Category: News and Events

Belgrade Insight Centennial

The 100th issue of BIRN’s Belgrade Insight newspaper hits the streets

tomorrow, almost three and a half years after its inception.

The first special pilot edition of Belgrade Insight was published to

coincide with the staging of the Eurovision Song Contest in the Serbian

capital in May 2008 and the newspaper has continued to evolve ever since.

 

Though the economic crisis forced BIRN to downgrade the publication from a

weekly to a fortnightly newspaper, Belgrade Insight has managed to survive

and position itself as a ‘must-read’ for all foreigners living in

Belgrade.

 

Speaking about the anniversary, Belgrade Insight staff journalist Gordana

Andric said: “We strive to ensure that our readers are both

informed and entertained with every issue and we hope that Belgrade

Insight will continue to grow and evolve for many years to come.”

World Bank Annual Meetings

2011 Annual World Bank meetings, Civil Society Organizations from Kosovo were represented by BRIN’s CEO Jeta Xharra and Nezir Sinani from KIPRED.

At the first meeting with the Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia, Mr. Philippe Le Houerou and South Eastern Europe Director Ms. Jane Armitage, Jeta Xharra raised the issue of New Kosovo lignite power plant plans and pointed out the WB’s lack of transparency in their country web-site and technicalities that arise from the Bank’s published ToR for the work of the Expert Panel evaluating the Kosovar project.

During the meeting with US Congress and State Department Jeta Xharra presented to the USIP audience issues related to the freedom of press, touching also political matters and the ongoing developments related to the energy projects.

 

The meeting was held with the Helsinki Committee staff and Eliot Engel’s office on political, freedom of information and energy matters.

 

A technical presentation was given to European Executive Directors of the World Bank; SEE Director Jane Armitage, Kosovo Director of WB Jan-Peter Olters and New Kosovo Power Plant technical team; Lagarde and Zoellick, on the problems related to the project and their reflection on WB’s mandate as well as how the ESKOM project reflects the problems raised about Kosovo.

Whereas, Mr. Robert Zoellick World Bank’s President addressed the CSOs together with Lagarde that Kosovo is a win-win project, which according to him will allow the country to address the energy problems and close down the most polluting plant in Europe. Xharra asked him if he was ready to carry the burden of another ESKOM in Kosovo, when no proper alternative energy studies were carried out and not much was done in solving energy accountability issues.

 

Zoellick expressed his optimism on this project even though they were put in a position where they had to decide whether they wanted to help or raise their hands altogether off this project ; both options remain open at this stage.

Other meetings with NGOs from around the world were held, Xharra had a TV interview with Voice of America and Daniel Serwer, and other World Bank Departments were visited and meetings with different heads of the WB were held. Overall, the week served well to raise the issues related to the Kosovar projects at the highest levels of the Bank.

 

Symposium for Prosecutors in Bosnia and Herzegovina

17 October 2011 Participants of a symposium for prosecutors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was held from October 11 to 13 this year, discussed the “transparency of judiciary and responsibility of the media” and concluded that both parties had to cooperate with each other more in order for the public to get timely information.

Representatives of the media, prosecutions and human rights organizations discussed the “transparency of judiciary and responsibility of the media” during a panel discussion.

“When dealing with prosecutors’ offices, Bosnian journalists often cannot obtain the information they need, because those institutions do not have spokespersons or expert associates with whom they could interact,” said Erna Mackic, journalist with BIRN – Justice Report.

Tihomir Jurko, Deputy Chief Prosecutor with the Prosecution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, FBiH, said that, recruiting spokespersons had proved to be a good thing in the past, adding that prosecutors’ offices should appoint staff members, whose task would be to interact with the media.

“The media should get timely information that will not have detrimental effect on investigations conducted by prosecutors’ offices,” Jurko said.

Zekerijah Smajic, longtime journalist, expert in the European Union issues and representative of SENS Agency, discussed the responsibility of journalists and their activities related to reporting from judicial institutions.

“It is not a journalist’s role to misuse information. We must take the ethics into account,” Smajic said.

Earlier this year BIRN Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with support from USAID, established cooperation with the Association of Prosecutors of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the aim of putting focus on transparency of judiciary and responsible reporting by the media. These activities are aimed at improving the cooperation between the media and judicial institutions by sharing knowledge and experience at a series of lectures, workshops and discussions and having judicial institutions open themselves towards the public and journalists realize what their responsibilities are.

