson of the Hague Tribunal, the results of the work and efficiency of this court would be best perceived from the distance of around ten years.

BIRN journalist recognised by UNICEF Bosnia and Herzegovina

Eldin Hadzovic, an alumnus of BIRN’s Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, was honoured by UNICEF for his outstanding contribution to journalism in Bosnia. 

UNICEF Bosnia and Herzegovina marked Human Rights Day on December 10 with the presentation of the results of its ‘Justice for Every Child’ campaign. Officials also awarded several journalists and recognised the ambassador of the campaign- Bosnian singer Dino Merlin.

The organisation honoured journalistic achievements in the fields of child protection, violence prevention and juvenile justice in 2012.

Eldin Hadzovic won award for his BIRN’s Fellowship article ‘Abandoned Twice: Bosnia’s Orphans Left in the Lurch’ in which he explains how Bosnia is unable to monitor its orphanages properly, nor can provide any decent alternatives to the institutions.  

UNICEF Bosnia and Herzegovina presented awards to local journalists for the best online work, best radio work, the best TV news and the best in print media.

In addition to BIRN’s Eldin Hadzovic, four other journalists from various media outlets in the country were also honoured with special tributes for outstanding contributions to journalism.

UNICEF’s partner organisations were present for the awards ceremony, as well as representatives of state institutions, the media and several non-profit groups.

The ‘Justice for Every Child’ campaign is part of UNICEF’s project for protection of children at risk, and is supported by relevant ministries and organisations in Bosnia. The campaign is also supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, SIDA, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SDC.

Together towards a better budget

BIRN Serbia and muncipal officials discuss the budgets of Raška and Kuršumlija with local residents.

As part of its “Participatory Budgeting” project, BIRN Serbia and local municipal officials held budget forums last week in Raška and Kuršumlija, where they presented the 2013 budget for each municipality and received input from residents.

Prior to the Forums, those municipalities conducted citizens’ survey on priorities to be funded out from 2013 Budget.  Among proposed, citizens could pick 3 projects of highest priority, by their opinion.

The forums allowed local residents to comment on the draft 2013 budgets and get answers from top local government officials about administration’s plans for the coming year.

More than 20 local residents took part in the debate in Raška, and Mayor Jovan Čorbić stressed the importance of their participation. He told those gathered that it is important for all citizens to show initiative when it comes to examining the budget because it affects the life of the community.

“Let’s determine together what is the most important and find out how to achieve it. It is useless to promise that it is possible to do everything in one year. Therefore, it is necessary to set priorities,” said Čorbić.

Zagorka Šumarac, who heads the budget department in Raška, presented the draft 2013 budget in a “citizen budget” format, which gives residents a comprehensive look at the projects and plans that have been funded.

Zorica Nišavić from the NGO Women Raška said she was pleased that for the first time residents  had an opportunity to be informed about the budget.

“I hope that in the coming years we will again have a chance to talk about the budget and give our suggestions,” she said. Nišavić’s thoughts on the process were echoed by several other participants.

Meanwhile in Kuršumlija, more than 40 residents and local community representatives participated in the budget debate. Mayor Radoljub Vidić expressed his satisfaction with the large turnout for the debate and the questionnaire “Your money, our responsibility”.

Local participation is crucial, Vidic said, because municipal officials can use the feedback from residents as an instrument to ensure the allocation of resources in accordance with local needs.

“The suggestions and complaints of residents push the local authorities to work on creating quality living conditions for all residents of our municipality,” said Vidić.

The draft budget for 2013 was presented by Deputy Mayor Nebojša Jović, who stressed that this budget put forward 100 million dinars more than was planned in 2012.

“In 2013 we focused on priorities related to agricultural development and entrepreneurship, and some resources will be allocated for scholarships for high school and university students. The plan is to improve the living conditions of the citizens by reducing public spending and putting more funds into investments,” said Jović.

Milivoje Perović, a local beekeeper, told the forum participants that Kuršumlija has the potential to be a substantial producer of organic honey, which would create new jobs, and suggested that this be considered in the next budget cycle.

The conclusions reached during the local budget forums will be presented to members of the Raška and Kuršumlija municipal councils, and BIRN signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the mayors that confirms further cooperation in this field in the future.

The project of implementing the practice of participatory budgeting at the local level through the European Partnership Programme with EU PROGRES municipalities in 25 municipalities in the south and southwest Serbia is supported by the European Union, the Swiss and the Serbian government.

Serbia’s Far Right Wants NGOs Labelled as ‘Foreign Agents’

A Belgrade based far right group has requested that all the country’s NGOs and media funded from abroad, including BIRN, be labelled as “foreign agents”, based on a Russian model.

On Friday, the Serbian far-right movement “SNP Nasi” called on the authorities to pass a law that would label all NGOs and media outlets that addressed politics and were financed from abroad as ‘foreign agents.’

“After submitting its evidence, SNP Nasi will demand that non-governmental organizations and the media blacklisted for committing criminal and unconstitutional acts be legally banned and prosecuted,” the movement said in a statement.

