Category: News and Events

Business Training Gets Underway

What is a hedge fund? A leverage buyout? An ‘acid test’ ratio? How do bond yields work? Does business journalism have to be dry and boring?

BIRN, in its commitment to better Balkan business journalism, helped to answer these and other questions posed by Balkan journalists at an intensive training event in Sarajevo on Sunday and Monday.

The event, supported by the British Embassy in Sarajevo, focused on fostering a culture of objective and reliable reporting on common economic issues affecting the region. Four Bosnian business journalists and five others from Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia, attended.

Of course business journalism should not be dry and boring, trainer Eric Jansson, a BIRN editor and former Balkans correspondent for the Financial Times, told participants. But reporters and editors need to work hard to make it both lively and accurate.

To lift the curtain on business in the transition economies of southeast Europe, Balkan journalists need a fuller arsenal of tools used by analysts around the world. The two days of training were focused on providing such analytical tools and putting them to use.

Roundtable events were to follow on a third and final day, with BIRN hosting panelists including noted local economists and leading figures in Bosnia’s emerging capital markets.

In a pleasant departure from economists’ standard claim that there is “no such thing as a free lunch”, BIRN saw that participants were well fed throughout.

BIRN – Justice Report in Norway

Justice Report editor Nidzara Ahmetasevic was among a hundred journalists from all over the world who participated in a recent conference on Global Inter-Media Dialogue.

Justice Report editor Nidzara Ahmetasevic was among a hundred journalists from all over the world who participated in a recent conference on Global Inter-Media Dialogue.

The conference took place in Norway from 3 to 6 June 2007, and this year’s theme was Primetime for Diversity – Journalism in a Troubled World.

Ahmetasevic was one of the speakers at the plenary session on Ethical Journalism in Hostile Environments/Troubled Times, together with colleagues from Bangladesh, Egypt and Jordan.

This is the second time that the Indonesian and Norwegian governments organised the Global Inter-Media Dialogue. The principal idea is to create a forum for leading journalists worldwide where they can start a dialogue irrespective of potential differences between them and promote freedom of speech and tolerance.

The conference hosts were Muhamma Nuh, Indonesian information and communications minister, and Jonas Gahr Store, Norway’s foreign affairs minister. Doudou Diene, UN Special Envoy for Contemporary Forms of Racism, was one of the introductory speakers.

Apart from Ahmetasevic, the list of participants included journalists from Russia, Afghanistan, China, Burma, Germany, USA, Cuba, Guatemala and Israel among others.

Life in Kosovo: Child Labour

This Friday’s Life in Kosovo show will discuss the employment of children.

Issues raised in the debate will include why children in Kosovo are forced to work? Who should deal with cases of child abuse? And have Kosovo institutions done enough to protect children?

Panelists in the studio will be:

Mustafë Gara – the Institute for Social Politics, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare;
Agim Millaku – Inspector from the Executive Agency of the Inspectorate of Labour;
Arbena Kuriu – official from UNCEF;
Sali Dragidella – Police Service of Kosovo, SHPK
Dardan Makolli – pupil; and
Xajë Mustafa – parent whose child is working.

Life in Kosovo is broadcast on RTK, every Friday, beginning at 20.15

BIRN to hold economic reporting training in Sarajevo

An intensive three-day training event will bring together five economic journalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina and five of their colleagues from Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia as part of a training and reporting project on economic dialogue between Bosnia and Herzegovina and its neighbours.

Eric Jansson, BIRN editor and former Financial Times Balkans correspondent and Gordana Igric, BIRN director and editor-in-chief of Balkan Insight will lead the training sessions on the 17th, 18th and 19th of June, 2007.

The project, supported by the British Embassy in Sarajevo, focuses on fostering a culture of objective and reliable reporting on common economic issues affecting the region.

A special package of reports will be published in BIRN’s regional publication, Balkan Insight, following the training event.

For more information on the agenda and the training session please see this link

BIRN to hold discussion on regional economic cooperation in Sarajevo

A panel discussion on regional economic cooperation organised by BIRN and the Foreign Investments Promotion Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, FIPA, will be held at the Radon Plaza Hotel, Sarajevo on June 19, 2007 at 13:00. The panel discussion – Competitors or Allies in Investments, will be preceded by a BIRN training and reporting event for economic journalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the surrounding region, supported by the British Embassy in Sarajevo.

The discussion will feature two panels:

– Are BiH stock exchanges doing enough to stimulate foreign investment?
– Competition or Cooperation: Finding an Optimal Balance for the Growth of Balkan Economies.

