Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
BIRN BiH director, Nerma Jelacic, was one of ten people from around the world who were named peacemakers of the year in Japan.
The honour was bestowed by Japan’s second largest daily newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, which has a circulation over 8 million readers a day.
The newspaper singled out Jelacic’s involvement in the promotion of justice and reconciliation.
BIRN BiH director Nerma Jelacic on
Monday, February 12, held a two-hour presentation for young human rights
activists from across the country.
Jelacic spoke at a
conferfence organised by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights which aims to
train young activists from the Balkans to become justice advocates.
BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina will hold a week long training seminar for 16 journalists from Uganda at the end of February.
Journalists from this African country will be tought about the work of the International Criminal Court and how to report on upcoming trials there.
The training – to be held in Kampala February 26 to March 2, 2007 – will bring together representatives of the ICC prosecution and registry, Human Rights Watch officials, Coalition for the ICC activists and leading trainers in court reporting, to seek ways of improving coverage of the ICC in the country.
The project is sponsored by UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Nerma Jelacic, director of BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina, gave a two hour presentation on post-conflict justice and reconciliation to about 20 students from Lebanon.
The presentation took place on December 27 in BIRN’s Sarajevo offices.
Students of human rights, journalism and film visited Bosnia and Herzegovina in an effort to compare reconciliation experiences here with those in their own country.
BIRN Kosovo will have a live debate tonight, February 2, at 20:30 on UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s plan for Kosovo, which will be revealed in Pristina at 16:00.
BIRN Kosovo will have a live debate tonight, February 2, at 20:30 on UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s plan for Kosovo, which will be revealed in Pristina at 16:00.
The panelists in the studio will be.
– Nexhmedin Spahiu, an analyst from Mitrovica
– Adrian Gjini, a minister and member of the final status negotiating team
– Arlinda Desku, an independent journalist
– Dardan Gashi, a member of final status negotiating team
During the programme, BIRN will also broadcast an interview with Hashim Thaci, head of opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, and member of the Team of Unity, the decision-making body mandated to deal with the UN proposal.
The programme will be the first televised analysis of the plan which will pave the way for the resolution of Kosovo’s political status in the coming months.
According to a section of the draft proposal obtained by BIRN, the UN proposal will bring Kosovo “de facto” independence, though the word does not figure explicitly in the document.
Internationally-mediated negotiations on Kosovo’s final status started in Vienna, in January 2006. After several months of meetings, Kosovo’s and Serbia’s negotiating teams failed to achieve an agreement, refusing to budge from the original negotiating positions, the former demanding full independence and the latter autonomy.
With the negotiating process close to collapse, the international community decided to have Ahtisaari draw up a proposal for Kosovo’s final political status, which is due to be presented in Belgrade and Pristina today.
Aleksandar Vasovic, the Bratislava-based Associated Press correspondent, has been appointed Belgrade-based BIRN editor-trainer.
Prior to his Bratislava post, Vasovic was AP correspondent in Kiev, Ukraine. Between 2004 and 2006, he covered developments there, including the so-called Orange Revolution.
Since joining AP in 1999, he has also covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Macedonia, the insurgency in southern Serbia, the Kosovo war and Slobodan Milosevic’s ousting and arrest, as well as other key developments in the Balkans and the rest of Europe.
Vasovic’s career began in the late 1980s with Radio Beograd. He then moved to Radio B92 in 1991, where he worked as a journalist, editor and foreign desk editor, covering the violent breakup of Yugoslavia.
He has also produced two B92 TV documentaries about the Northern Ireland peace process and the Middle East conflict.
Vasovic’s will be responsible for monitoring local and regional trends, overseeing contributors, implementing regional projects in Serbia, including the training of journalists enrolled in BIRN Serbia local projects.
Vasovic will take formally take up his post on April 1.
RTK, Pristina
The BIRN-organised TV show Life in Kosovo on January 26 will turn its attentions on the people who have returned to live in Kosovo.
This programme aims to raise public awareness about issues related to the return and reintegration process, looking primarily at groups of ethnic minorities living in Kosovo.
The programme will include field interviews with some families that returned to live in their rebuilt homes, key stakeholders who have been involved in the process of return, representatives of local government, international organisations and also religious representatives.
The edition of the programme will be broadcast at 20:30 on Kosovo’s public television channel, RTK.
The BIRN-organised televised show Life in Kosovo will present “Whose Security?”, a documentary exploring how women in Kosovo have been affected by war and how they now perceive the notion of peace and security in their day-to-day lives.
The documentary includes interviews with Kosovo’s prime minister, head of UN Mission in Kosovo, and many female activists, politicians and citizens, attempting to reveal how the successful integration of women’s perspectives and participation into democratic society is an uphill struggle, and how international resolutions are much easier to ratify than to enforce.
Dragana Nikolic Solomon, BIRN Serbia director and editor, is to take up a new
post as Chief of the Media Department at the OSCE mission in Belgrade.
Dragana moved from London to Belgrade over three years ago at a crucial time
in the development of the BIRN network in Serbia, overseeing its evolution
into an effective, high-profile organisation.
She played a leading role
in the establishment of the BIRN Serbia network of journalists, from
recruitment and training to publishing their output in BIRN’s publication
Balkan Insight.
Nikola Lazic, a journalist from South Serbia, said,
"Since I have met Dragana, two years ago, I have advanced professionally very
much, thanks to her support. New opportunities have come my way, and in that
respect working with her has been tremendously important."
BIRN Serbia
is today in a unique position of having over forty trained journalists
throughout Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro who are becoming an important part
of our information network.
With her energy and enthusiasm, Dragana was
a dynamic member of the BIRN network and her colleagues will miss her
greatly.
In her farewell note, she said the experience she gained through
working in BIRN was invaluable. "I would like to thank my colleagues for
their support. Working with you, I have been given an opportunity to learn
a lot. I will continue to follow BIRN’s activities and to read
BIRN’s articles with great interest."
Requirements:
– Extensive experience in print and/or internet journalism – in particular editing – with an international news focus
– Knowledge of international standards of journalism
– Excellent knowledge of English and ability to edit in English
– Interest in investigative journalism
– Experience in training journalists is an asset
If you are interested in the post, please send your CV and
two references by 25 January 2007 to [email protected], or by post to:
Balkanska istrazivacka mreza, BIRN
Gospodar Jovanova 81/2
11000
Beograd