“What we can see in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the media spreading the language of hatred and investing exceptional efforts into causing negative impact on and destructing war crimes trials before domestic judicial bodies by publishing distorted articles based on their comments. Also, the Hague Tribunal issue is exclusively related to a negative sensationalism,” said Anisa Suceska-Vekic, Director of BIRN BiH.

Suceska-Vekic maintained that journalists had the power to destroy or create, adding that this had been proved by verdicts passed down before international courts.

At this year’s symposium Sasa Madacki, Director of the Center for Human Rights of the Sarajevo University, spoke about the verdicts passed down by the European Court for Human Rights.

“It is true that the media have contributed to the degradation of the importance of war crimes processing in the common citizens’ perception, but we still believe that objective reporting on war crimes trials can help overcome the collective responsibility stigma and help the future generations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region avoid being victims of a factual and imposed ignorance,” said Suceska-Vekic.

During the symposium BIRN BiH screened a ten-minute documentary about the significance of transparency of judiciary and responsibility of the media.

Other topics that were discussed at this symposium for prosecutors included: detection and processing of human trafficking, criminal aspects of proving bribery, taking over of verdicts passed down by foreign courts, extraditions with particular emphasis on temporary extradition and cooperation with the Prosecutor’s Office of the Hague Tribunal.

The symposium was organized by the Association of Prosecutors of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in collaboration with centers for education of judges and prosecutors of FBiH and Republika Srpska with support from OSCE in Bosnia and Herzegovina, USAID in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Government of FBiH.

 

Training of Journalists Needed

17 October 2011 Representatives of BIRN and the Association of State Court Reporters, AIS held a joint meeting with judicial institutions from the Una-Sana Canton and the media stations, reporting on war crimes trials, on October 13.

The meeting participants concluded that journalists, who follow war crimes trials, as well as other trials, should be trained, while judicial institutions should try to open themselves to public as much as possible, giving the public an opportunity to understand what they were doing.

Besides by responding to journalists’ questions, the judicial institutions can open themselves to general public by issuing announcement when there is a need for that, regularly updating their web pages and holding press briefings.

The Cantonal Court of Una-Sana Canton, USC, pointed out that it did not have a spokesperson, but an expert associate, who was trying to respond to journalists’ questions, adding that they had not issued media announcements in the past.

“The electronic media often have a possibility to record the beginning of trials held before the Cantonal Court in Bihac and obtain audio recordings made during the trials. However, the lack of space is a big problems for us, because everybody has to go through the same corridor. We do not have space for journalists. The security conditions are questionable as well,” said Edina Arnautovic, President of the Cantonal Court in Bihac.

Jasmin Mesic, Chief Prosecutor of USC Prosecution, said that they had recognize the importance of opening towards the media and establishing cooperation between the media and judicial institutions, considering the high number of injured parties in war crimes trials.

The media representatives said that they were trying to “cover all war crimes trials held before the Bihac Court”, but, due to insufficient training, they often made mistakes without even being aware of them.

Defence attorneys, who represent indictees at war crimes trials held in Bihac, pointed out that their communication with the media was unsatisfactory, because, in many cases journalists had not been sufficiently trained, so, most often they did not convey their words properly.

“Journalists are rather objective when they make reports about the beginning of trials, but they make huge mistakes when reporting about arrests. Our clients suffer big damage from that,” said Defence attorney Hasan Veladzic.

On the other hand, the journalists say that they cannot be blamed for everything, adding that they were often deprived of information from defence attorneys, particularly the ex-officio attorneys coming from other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mirela Hukovic-Hodzic, journalist with BH Radio 1, who represented AIS at this meeting, explained to the journalists what they should bear in mind when reporting on court processes. 

The participants concluded that an educational workshop should be held within the next six months with the aim of achieving better transparency of judicial institutions and responsibility of the media.

Following the meeting, BIRN and AIS representatives were featured on RTV Bihac, where they discussed the reporting by the media and the extent to which USC judicial institutions were open for collaboration.

 

Live from six cities!

BIRN Serbia staged unprecedented simultaneous “Five cents for media” street actions in six Serbian towns on Saturday October 8, which was broadcast live on the internet via www.facebook.com/5parazamedije

The event took place in Novi Pazar, Uzice, Kragujevac, Novi Sad, Nis and Vranje and included the participation of hundreds of citizens who discussed their views on local media and the topics they believe to be important for the communities they live in.

In terms of coordination and production, this is the biggest event organised by BIRN Serbia’s office in collaboration with colleagues from the Belgrade office, local coordinators and local NGOs, and with the technical support of Telekom Serbia.

