Category: News and Events

Helen Darbishire: How to Use FOI Laws

Access to freedom-of-information laws is a key way for investigative journalists to unearth stories, a human rights professional Helen Darbishire has told reporters attending BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting.

With more than 80 countries in the world with access-to-information laws, the right can be used to gather material and write better and more exciting stories, Darbishire, the Executive Director of Access Info Europe, told a group at the school in Novi Sad.
“Human rights mean that you have a right to ask for any government records, in any country,” she said.
“You just write a very simple letter, you mention the name of the law and you ask for the document with information you are looking for,” Helen explains.
There was a case in Britain of the expenses scandal of the members of Parliament. “It was a fantastic news story and it all started with an access of information request,” Darbishire said.
She has also presented a legal leaks toolkit, available online, aimed at helping journalists to file request s for information. 

Mark Lee Hunter: Investigative Story is Dead Without Emotion

Investigative journalists don’t have to cut emotion out of their story as the story is dead without emotions, journalist and trainer Mark Lee Hunter told reporters attending BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting.

He explained this by saying that world is garbage and that is on journalists to clear it up, a little bit at least. 
“We are not going to do that if nobody cares. If we want it to care, we have to give them some emotion. This is the way it makes me want to do the job,” Hunter explains. 
It is believed that investigative reporting takes too long and is too expensive. Hunter, however, believes it is true but it doesn’t always have to be true. “One of the reasons for that belief is because we work in inefficient ways… Our processes are terrible, we do not have professional processes for the most part but personal ones. So it is very hard to go faster,” he said.
Pointing at some methods the journalists should develop in order to do their job faster, Hunter added: “I promise that if you develop personal method and you are conscious about reproving it, you will also go faster. 
He has also talked about using hypothesis and chronologies to frame and advance a project.
“Journalists make chronologies all the time and every time you get a piece of information, you add it to the chronology,” he said.
According to him, the chronology can help journalists in two ways:
1. It keeps track of all journalist’s information, it keeps all the stuff together.
2. It suggests relationships between the facts, what to look for next.

Nick Thorne’s Art of Interview at BIRN Summer School

Addressing participants of the BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting, BBC journalist Nick Thorpe has explained the techniques for making people talk and how to work with anonymous sources.

Under the name The Art of the Interview, Thorpe has played a TV documentary he had done entitled Kosovo Civilians Abuses Revealed and then discussed it with the participants.
“We talked how I went investigation and evidence I was able to get for that as well as about the two follow-ups I made afterwards,” Nick explains.
“The more emphasis on good quality reporting and the more emphasis on good investigative journalism, the better, as far as I can tell,” he pointed out.
Screening of the documentary has raised various questions among participants with some claiming that the story did not bring anything that wasn’t already known in public. Thorpe on the other side has insisted on saying that sometimes stories are much bigger than a journalist can tell and that some things cannot be proved. The journalist can only get to the stadium to believe that it was true, he added. 
Final version of his story has been reviewed and confirmed by BBC’s lawyer team.

Life in Kosovo Interviews Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni

This Thursday, Life in Kosovo interviews Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni.

Journalist Muhamet Hajrullahu asks him about the domestic stance towards the Serbian resolution at the UN? Is there a counter-resolution? Is the UNSC Resolution 1244 a barrier to Kosovo? What is happening with new recognitions after the issuing of the opinion of the International Court of Justice? Are the claims from the opposition regarding secret meetings with Serbia true?

During the show, BIRN will also broadcast a debate regarding marriages and divorces in Kosovo.

How much do weddings cost in Kosovo? Is the number of divorces in Kosovo increasing and if so why?

In order to discuss these and other related issues, guests of Edona Musa in studio will be:

Fehmije Gashi – Bytyçi,
Besa Ismaili – Ahmeti,
Xheraldina Pufja – Rexhepi,
Valdete Daka,
And Shpresa Hasimja

At the end of the show, BIRN will broadcast an interview by Artan Haracia with a professor of modern history from Greece, Thanos Veremis, who will talk about why the Greek state hasn’t recognised the independence of Kosovo and whether this stance will change.

 

Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television, RTK and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. It is broadcast every Thursday, starting at 20:20

Media Experts Discuss Attacks on Journalists in Balkans

Journalists in the Balkans are coming under increasing pressure from politicians and business people, media experts have told participants of the BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting.

