Category: News and Events

Reporting from Local Communities

On April 27 and 28 the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, in collaboration with USAID’s Judicial Sector Development Programme, continued a training course for journalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina reporting on war-crimes trials conducted before cantonal and district courts.

In the second week of the training course Mehmed Halilovic, former Ombudsman for Media, explained how journalists can obtain necessary information in accordance with the Law on Free Access to Information, while Boris Grubesic, Spokesperson of the State Prosecution, explained what type of information can be provided by the institution, also describing the criminal prosecution process.

Ljiljana Zurovac, Director of the Press Council, spoke about the ethics codex, which includes recommendations for court reporters.

At this training session, lecturers drew the journalists’ attention to the most frequent mistakes made in war-crimes trials reporting. Participants were then asked to prepare news on the basis of verdicts, indictments and judicial institutions’ announcements, avoiding potential mistakes.

On the second day, participants were presented with cases in which journalists were charged or convicted for contempt of court or denial of facts determined by verdicts. Ways of avoiding such situations were discussed.

The training course continues on May 27 and 28. These sessions will focus on the importance of information provided by judicial institutions, for the country and the region.

The goal of the course is to train journalists in reporting war-crimes trials conducted before courts in their local communities, as the transfer of “less sensitive cases” for further processing by cantonal and district courts and Brcko District Court has now begun.

BICCED Project Launched with Regional Conference on Culture

A regional conference on cultural policies in the Western Balkans was held on April 20 in Skopje, marking the start of the three-year project entitled Balkan Initiative for Cultural Cooperation, Exchange and Development, BICCED, which aims to contribute to the change and development of cultural policies in the region, both locally and regionally, through the production and dissemination of analytical articles about both country-specific and shared cultural policies issues.

The conference, entitled “The Balkans, Media and Culture – Time for Change”, gathered more than 30 representatives of cultural organisations and journalists from the region, who gave valuable input for the creation of an editorial strategy for the BICCED project. BICCED is being implemented by the Balkan Investigative Regional Reporting Network (BIRN) and the SEEcult.org portal for the South-East European culture. The project is funded by the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans (SCP).

 

Representatives of cultural organisations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia took part in the discussion, which aimed to pinpoint the main weaknesses of the local cultural scenes, as well as common problems and the ways in which regional cooperation and media coverage through the BICCED project could help serve as a platform for wider and diverse cultural cooperation and networking.

 

The participants agreed that there is an urgent need for more space for culture and art in the media sphere, and especially noted the lack of analytical and critical articles, which could initiate wider public discussions and contribute to faster changes and improvements in the field of culture.

 

Opening the Conference and presenting the BICCED project, BIRN regional director Gordana Igric announced that the production of analytical articles on cultural policies, which will start in May this year, will be published on a dedicated culture section of BIRN’s Balkan Insight web site and distributed via a monthly newsletter. Editorial output will also be translated into the languages of the region and disseminated to the more than 90 media outlets across the Balkans, both those already republishing BIRN output, and others.

 

Vesna Milosavljevic, director of the SEEcult.org, said that the time for changes in the fields of culture and media in the Balkans came long ago, adding that she hoped that the BICCED project would boost this process and become a sign that media organisations, primarily focused on politics, as BIRN has been until now, could be interested in problems of culture, too.

 

Bertan Selim, deputy regional manager of the SCP, said that SCP has a rich experience in cooperation and support to projects of cultural organisations in the Balkans and that it was searching for what was missing and what needs additional support. According to him, changes in the field of culture and media that might be triggered thanks to the BICCED project would be helpful for everyone.

 

Ibrahim Mehmeti, national programme officer of the Swiss Cooperation Office Macedonia, also stressed the importance of culture and communication for regional cooperation and especially for the processes of EU integration of the Western Balkans countries in Europe.

 

The importance of cooperation was also highlighted by Piro Misha. the executive director of the Institute of Dialogue & Communication in Tirana, who was one of the key speakers at the conference.

 

“We are small markets and can’t survive without cooperation,” said Piro Misha in the first part of the conference, which was open to media and gave a general overview of cultural policies in the region and the main problems facing cultural organisations.

 

Misha added that journalism in the field of culture in Albania has almost disappeared, accompanied by the lack of basic information about the situation and possible partners in other countries in the region.