The action’s implementation included the direct participation of some 60 people – BIRN coordinators, local coordinators, technicians and volunteers. The event was also broadcast live over the Internet and watched by thousands of people, while the campaign’s Facebook group has grown to include nearly 1,500 members in just two weeks.

During the course of preparing the event, BIRN Serbia covered thousands of miles travelling across Serbia, spoke to dozens of people at the local level, made several thousand phone calls and sent hundreds of emails.

Video material collected during this campaign will be distributed to local media, while part of it will be included on the campaign’s Facebook page.

The citizens who participated in the “Five cents for media” event agreed on one thing: local media is important for local communities, but should deal more with citizen’s daily problems and spend less energy reporting on the activities of local leaders and national politicians.

BIRN Serbia is implementing this campaign with the assistance of IREX Serbia.

Birn Serbia: Take your place in an open studio!

BIRN Serbia is organising a “Five cents for Media” street event on Saturday 8th October to be held simultaneously in Kragujevac, Nis, Novi Sad, Vranje, Uzice and Novi Pazar!

In the period between noon and two p.m., anybody interested in participating will be able to enter the “Open studio” to share their ideas and express their views about local media; ask questions about issues they would like to know more about and suggest topics relevant to their local community.

The event will be broadcast live via Internet TV from all six towns, while an additional direct transmission link will be available on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/5parazamedije

Through this action we are seeking to improve communication between citizens and the media, thereby contributing to the creation of more high quality local media content.

The street event is part of a broader campaign that includes local media and civil society organisations and the Facebook page acts a platform for visitors to see photos, videos and news about activities taking place as part of the “Five cents for Media” campaign.

All interested citizens are hereby invited to participate in this action, take their place in an open studio and be reporters for a day!

Birn Serbia associates receive UNDP awards

Participants of a training programme for monitoring public finances were presented with awards by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the best media articles regarding public finances.

UNDP awarded Aleksandar Radojevic and Vladimir Djordjevic for the best media article on monitoring public expenditure in Serbia. Both award recipients participated in a journalists’ training programme for monitoring public finances, which was organised by BIRN Serbia in 2010.

A series of texts entitled “Millions of control” was published via the web portal sumadijapress.rs, while journalists who participated in the training programme also authored several articles for the website skockajtebudzet.rs.

The works were judged by UNDP media issues representatives and prominent local journalists with experience of investigative reporting and reporting on transparency and public expenditure, both of whom were nominated by journalists’ associations UNS and NUNS.

In an attempt to focus on issues of transparency and public reporting on the spending of budgetary funds in Serbia and contribute to efforts aimed at combating corruption, UNDP organised a contest for research texts dealing with the monitoring of public expenditure in Serbia.

The contest was organised under the auspices of the UNDP project “Strengthening mechanisms of accountability in public finances”. This project’s aim is to support the establishment of effective and sustainable mechanisms for monitoring public finances.

Read the articles of journalists who attended the training programme for the monitoring of public finances via the following links:

Kragujevac millions out of control

A child on a business trip

Stray dogs last year “ate” 9.5 million dinars

Progress in War Crimes Processing

The representatives of authorities and prosecutions, as well as victims, regard that certain progress has been made in processing of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but victims, who testify at those trials, still do not receive adequate support

During a conference on the “Processing of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina – How much time do we have?”, which was organized by the Youth Initiative forHuman Rights, YIHR of Bosnia and Herzegovina, victims said that, despite the fact that the processing of war crimes perpetrators in Bosnia and

Herzegovina was protracted, certain improvements in the work of judicial institutions could be noticed.

Edin Ramulic of the “Izvor” Association from Prijedor says that witnesses who testify before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, receive support only during the course of the trials, while Sacir Srebrenica, Deputy President of the Association of Detainees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, thinks that it is hard to ensure full protection of victims.

“Victims often say that, once they leave the courtroom, they feel as if nobody cares about them any more. What happens to victims after they have completed their testimonies is one of the key issues,” said Selma Korjenic of the TRIAL Association, who is involved in the Programme for support to victims of sexual violence.

Goran Simic, advisor with the Ministry of Justice of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, says that, despite the good work done by the State Court, we should know that the institution has limited capacities, so a certain number of cases have to be processed at the local level.

Branko Mitrovic, Chief of the War Crimes Section with the District Prosecution in Banja Luka, says that many war crimes cases have already been processed in that town.