For the complete agenda and a list of panellists please visit this link

To participate in the event please contact Dusica L.I. Cook at [email protected].

Life in Kosovo program on the final status received over 150 viewers’ calls

The resolution of Kosovo’s final status and how to go about it was the topic of this week’s Life in Kosovo TV debate show.

The show was broadcast live on Radio Television of Kosovo, RTK, and the audience had the chance address questions to the following panelists.

David Blunt – head of the British liaison office in Pristina
Ardian Gjini – environment minister
Avni Arifi- advisor to the prime minister
Dukagjin Gorani – political analyst
Berat Buzhala – chief editor of the daily newspaper Express

Over 150 people phoned up with questions during the show, some of which were read out on air.

Life in Kosovo, a BIRN-organised TV debate, is moderated by BIRN Kosovo Director Jeta Xharra and is broadcast on RTK every Friday from 20.15.

BIRN and the Dart Centre Team up to Train the Trainers in Trauma

BIRN’s leadership team from across the Balkans is spending two days’ training in the Croatian resort of Opatija in the reporting and journalistic experience of trauma and extreme human distress.

With war crimes trials underway in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the European arm of the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma (www.dartcentre.org) is supporting BIRN with training, materials and expertise as part of a programme to shift journalistic culture in the region towards a more sophisticated and educated understanding of how psychological trauma impacts on post-conflict societies – and how journalists can be best supported in reporting the aftermath of war.

The training is being led by the Dart Centre’s European Director Mark Brayne, a former BBC and Reuters foreign correspondent and now a practising psychotherapist, and brings together eight of BIRN’s country directors, from Bosnia-Hercegovina, Kosovo, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Montenegro.

The Opatija workshop is the latest in a series of Dart Centre initiatives on trauma in the Balkans, including a seminar last month in Palic, Serbia (http://www.dartcenter.org/global/europe/reports/Palic_OSCE_Seminar.html) , with Serbian journalists covering the current war crimes trials in Belgrade.

First Fellowship Seminar Concluded in Vienna

The first seminar for ten journalists selected for 2007’s Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence was held from 27-31 May in Vienna.

The seminar was organised by the Erste Foundation and hosted by the Fellowship’s Austrian Media Partner, the Vienna-based Der Standard newspaper.

Over these four days, the fellows from Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro and Serbia, attended group and individual sessions where they discussed the reporting they are to undertake as part of the programme. Training also helped journalists to sharpen their professional approach to research and writing and to improve their understanding of European affairs.

In addition, the fellows were given the opportunity to meet journalists and editors from Der Standard newspaper and Der Standard online, while presentations related to the topics of their research were given by experts and politicians from The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, Institute for Human Sciences, Erste Bank, European Stability Initiative and Citizens’ Pact for Southeast Europe.

Over the next few months, the fellows will hold individual research trips to other countries in the region and to the EU, followed by a seminar and award ceremony in Berlin in November.

More information on the Fellowship programme can be found on its website.

The Fellowship is an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and Erste Foundation, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN.

The Life in Kosovo TV debate broadcast discussed women in Islam

Amongst the subjects raised during the discussion on Friday, June 1, were how women are perceived by their families and society and the barriers and challenges a veiled woman has to face in her everyday life.

These issues were discussed by the following panelists:

Visare Gorani-Gashi – Kosovo prime minister’s office;
Zake Prelvukaj – painter;
Besa Ismajli – interpreter;
Suela Dibra – psychologist;
Idriz Kosova – theologian.

After the broadcast, BIRN received over 70 emails from the audience concerning the show.

Life in Kosovo is a TV debate produced by BIRN and moderated by BIRN Kosovo director Jeta Xharra. Radio Television of Kosovo, RTK, broadcasts this show every Friday starting at 20.15.

Life in Kosovo: Women and Islam

This Friday’s Life in Kosovo show will discuss women’s role in Islam and the importance of wearing a scarf.

Among the subjects to be raised in the programme will be how women are perceived by their families and society. It will also address the barriers and challenges a veiled women has to face.

To discuss these issues, the show has invited the following panelists.

Visare Gorani-Gashi – Kosovo Prime Minister’s Office;
Zake Prelvukaj – painter;
Besa Ismajli – interpreter;
Suela Dibra – psychologist;
Idriz Kosova – theologian.

Life in Kosovo is broadcast every Friday on RTK, starting at 20:15.