Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
Please help us craft the content of a new BIRN publication on the Balkan
investment scene, Balkan Investment Insider, by filling out this questionnaire
. A fortnightly, subscription-based
newsletter, this unique title – drawing on the expertise of local economics
and financial analysts – will focus on opportunities and risks in the region.
As part of efforts to widen the regional scope of its project
activities, BIRN organised two-day workshop on October 4 and 5.
A group of ten Albanian reporters attended the workshop which served as an introduction to BIRN house style and its weekly newsletter Balkan Insight.
Regional Network Director Gordana Igric gave a presentation on international journalism standards, article structure, news analysis and libel laws.
The training session concluded with a discussion of ideas for Balkan Insight articles. Stories dealing with under-reported issues in Albania were commissioned. These will be published in a special issue at the beginning of November.
During her stay in Tirana, Igric also met the editors and management of local media, including Gazeta Shqiptare, Panorama, Korieri and the Albanian Telegraph Agency. They expressed an interest in republishing Balkan Insight articles.
Journalists from across the Balkan region attended a BIRN-organised investigative journalism training seminar at Lake Palic between August 21 -24.
The purpose of the training was both to introduce the journalists to theoretical aspects of investigative journalism and writing of analyses and to provide them with the practical tools needed for such work. The journalists, the staff members of BIRN, and the trainers had a chance to share their ideas, learn from each other and discuss potential future articles during the formal and informal parts of the training.
The Director of BIRN Serbia Dragana Nikolic Solomon presented the participants with BIRN’s house style, underlining both international journalistic standards of objectivity, balance and clarity.
Vlad Telibasa, an investigative reporter for the Romanian HotNews.ro online publication, said “I think the training regarding BIRN’s style of writing was very good. It really opened my eyes.”
BIRN’s regional director Gordana Igric highlighted the difference between analyses and investigative reports.
Gavin Mac Fadyen, Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism in London, explained the importance of libel law and outlined ways of acquiring conventional and unconventional evidence, using his own experiences to illustrate the points he made.
Following this presentation and a discussion with participants, he noted, “Particularly regarding investigations, I was impressed that people were able to do the work they do without the advantages we have in America.”
Paul Radu from the Romanian Centre for Investigative Research impressed the participants with a presentation on computer-assisted research, detailing a range of useful databases and other software useful for unearthing valuable and reliable information.
The second day of the training was devoted to workshops on a series of topics.
The first was devoted to business journalism in the Balkans and was led by Eric Jansson, a freelance journalist and former Belgrade correspondent for the Financial Times. The event featured a discussion with a panel of business leaders, including a business lawyer and a representative of an international company with an office in Belgrade.
They all underlined the importance for business journalists to understand their topics well, so as to avoid sensationalism and speculative assessments of markets.
Erol Mujanovic, an independent consultant for the International Republican Institute, said “This workshop allowed me to get to know what business people are expecting from journalists in terms of analysis.”
The second workshop focused on regional justice and was led by BIRN Bosnia’s Country Director Nerma Jelacic, along with court reporter Nidzara Ahmetasevic. They concentrated on war crimes trials in Bosnia and Herzegovina, explaining the various stages of trials.
The third, led by Gavin MacFadyen, invited the participants to investigate a hypothetical crime, with the aim of helping to develop their own investigative skills.
“The training was useful for me mainly because it was well balanced between the theoretical and practical aspects of how an investigation gets done, said Boryana Dzambazova, Mediapool.bg, Bulgaria
The training was concluded with a session in which participants and BIRN staff discussed ideas for future Balkan Insight articles.
A common thread running through participants’ impressions of the training was that it provided them with useful advice and skills and also enabled them to talk to other participants, trainers and BIRN staff.
“The workshop invigorated my passion for the region and my desire to report about it. It was great to see peers in the Balkans swarming with ideas and willing to produce good stories. There was a good array of speakers of different backgrounds.” Altin Raxhimi, freelance journalist, Albania
The program is supported by the Dutch Foreign Ministry, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, the C.S. Mott Foundation, the Balkan Trust for Democracy and the Rockefeller Brothers foundation.
Albena Shkodrova, Director of BIRN Bulgaria, will hold a workshop on
analytical journalism on September 20-21 in Sofia. It will be part of a
long-term course for Roma journalists-in-training organized by the
Access Foundation.