Speaking at a panel discussion named Journalists Under Attack that was organised as part of the BIRN summer school, Dragana Nikolic Solomon, OSCE Head of Media Department, said that according to the research of the OSCE for 2009, the number of physical attacks on journalists has dropped down but what is also worrying is the increasing influence which comes from the fields of politics and business.
According to her, after attack on a journalist of the Serbian weekly newspaper Teofil Pancic, police stance towards journalists has changed in the country.
“It’s certainly a good sign, but what is worrying is that the attackers on Pancic were young, 18-20 year old guys,” she added. 
Teofil Pancic of the weekly magazine Vreme, was attacked while travelling on a public bus in the Zemun district of Belgrade July 24.
As for Montenegro, Ivanovic said that there is a strong government’s influence on the media and that solidarity exists only among non-regime media houses in the country. 
According to Jeta Xharra from BIRN Kosovo, solidarity in Kosovo exists while drinking in cafe but in public… there is very little.
“The government goes so far as to exercise influence on journalists’ organisations so that they are politicised,” Jeta explained. 
“They [journalists’ organisations] react only when it comes to a journalist they like while some do not react at all or turn them to a lot of time, as was the case with us [BIRN Kosovo], continues Jeta. 
According to Jeta, there are no attacks on journalists in Kosovo so the biggest problem of Kosovo journalists is the fact that the ccountry’s government is
discrediting journalists in every possible way by publishing lies about them and so on. 
Case of Ivo Pukanic, who was publisher of the Croatian weekly Nacional that was murdered in 2008, has also been at the table of the discussion.
   
Hrvoje Appelt said that the Croatian police had reacted but it was necessary for Pukanic to be killed in order for that to happen. 
“I have to say that, not only in Croatia but also throughout the region… for which I’ve been working on statistics of attacks on journalists…three years ago attacks on journalists on daily basis were happening. In 99 per cent of these cases, the attackers have not been found yet,” Appelt said. 
Cvorovic from the Serbian media outlet B92 has been talking about the case of
Brankica Stankovic, who is author of the show Insider that had received death threats posted on Internet websites after airing of the show on the Serbian hooligans last December. 
Since then, Stankovic is under 24/7 police protection. However, according to Cvorovic, B92 has found a solution and a new concept so that the airing of the programmes could continue.

Gavin Rees: How to Interview Victims of Trauma

Gavin Rees from Dart Center Europe has held a session named Dealing with Victims of Trauma explaining how to ask questions and get details without opening new wounds for victims of war, violence and crime.

Rees has pointed at skills journalists need to know in order to interview those affected by trauma.
Four skill areas a journalist has to develop, according to Rees, are:
1. Listening
2. Beginning well and ending well
3. Simple questions, without feelings
4. Journalist need to know their role. Journalists are not therapists and are not there to cure the interviewees 
The BIRN school’s participants went out form the session under strong impression.
Frederique Petit form The Netherlands finds the way Gavin had been communicated with victims in the movie he has shown very impressive.
“The way he communicated with the victims and what he told us on how you should lead victims up to a point where they would tell you their horrible stories and also get them back to a normal place, where you can part normally without having upset them too much,” Frederique said.
Vladimir Locev from Macedonia has admitted that he had no such experience but “it was very, very useful to watch his movie about Hiroshima and victims of nuclear bomb. It was amazing,” he said.  
“I think it takes a lot of time, a lot of experience until one journalist reaches that level to be able to retrieve and to get information from people who had those kind of … like rape victims, trafficking victims, the Macedonian journalist added. 
Vlad Ursulean from Romania: “It really thought me how to shut up and, in an interview, listen first and try to work out from there. And, not to push people that have been through trauma or traumatic events. Make them comfortable to say things… saying things that they want.” 
Bogdan Vacusta from Romania finds the presentation of Gavin as very useful. “His experience in Japan, that he told us about, was very good in terms of understanding that we have to develop the skills to do this kind of interview, because it is not a usual interview. We have to deal with some individuals who dealt with some very uncomfortable situations,” Bogdan said. “It was very surprising for me to see that even his presentation was something like talking to the victims that had difficult experience,” he added.

Paul Radu Explains How to Track Offshore Companies

As part of BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting, Paul Radu has tried to explain, by going through personal experience, how to track organised crime over borders and offshore.

“What we’ve been trying to do these days is to explain that offshore doesn’t necessarily needs to be an island but an offshore type of company can be established in countries like Austria, Delaware in the US or in some other country in the world. 

Radu went on to explain that there are still ways of getting information on offshore heavens.

Therefore, he has presented his new project named the Investigative Dashboard as useful tool for getting the information.

“The Investigative Dashboard is service which provides information to journalists but also provides access to experts,” he said. 

The experts hired by the Investigative Dashboard would, according to him, provide information on what journalists can and cannot do when it comes to obtaining information from offshore heavens. 

As owners of the companies are usually hidden being replaced by proxies, Radu has suggested some tricks on how to get name of the real owner. One of the ways is to ask a proxie how to spell his/her name correctly in order not to make in mistake since the name would be published in a story. In such situations, the proxie would usually point to real owner of the offshore company.

BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting – Overview of Day 3

How to track organised crime and corruption, to deal with victims of trauma  and how to outsmart Google were some of the main topics of the third day of BIRN Summer School of Investigating Reporting held in the Serbian town of Novi Sad.