During the course of the conference victims pointed out that the media should speak more about this subject, maintaining that media reports could actually help speed up the processing of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“The general public is interested in war crimes issues, but those stories scarcely reach out to citizens. The media rarely produce reports on this issue and, even when they do, the reports are badly written, leaving space for manipulation,” said Erna Mackic, Editor-in-Chief of BIRN-Justice Report.

Dzenana Karup-Drusko, Editor of Dani magazine, too thinks that the public is interested in war crimes issues, but daily information about the trials is lacking in the daily newspapers and public service.

Predrag Curkovic, a journalist with the Alternative TV from Banja Luka, says that the lack of material and human resources is one of the problems causing such poor coverage of war crimes issues in the media.

S.U.

Support to War Crimes Trials

On September 16 this year a regional conference on war crimes trials was held in Belgrade with the aim of calling on the governments in the region and general public to provide support to war crimes trials as the key instrument in coming to terms with the past.

The conference participants stressed the need for a better regional cooperation and encouraging witnesses to come out and speak about what they saw or experienced. Besides that, they stressed the importance of establishment of a residual mechanism at the Hague, which will, among other things, make sure that fugitives will be processed and serve their imprisonment sentences.

The participants paid special attention to problems related to protection of witnesses, who have not been institutionally accepted. This happens not only in Serbia, but in the entire region too.

Anisa Suceska-Vekic, Director of BIRN Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina, spoke about war crimes trials and the need for public support, as well as the relation of media towards this issue that has a historical importance.

Besides judges and prosecutors from the region, representatives of international and local NGOs, who follow war crimes processing, took part at the conference.

The conference was organized by the Humanitarian Law Center from Belgrade, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights with the OSCE in Serbia and BIRN BiH.

Life in Kosovo discusses repatriation

Life in Kosovo broadcast a debate on the issue of repatriation.

Questions covered during the debate included: What happens with the dozens of people who land at Prishtina International Airport every day from foreign countries as part of the repatriation programme? Do they have somewhere to go and/or live? Does anyone take repatriated children to school? Does society support repatriated people, or is it something that is done simply because of visa liberalisation?

 

In order to discuss this issue, Jeta Xharra was joined in the studio by the following:

Verena Knaus, a UNICEF researcher;
Vera Pula, from the Foundation for Open Society;
Daut Qylangjiu, an RTK journalist from the Roma editorial desk;
Sylvian Astier, from the Swiss Embassy, Migration Attaché at the Swiss Embassy; and
Islam Caka, the Director of the Department for Citizenship, Exile and Migration in the Ministry of
Internal Affairs.

Before the debate, BIRN broadcast a documentary discussing the situation on the ground, focusing on repatriated children who, in most cases, do not know any of the languages spoken in Kosovo.

“Several reports of international organisations, such as UNHCR, Human Rights Watch and others have concluded that RAE [Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian] communities are the poorest in Kosovo. It is more difficult for them to be repatriated in Kosovo, due to the fact that they have lived abroad for many years, and they come back without knowing any of the spoken languages in Kosovo. Even worse, they have no homes or shelter. Therefore, they will either have to sell their properties or go back to where they were, or to third countries,” said Mr. Qylangjiu at the beginning of the debate.

Asked if Kosovo has the capacity to respond to all the people being repatriated, Mr. Caka said that “we still have a bad situation, but there is an increasing awareness in our institutions that we have to ‘re-socialise’ these people, and treat them as citizens.”

However, he could not give a straightforward response about the places to which RAE communities are repatriated, and his explanations did not coincide with the reality as presented by Mr. Qylangjiu, a representative of that community.

“Legally, there are 12,000 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians in Germany that can be sent back [to Kosovo] any time. But the practice is that it is very difficult to send them back. In the last year, Germany sent back about 133 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children, and this was much less than we hoped for, since lots of people tried to disappear and did not want to come back,” said Ms. Knaus.

 

Regarding these children, their education and language learning, Ms. Pula said that “most of them do not speak the language. Some language courses were held, but only by NGOs. The courses were not held by the responsible institutions, such as the Ministry of Education, the municipal education directorates or schools.”

Mr. Astier said that “there are more RAE citizens than Albanians in Switzerland, and we know that they need more protection because of their conditions; therefore, they are temporarily admitted. However, I have personally observed that they have places to stay and work in Kosovo. Because of these reasons, I do not see any reason why they need to stay in Switzerland as asylum seekers.”

Click here to watch debate