This project focuses on young members of the Roma community and prepares them for careers in journalism. It aims thereby to redress the negative representation of the Roma minority in the Bulgarian media by integrating Roma journalists in media outlets.
The training consists of four months of theoretical lectures, workshops and seminars followed by a six months of practical work in which trainees apply their new skills in a professional setting.
The theoretical part involves training in basic journalism skills, grammar, style, politics, law, economic, social, and judicial reporting, media management, human rights, interethnic relations, computer-assisted reporting and English.
In the workshop, Shkodrova will introduce trainees to the basic standards of writing a journalistic analysis, pointing out the difference in the way analyses are written in Bulgaria and in the international media, and between a commentary and an analysis.
BIRN Bulgaria’s director will familiarize them with the BIRN house style and give them an opportunity to come up with themes for their own pieces of analysis, based on techniques taught in the course. These may be published in Balkan Insight.
The first day of the workshop will cover the theoretical part of the session while the second will take the form of a brainstorming session aimed at producing potential themes.
Through this workshop, BIRN Bulgaria hopes to contribute to the future careers of the journalists involved.
Besides commissioning articles for Balkan Insight, BIRN Bulgaria will considers taking on one course participant as an intern, as part of his or her professional module.
Balkan Insight is set to increase coverage of Croatia and the EU
integration process now that BIRN’s former regional network director,
Anna McTaggart, has began a new position in Zagreb, building a team of
contributors. “ Croatia’s development is key to the region, not least
because it is closest to EU membership,” said McTaggart. Croatian
journalists interested in participating in the project should contact
[email protected].
Alina Constantinescu and Daniel Ganga, contributors to a BIRN Romania
local project, won honorary mentions in a journalism contest organized
by the Romanian Center for Resources for Roma Communities for fair
reporting on Roma issues. The two reporters are both regular
contributors to Divers (www.divers.ro),
a weekly online publication covering ethnic minorities issues, edited
by BIRN Romania with financial support from the Ethnic Diversity
Resource Center in Cluj, Romania.
Rockfeller Brothers Foundations has awarded BIRN a two-year grant to build capacity in Serbia and Kosovo and aid BIRN’s regional development and visibility. The grant will boost BIRN Kosovo high-profile local TV debates project, “Life in Kosovo” and BIRN Serbia’s drive to train more journalists in areas with a significant ethnic minority population.
BIRN Bulgaria opened a new office at 45 Tsar Simeon Street in Sofia, near the Dundukov Blvd. and Rakovski St. crossing.
This marked an important step in capacity-building for BIRN Bulgaria, enabling the organization to serve as a workplace and information center for Balkan Insight contributors and offer more professional support for journalists seeking to raise their standards.
BIRN Bulgaria is collecting a specialized library of reference materials and manuals that will be useful to all journalists interested in working on investigations or analyses. BIRN Bulgaria will host an opening party for donors, journalists and friends of the organization once final details are complete.
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, wishes to add its own expression of shock and deep regret to the widespread expressions of outrage that have greeted the news of the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, one of Russia’s most outstanding investigative journalists.
As an organisation founded to promote investigative journalism and – above all – to uphold the wider principle of journalistic freedom – we saw Anna Politkovskaya as an outstanding model. Her extraordinary integrity and bravery were an inspiration to the whole profession.
Her assassination can accordingly be seen only as an attack on
investigative journalism and on freedom of information in general.
Some members of this organisation were privileged to meet
Politkovskaya in person, most recently at Summer school of investigatove Journalism organised by the Center for Investigative Jorunalism in London.
BIRN strongly condemns this murder and adds its voice to all those calling on the Russian authorities to carry out an urgent and intensive investigation of the matter.
BIRN is preparing to launch a new network of web sites in September. It will include a new regional portal, a BIRN Kosovo web site, which will host its TV debates amongst other topics, and BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina Justice’s Report.
The programming and designing of the network is the work of Media on Web, MOW, a project established by the Development Loan Fund and the Swedish Helsinki Committee with a view to supporting media development in the western Balkans. After the launch, MOW will work on other BIRN web sites that will host BIRN’s online publication, Balkan Insight, and newsletters that BIRN plans to launch on a partly commercial basis.