 

Other key speakers included Nihad Kreševljaković, executive producer of the International Theatre Festival MESS in Sarajevo, and experts of the Compendium project: Zlatko Teodosievski, art historian, art critic and author from Skopje, and Hristina Mikić, lecturer at the University of Art in Belgrade and the Higher School for Business Studies in Novi Sad.

 

Common problems stressed during the introductory speeches and further discussions included the lack of national cultural strategies, insufficient public funding and nontransparent allocation of funds, politically-driven support for both organisations and appointees to leading positions in cultural institutions, incompetence in administration and policy makers circles, as well as a range of old-fashioned administrative obstacles, such as the lack of tax exemption for investments in culture.

 

Vivacious discussion was heard on copyright and piracy issues, especially in the publishing sector, followed by the participants agreeing on the shared problem of brain drain and lack of support for young talent, and problems of freelance artists.

 

Some of the most important problems were identified as the lack of the support to the independent cultural scenes, with the example of the cultural centre Tocka in Skopje, which had recently been closed.

 

An optimistic note to discussions was offered by guest speaker Dea Vidovic from Croatia, the chief editor and project manager of the portal Kulturpunkt.hr, who was a programme coordinator of the project Operation:City in Zagreb 2005. She gave a presentation of the tactical approaches to local cultural policies and presented the case study of Zagreb Centre for Independent Culture and Youth as a good model for advocacy practices.

 

The second part of the conference, which was closed to the public, consisted of two moderated brainstorming sessions on what to report on and networking strategy – using formal and informal communication tools to influence policy and opinion makers across the region.

 

Among the participants were Biljana Prentoska from Cultural Contact Point Macedonia/Ministry of Culture, art historian, Darka Radosavljevic-Vasiljevic, curator and director of the Remont Independent Art Association from Belgrade; Veton Nurkollari, artistic director and one of founders of the DokuFest in Prizren, Robert Alagjozovski cultural operator, journalist and art critic from Skopje, Biljana Tanurovska-Kjulavkovski from Lokomotiva from Skopje, Vala Osmani, architect, co-founder and director of the architecture department of a project institution Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, Silvia Dražić as a representative of the Art Clinic and Initiative for cultural policies in Novi Sad, artist Mladen Bundalo from Tac.ka from Prijedor, Iskra Geshoska from Kontrapunkt from Skopje.

 

Among the participants were ten experienced journalists from the region, who were selected for the first phase of the BICCED project through an open call, and who had participated in a training seminar held by BIRN experts prior to the conference. The training aimed to improve the journalists’ skills of analytical and investigative journalism.

 

The participants offered valuable input for the creation of an editorial strategy for the BICCED project and the dissemination of its results.

 

Opening Seminar kicks off in Berlin

The Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence programme 2010 has been launched this Monday, April 26th, at the opening dinner attended by this year’s fellows and representatives of the Robert Bosh Foundation, Erste Foundation and BIRN.

In the course of the next five days, fellows will be introduced to the programme and the chosen topics of interest to the Balkans and the EU, such as demography and taboos related to population policy, or German Foreign policy towards Balkans. Also, they will receive practical tips from Fellowship programme editors related to their work on the projects, individually tailored assistance, insight to fact-checking, its importance and methodology, and in possibilities for on line presentation of their stories and multiplication their impact.

At the first day of the introductory seminar, fellows got to know each other through the bonding session, reflecting upon their careers, the motivation that brought them to the programme, their ambitions and personal interests. They were also introduced to the Fellowship programme stages, procedures and their obligations towards the programme, as well as the assistance that will be given to them throughout their work.  Practical guidelines related to planning, research and the writing were presented by BIRN regional director and editor in chief Gordana Igric. Head of the Berlin biro of the Robert Bosch Foundation, Sandra Breka, introduced fellows to the Foundation – host of the introductory seminar. The presentation included an overview of their work, programmatic areas and the life and philanthropic interest of its founder, Mr. Robert Bosch.

Nine fellows have been chosen to participate in the fourth year of the Fellowship programme, expressing enthusiasm for their work which will start immediately after the seminar, with three months of research, during which they will travel to neighboring countries and to the EU, exploring different aspects of their projects.

Unfortunately, Croatian journalist Rober Tomic  Zuber, had to give up on his participation in this year’s programme due to his busy schedule and numerous obligations towards his employer.