The black list includes BIRN, B92, The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, ANEM, E-novine, Pescanik, the Association of Independent Journalists of Vojvodina, The European Movement in Serbia, the Legal Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM) and  the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR).

According to the statement, these organisations are funded by the US government and the “infamous National Endowment for Democracy Foundation”, which operates as an organization for conducting special operations on behalf of the CIA.

The statement also said that NED had been blamed in Latin America for “creating structures aimed at interfering in the internal affairs and undermining the constitutional order [of nation states]”. In Russia, the foundation is treated by law as a foreign agent.

Earlier this month, the group called on the authorities to outlaw 17 NGOs, which it said had violated Serbia’s constitution.

SNP Nasi is known in Serbia for promoting the idea of a Greater Serbia and inciting violence ahead of Gay Pride parades. Prior to the cancellation of the Belgrade Pride Parade in October, SNP Nasi demanded that such events should be banned for 100 years.

BIRN at TransConflict Breakfast on Transitional Justice

BIRN director Gordana Igric participated in TransConflict’s working breakfast on Tuesday, December 4,  together with Nemanja  Stjepanovic from SENSE agency,  on the challenges of  covering transitional justice issues in the former Yugoslavia.

Igric presented BIRN’s Balkan Transitional Justice initiative, which aims to improve public understanding of transitional justice in former Yugoslav countries through on-line news reports, radio programmes and a TV documentary to be released next year.

Both speakers agreed that the acquittals by the Hague Tribunal, ICTY, of Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac of crimes against Serb civilians during the Croatian Army’s Operation “Oluja” [“Storm”], as well as the acquittal of Kosovo’s Ramus Haradinaj of war crimes against Serbs and non-Albanians during the Kosovo war, posed challenges when it comes to facing the past in the region.

Stjepanovic said that while the acquittal of Haradinaj was to be expected owing to the lack of fresh evidence on the part of the Hague prosecution, the EULEX mission in Kosovo and the Serbian government, the acquittal of the Croatian generals was more surprising as their indictment was supported with strong evidence.

Both speakers agreed that in both cases, the defence had been much more efficient than the prosecution.

Igric said that although the ICTY verdicts would surely affect relations between countries in the region, Serbia’s government remained determined to start membership talks with the EU.

The public saw the ICTY verdicts as backing the Croatian narrative about a defensive war, which Serbs saw as unfair, Igric noted.

TransConflict is a non-governmental organisation which undertakes conflict transformation projects and research, promoting an approach to – and understanding of – conflict that differs from traditional notions of conflict resolution.

Working breakfast – on the challenges of transitional justice in the former Yugoslavia – was organized as part of its project, ‘Understanding and combating extremism in Serbia’.

Serbia: Budget Process Fast, But Not Transparent

While Serbian officials adopted the state budget on time, the process lacked public input, participants in the Fourth National Budget Forum concluded on Monday.

At the forum, which was organised by BIRN and PRO CONCEPT, participants said the most significant progress made in Serbia’s budget process is prompt voting, but they lamented the lack of public participation.

The forum brought together over 100 representatives of ministries, members of parliament, civil society representatives and experts, representatives of embassies in Belgrade and local governments.

Vlajko Senić, State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, said the budget is realistic, and added that in creating it, the Ministry considered the remarks of the Fiscal Council related to the improvement of budget control.

“The establishment of a quarterly expenditure control mechanism introduced tougher discipline and better transparency,” he said at the forum, which was held at the National Parliament.

Responding to the comment that there was no public debate before the vote on the budget, Senić said that a new government was formed in the final quarter of the budget season, and there was no time for wider public involvement in the decision-making process.

Vladimir Vučković, a member of the Fiscal Council, told participants he was pleased that the Ministry had acknowledged and adopted numerous comments made by the Council. He described the budget as realistic, while pointing to areas of risk on both the expenditure and the revenue sides.

“Non-tax revenue and income taxes have been overestimated in the projections, but it is still possible to reach the projections if the inflation rate increases,” Vucković said.

On the expenditure side the most important test for the Ministry of Finance will be to hold to planned salaries and not to succumb to social pressure and abandon the tight control of wages and earnings, he added.

Meanwhile Dimitri Boarov, a journalist from the weekly magazine “Vreme”, said he was pleased that the Ministry of Finance had adhered to the budget calendar and followed the advice of expert bodies, but noted that such steps do not bring about fundamental change to the process.

“It is almost certain that the budget will face major risks in implementation, primarily the risk of not maintaining levels of planned expenditures,” Boarov said.

Citizens budget

At the forum on Monday, BIRN and PRO CONCEPT presented the Citizens Guide to the State Budget, which was drafted by the two organisations.

The first manual of its kind in Serbia, the Citizens Guide was created with the aim of making the preparation, adoption and execution of the budget more accessible and more comprehensible to the public.

“We have forgotten about the citizens and the fact that the budget is actually in their interest. This guide is designed for citizens and is part of an effort to make it easier for them to actively engage in monitoring the budget, ” the guide’s creators told the forum.

The editor of the economic section of “Večernje Novosti”, Gordana Bulatovic, who represented the media at the public hearing, said that not only were citizens deprived of basic information related to the budget, but media outlets were also given inadequate information.