Wednesday’s session on how to use documents led by Drew Sullivan and Rosemary Armao, focused on individuals, what they own, where they work and who they associate with. 
Don Ray and Paul Radu have then joined Sullivan in explaining how to use documents to investigate companies and institutions.
Going through personal experience, the trainers explained how to track business deals and expose wrongdoing by regulators and public officials working with businesses as well as how to track organised crime over borders and offshore.
“Knowledge of the offshore company system or the so-called fiscal havens is very important because it happens very often that journalists run into offshore company that cannot track,” Paul Radu said.
As part of a programme on organised crime and corruption, Manuela Mareso, the Editor of Narco Mafia Magazine, presented a case study on investigating Montenegrin connections with Italian Mafia. 
Gavin Rees from Dart Center Europe and Milorad Ivanovic, Dart Center Western Balkans, opened a session named Dealing with Victims of Trauma providing reportage without opening new wounds for victims of war, violence and crime.
 
Meanwhile, some participants led by trainer Luuk Sangers worked on uncovering the “hidden web” in a session on computer-assisted reporting.
Sangers presented his latest tricks to “outsmart” search engine Google. 
“You have to give a very specific assignment to Google, but still Google … can’t find everything,” Sangers said.
A lot of interesting information for journalists is hidden on the Web, he added, suggesting other search engines and
ways to find things out.
In recent years journalism has topped the lists as one of the most dangerous professions in the world.
The BIRN summer school has organised a discussion named Journalists Under Attack. Panellists of the discussion includes: Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO; Dragana Nikolic Solomon, OSCE Head of Media Department; Miodrag Cvorovic, B92, Serbia; Hrvoje Appelt, Croatia; Zeljko Ivanovic – Vijesti, Montenegro; Jeta Xharra, BIRN Kosovo.

BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting Kicks Off

Leading journalists and trainers from all over Europe have gathered in the Serbian town of Novi Sad to take part in the first BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting.

The one week programme kicked off on Monday with introductory speech of Gordana Igric, BIRN’s regional director, and guest trainers who are renowned investigative journalists including Don Ray and Drew Sullivan.
“We are pleased with the candidates and very excited to be organising this programme for the first time. I hope this school will become our annual tradition,” Gordana Igric said. 
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Don Ray, who is a multi-media producer, writer, author, journalist and lecturer has then tried to define investigative reporting – what makes it different from other types of journalism. This has been shown in a case study presented by Besar Likmeta, the editor for the BIRN in Albania, who has been talking about his investigative story named World Bank Demolished Albania Village.
Further insight on the investigative process – from getting a lead, formulating the investigative hypothesis to writing the story, fact and legal check, airing and publishing the report, follow up – has been given by Don Ray with Randall Joyce explaining how to do it for TV. 
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The OCCRP team has started its four-day programme on organised crime and corruption in order to show what are the schemes and scams that mark organised crime’s plunder of Balkan regions.
Meanwhile, another group of participants have uncovered a new world of Microsoft Excel while being trained in computer-assisted investigative journalism by Luuk Sengers.
With main focus on reporting on organised crime and corruption for print and broadcast media, the BIRN summer school is also aimed at covering the changing face of Balkan media ownership and violence against media professionals.

Radio Justice Marks One Year Anniversary

Over the past year BIRN BiH has produced and broadcast 50 weekly episodes of the Radio Justice magazine show.

The programme began on August 14, 2009 with the aim of presenting Justice Report articles to a broader group of people interested in trials conducted before the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The show is distributed to about 100 radio stations around Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the Diaspora. It is also available on the web page www.bim.ba every Friday.

 

“The public has to be sensitised about justice and war crimes issues. BIRN is the only media outlet systematically working towards achieving this goal. For as long as these issues are open, the weekly Radio Justice magazine will be a valuable media product. The shows are comprehensive, articulated and well designed,” said Emir Habul, editor-in-chief of informative programmes at BH Radio 1.

 

The 10-minute programme features an overview of the most important trials before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as topics and analyses related to war crimes processing in the country. It broadcasts audio recordings from the courtrooms as well as comments from experts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region.

 

Over the past year, Radio Justice featured interviews with Meddzida Kreso, President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Patrick Robinson, President of the Hague Tribunal; Milorad Barasin, Chief State Prosecutor; James Rodehaver, Chief of the OSCE’s Human Rights Department; Sonja Biserko, President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia; Vesna Terselic, Director of “Documenta” from Zagreb; and Mirsad Tokaca, President of the Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo.  

 

Local media stations are important partners for the Radio Justice project. Mirsada Cosic, Editor of Informative Programmes at Konjic Radio, says the work of Justice Report journalists is important for the general public in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

 

Dragana Sivonjic, Editor-in-Chief of the Vitez radio station, agrees Radio Justice is important.

 

“BIRN Radio Justice and the daily reports enable us to follow the trials, which we would otherwise not be able to follow due to the lack of journalists and the distance between Vitez and Sarajevo,” said Sivonjic.

 

 The Radio Justice Report team intends to continue implementing its projects in the next year with the aim of collaborating with radio stations and reaching to an even broader audience.