 

BIRN in Cooperation with derStandard Launches Exchange and Capacity Building Programme

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, in cooperation with der Standard, has begun a one-year journalist exchange programme. The programme, which began in April 2010, will include journalists from Austria, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia, and there will be one exchange held per month.

Florian Niederndorfer was the first Austrian journalist to come to Belgrade as part of the exchange. He is conducting research on the history of the USCE Tower, the tallest sky-scraper in Belgrade and the ex-headquarters of the Communist Party under Tito’s regime. The building was bombed in 1999 during the NATO military operation.

Today, crisis-troubled Austrian Hypo Alpe Adria Bank and a number of multinational IT companies, like IMB, occupy offices in the building.

The evolution of the USCE Tower is a particularly interesting research topic, given that the 25 storey building, which was once a symbol of communism, is currently home to some of the most visible symbols of capitalism. Today there is little evidence that the tower was ever linked to communism.

Florian stayed in Belgrade for three days. He held interviews with two historians – Cedomir Antic and Professor Djordje Stankovic, and architect Natasa Vukosavljevic. During his discussions with the historians, he learned that Tito in fact never actually entered the building.

According to Florian, whose April visit was his first to Belgrade, the city surpassed all his expectations and he was very pleased to be the first exchange journalist of the programme.

He was left with the impression that Serbia’s capital fits well with the slogan “No sleep”, enjoy Belgrade, as an advertisement for the country’s most popular energy drink says. Florian was fascinated by the city’s skyscrapers and Belgrade’s other urban delights. He was also very pleased with the  “friendly and warm-hearted reception by the BIRN staff”.

Bojana Barlovac will be the first BIRN journalist to participate in the exchange; she will travel to Vienna at the beginning of May.

Life in Kosovo debates fiscal cash registers

This Thursday, Life in Kosovo transmits a debate on the roll-out of fiscal cash registers.

How ready are we to pay taxes to the state? How is the process of the installation of these cash registers going? How much does this process cost the state of Kosovo and how much has it cost in the region? What are the reactions of businesses and consumers to the installation of the fiscal cash registers? Who will observe the process of the installation of fiscal cash registers? 

 

Does the Tax Administration of Kosovo have the capacity to manage this process? What do the company representatives who have won the tender for the installation say and what do businesses say?

To discuss these issues, the guests of Muhamet Hajrullahu in the studio will be:

Behxhet Haliti, Head of the Tax Administration of Kosovo ;
Driton Shuki, General Director of GEKOS Company ;
Lumir Abdixhiku, Executive Director in the RIINVEST Institute ;
Ramiz Kelmendi, Owner of ELKOS company ;
Shyqiri Bytyqi, Tax Advisor ;

During the programme, BIRN will also transmit a report from the journalist Artan Haracia on the government reshuffle.

Journalist Edona Musa reports on how the Municipality of Prishtina is not respecting the decisions of the municipal court.

In the “Justice in Kosovo”section, researcher Isa Gacaferi discusses whether there will be a raise of judges’ salaries in January 2011 on the basis of a parliamentary bill. Reasercher Faton Ademi also talks about the publication of a list of officials suspected of corruption.

Finally, the “Week’s Highlight”section, prepared by the journalist Petrit Collaku, looks at “The Days of Pride”, an event organised by war veterans to remember the martyrs of the Pristina region.

 

 

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.

Regional Conference on Culture Held in Skopje

A regional cultural conference dubbed “The Balkans, Media and Culture – Time for Change” was held on Tuesday in Skopje and marked the start of the forthcoming three-year project: Balkan Initiative for Cultural Cooperation, Exchange and Development, BICCED.

The project is organised by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN and the South Eastern Europe Culture Portal, SEEcult.org. It is funded by the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans, SCP.

Distinguished experts and individuals involved in all aspects of cultural policy from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, and Macedonia took part in the discussion today, which aimed to pinpoint the main weaknesses of the local cultural scenes and the ways in which regional cooperation could help address these points.

“It is high time for change and improvement,” Zlatko Teodosievski from the Skopje based New Line\Compendium said in his speech at the conference.

The participants shared local experiences concerning media coverage of cultural events, the organisation of cultural institutions, freelance artists, property rights and other subjects.