“The media can not find anything about hidden costs and how much money is given to each Ministry. For many subjects we have no counterparts in government. Reporting on the budget was reduced to tabloid newspaper and transfer of parliamentary replicas, while there was no analysis of the law and its impact on citizens,” said Bulatovic.

Kosovo and Serbia Talk “Live”

In an unprecedented public debate organized by Internews Kosova and BIRN, Edita Tahiri, Kosovo’s Chief Negotiator, and Serbia’s former Chief Negotiator, Borislav Stefanovic, have discussed the agreements they have reached during the EU moderated negotiations.

In their first public debate without the mediation of Robert Cooper, EU’s chief negotiator, Tahiri and Sefanovic recalled the most difficult moments of the 18-month long Brussels negotiations.
 
In the first ever edition of the series of regional TV debates called ‘Tema’(Topic), Tahiri and Stefanovic spoke about the challenges of reaching agreements in seven areas and elaborated on the problems encountered in implementing those agreements in the field.
 
The debate will be aired by privately owned national broadcasters, on Monday, December 3, at 10.30 pm on TV21 in Kosovo and on Thursday, December 6, at 9 pm on B92 INFO.
 
Since March 2011, the EU has been facilitating technical negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, aimed at normalizing the relationship of Belgrade and Pristina.
 
So far, the two sides have reached deals on trade, mutual recognition of university diplomas, representation of Kosovo at regional meetings, freedom of movement including the Integrated Border Management, IBM.

The two negotiators engaged in polemics over what was exactly agreed especially on the issue of the ‘Integrated Border Management’ agreement reached by the two sides on December 2, 2011.
 
The former Chief Negotiator Borko Stefanovic, insists that Belgrade was provided with guarantees that some of the agreements reached are not applicable to the Serb-run north of Kosovo.
 
“We agreed that EULEX [EU Rule of Law Mission to Kosovo] has the executive role at the Jarinje and Brnjak border crossings,” Stefanovic said insisting that if this is not the case in the north, then “there will be no agreement,” as far as Serbia is concerned.
 
On the other hand, Kosovo’s former Chief Negotiator, Edita Tahiri, told Stefanovic that he misinformed his own parliament after the technical protocol was agreed upon.
 
This episode is the first in a series of several Kosovo-Serbia debates will be aired in both places.  
 
The aim of the debates is to break the communication barriers between Belgrade and Pristina and demystifies the process of negotiations.

View the trailer in Serbian

View the trailer in Albanian

Dijalog Kosova i Srbije “uživo“

U jedinstvenoj debati koju organizuju Internews Kosovo i BIRN, šefica pregovaračkog tima Kosova Edita Tahiri i bivši glavni pregovarač Srbije Borislav Stefanović pristali su da pred kamerama govore o dogovorima postignutim tokom pregovora vođenih pod posredstvom Evropske unije.

Dvoje političara prvi put razgovaraju bez posredstva glavnog pregovarača EU Roberta Kupera i prisećaju se najtežih trenutaka osamnaestomesečnih pregovora.

Debata će ove nedelje biti emitovana u ponedeljak, 3. decembra na TV21 na Kosovu, i u četvrtak, 6.decembra u 21h na B92 INFO.

U prvoj seriji regionalnih i televizijskih debata pod nazivom ‘Tema’, Tahiri i Stefanović govore o izazovima koje su imali u procesu postizanja sedam sporazuma i problemima sa kojima su se suočili u procesu implementacije ovih sporazuma na terenu.

Od marta 2011. pod pokroviteljstvom Evropske unije održava se tehnički dijalog između Kosova i Srbije koji za cilj ima normalizaciju odnosa dve strane. Do sada su postignuti sporazumi o slobodi trgovine, međusobnom priznavanju fakultetskih diploma, predstavljanju Kosova na regionalnim skupovima i o slobodi kretanja koja obuhvata i dogovor o integrisanom upravljanju prelazima.

Tokom razgovora uživo između Prištine i Beograda ova dva izaslanika ušla su u polemiku oko toga šta je tačno dogovoreno, naročito kada je u pitanju dogovor o integrisanom upravljanju granicama koji su dve strane postigle 2. decembra, 2011. godine.

Kada je u pitanju ova tema, bivši šef pregovaračkog tima Srbije Borko Stefanović insistira na tome da su Beogradu date garancije da neki od postignutih dogovora nisu primenljivi na severu Kosova.

“Dogovorili smo se da EULEX ima izvršnu ulogu u Jarinju i Brnjaku”, rekao je Stefanović insistirajući da, ako to nije tako na severu, onda, što se Srbije tiče, “neće biti nikakvog dogovora”.

S druge strane, pregovarač Edita Tahiri rekla je Stefanoviću da je on pogrešno informisao svoju skupštinu nakon što je postignut dogovor o tehničkom protokolu.

Ova epizoda je prva u nizu od nekoliko regionalnih debata između Kosova i Srbije koje će biti emitovane i na Kosovu i u Srbiji a koje imaju za cilj da demistkfikuju pregovarački proces i otvore u javnosti razgovor o temama važnim za obe strane.