Nihad Kresevljakovic from the MESS international theatre festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina noted that media across the region pay very little attention to cultural happenings, which are all too often either absent from their coverage or replaced with trivial information about pop stars.

“The most important paper in Bosnia and Herzegovina for years did not have a culture page,” Kresevljakovic said.

Piro Misha the director of Tirana- based Institute of Dialogue and Communication added that the media in his country mainly ignore cultural events and when they report on such happenings the coverage is often biased and incompetent.

Hristina Mikic from Belgrade University stressed the importance of comprehensive and updated laws on culture that are needed in order for change to happen in the stale public culture institutions which, she said, in many ways remain unchanged from the old socialist era.

Other participants included Dea Vidovic (Kulturpunkt, Zagreb), Mladen Bundalo (artist, Tac.ka, Prijedor), Veton Nurkollari (Dokufest, Prizren), Robert Alagjozovski (cultural operator, journalist and art critic, Skopje), Biljana Tanurovska-Kjulavkovski (Lokomotiva, Skopje), as well as representatives of other cultural institutions.

The participants also discussed the lack of quality cultural critics, the low quality of the translation of the books that are published in local languages, as well as copyright offences, which occur frequently.

The BICCED project aims to serve as a platform for future cultural cooperation among the countries in the region. It will also be focused on common cultural policy issues which can help the states evolve and develop in this area.

Journalists, media and culture organisations, as well as government representatives, shared their thoughts on how they can contribute to the project through various events such as trainings, researches, publications and open debates.

As part of the project’s aim to boost the visibility of culture in the region, ten journalists will be picked each year to participate in training activities. They will be able to compose articles on culture which will be published in media outlets in their own countries and across the region.
 

Seminar in Berlin – Preparations Underway

This year’s Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence will get underway officially at an introductory seminar and training session in Berlin, a week-long event, starting on April 27th. The ten fellows from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia will be hosted by the Robert Bosch Stiftung one of the partners in the programme.

This year’s Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence will get underway officially at an introductory seminar and training session in Berlin, a week-long event, starting on April 27th. The ten fellows from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia will be hosted by the Robert Bosch Stiftung one of the partners in the programme.

The fellows will participate in training sessions aimed at giving them a broad understanding of international standards of journalism, with a special focus on  the fact checking process and an insight into the research and editorial stages of their projects. They will have the opportunity to exchange information, opinions and views on this year’s theme – ‘Taboo’

In one-on-one sessions with BIRN editors, they will present their ideas and explore their planned research and the aims of their project. After the Seminar, and in the forthcoming months, they will complete their research trips which will take them throughout the region and the EU. The programme will culminate with an awards ceremony in November in Vienna, where the independent selection committee will present awards to the authors of the three winning articles. Each year, all the fellows articles are widely re-published, both locally and internationally.

 

Regional Conference “Balkan, Media and Culture – Time for Change”

The regional conference “Balkan, Media and Culture – Time for Change” will be held on April 20, 2010 at the Kaproš hotel in Skopje, as part of the three-year project “Balkan Initiative for Cultural Cooperation, Exchange and Development” – BICCED, which will be implemented by the Balkan Investigative Regional Reporting Network and its partners, and funded by the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans (SCP).

The conference will be the opening event for the BICCED project, which aims to build a network of journalists and cultural organisations from the region, to focus on common cultural policy issues with the aim of reaching both the wider public and policy makers, and to contribute to the change and development of cultural policies both locally and regionally.

 

The conference will help in the preparation of an editorial strategy and the establishment of links between cultural organisations, experts and journalists from across the region, and several participants will be invited to form an advisory board, whose role will be to provide input into editorial strategy at annual meetings over the project’s three-year life cycle.

 

Among the participants of the conference will be representatives of the Ministry of Culture of Macedonia, the Swiss Embassy/Swiss Cooperation Office in Skopje and the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans, as well as approximately 20 representatives of cultural institutions/organisations from the region, and ten journalists selected for the first year of the project implementation.

 

The first part of the conference (Regional Cultural Policy – Exploring the Challenges), which will be open to media,  will give a general overview of cultural policies in the region and the main problems facing cultural organisations. The second part of the conference will be closed to the public and will consist of two moderated brainstorming sessions (What to report on and Networking strategy – using formal and informal communication tools to influence policy makers and opinion formers across the region). 

 

Speakers at the conference include Professor Primo Shllaku (Observatory of Culture, Tirana), Nihad Kresevljakovic (Festival MESS, Sarajevo), Vesa Sahatciu (Art critic, Pristina), Zlatko Teodosievski (Nova linija/Compendium, Skopje) and Hristina Mikic (Lecturer at theUniversity of Belgrade and the Higher School for Business Studies Novi Sad/Compendium, Novi Sad).

 

Among the participants of the conference are Piro Misha (publisher, Tirana), Mladen Bundalo (artist, Tac.ka, Prijedor), Veton Nurkollari (Dokufest, Prizren), Vala Osmani (Stacion), Darka Radosavljevic-Vasiljevic (Remont, Belgrade), Silvia Drazic (Art Clinic/Initiative Za kulturne politike, Novi Sad), Robert Alagjozovski (cultural operator, journalist and art critic, Skopje), Biljana Tanurovska-Kjulavkovski (Lokomotiva, Skopje), as well as representatives of several other cultural institutions and organisations from Skopje.

 

Guests participants include Dea Vidovic (Kulturpunkt, Zagreb), who will present Croatian experiences in networking in order to make changes in cultural policy, and Veronika Ratzenböck (Kulturdokumentation.internationales archiv für kulturanalysen, Wien) as observer.  

 

All sessions will be moderated by Gordana Igric (BIRN Regional Director), Dusica L.I. Cook (BIRN Project Manager) and Vesna Milosavljevic (SEEcult.org Director), and be followed by questions from the floor and discussion. The working language of the conference is English.

 

The expected outcomes will be action points and recommendations for further development of the project.

 

Please, find the attached Agenda.

International Forum on South Serbia Kicks Off

BIRN has organised a high-profile conference and open debate today in Belgrade on the further development of South Serbia and possibilities for the increased integration of ethnic Albanians into Serbian state institutions.

The conference is entitled ‘South Serbia: From Frozen Conflict to Sustainable Solutions: Opportunities for Long-Term Integration and Development of the Region’.

The Forum is organised under the auspices of the British Embassy in Belgrade and the Balkan Fund for Democracy on the occasion of the first anniversary of the reinstatement of the Coordinating Body for South Serbia.

Participants in the forum include: Stephen Wordsworth, UK ambassador to Serbia; Mary Burce Warlick, U.S. ambassador to Serbia; Milan Markovic, Serbian minister for state governance and local self-governance; Riza Halimi, member of the Serbian parliament; Vincent Degert, head of the EU Delegation to Serbia; and Dimitrios Kypreos, ambassador of the OSCE Mission to Serbia.

The southern Serbia municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac, and Medvedja are home to Serbia’s largest ethnic Albanian population outside of Kosovo and are among the least developed in Serbia. High unemployment rates and an average wage lower than the state average of about 350 euros are two of the many challenges facing the area.

In 2000 and 2001 the region was the scene of an armed conflict between state security forces and local ethnic Albanian militants in the Liberation Army of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.

The aim of the forum is to provide a platform for the participation of all interested parties and allow them to take part in a discussion on the opportunities for fostering stability and development in South Serbia, with particular reference to the work of the Coordinating Body of the municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja and the establishment of a National Minority Council.

Life in Kosovo debates the energy strategy

This Thursday, Life in Kosovo debates the energy strategy in Kosovo for the period of 2009-2018.

Is the energy strategy, approved last week by the Parliament of Kosovo, a good choice? What will happen with the power plant Kosovo B? What’s the future of the mine at Sibovc? What are the arguments for and against this nine-year strategy? What are the real benefits for the state of Kosovo?

To discuss these and other related issues regarding the strategy, the following guest joined Muhamet Hajrullahu in the studio:

Justina Shiroka-Pula, Minister of Energy and Mining
Myzejene Selmani, head of the Commission for Trade, Energy and Telecommunications  
Luan Shllaku, from the KFOS-Kosovo Foundation for Open Society  
Visar Kelmendi, from the energy sector

During the show, BIRN will broadcast an interview by the journalist Petrit Collaku with the KFOR General, Markus Bentler, on the role of KFOR in Kosovo and the future mission of the Kosovo Security Force.

 

 

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.