Category: News and Events

BIRN Bulgaria Opens Office

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.

BIRN condemns killing of investigative journalist

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.

New BIRN web sites set for launch this autumn

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.

Belgrade Training Workshop for Kosovo Journalists

BIRN Serbia organised two-day editorial workshop for Serb and Bosniak journalists living in Kosovo on August 27 and 28.

The workshop, part of Minority Training and Reporting Project funded by British Embassy in Belgrade, will be followed by a special issue of Balkan Insight dedicated to Kosovo’s minorities.

The trainees worked with Gordana Igric, editor-in-chief and BIRN regional director, and Dragana Nikolic Solomon, BIRN Serbia director. Krenar Gashi, BIRN Kosovo assistant editor, also assisted in training process.

The trainees were given advice on writing news analysis and features and they received feedback on the articles they produced in the first round of training.

Following a lively discussion about the political situation in Kosovo and the major issues affecting Serb and Bosniak communities there, BIRN editors and journalists were able to identify topics for Balkan Insight articles and develop their structure and focus.

Around seven articles and an investigation will be published as part of a special issue for Balkan Insight in September.

Following publication of the special issue, BIRN trainees will have an opportunity to spend a week working in major Belgrade media outlets, in order to expand their contacts and receive practical journalistic experience.

The journalists will have a choice of working on either RTV B92 or the newspapers Blic daily, Vreme weekly and Danas.

Arsenije Dunic, young journalist from the Goradzevac enclave, said he enjoyed the practical nature of the training, “This kind of training is very useful to me, since it is concrete and can be immediately implemented in every day work. This training is also helpful since there is little theory and the focus is on journalistic practice.”

Investigative journalism talk at City University

Gordana Igric, BIRN Regional Director, lectured about the challenges of investigative journalism in the City University in London on 22 July.

Igric focused on how to report particularly in cases of grave human rights violations such as rape, war crimes, torture and ethnic cleansing.

An audience of 70 students was shown Igric’s investigative report in which she went to Foca to look for and find the war crimes suspect living freely in the Bosnian town, where he had raped and enslaved many Bosnian Muslim women during the conflict.

In the award-winning TV report, shot in 1997, Igric is seen knocking on doors in Foca apartment blocks until she finds the suspected criminal, who many women victims had named, and whose confession to some of the crimes was shot with a secret camera.

When Gavin MacFadyen, Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, spoke about covert reporting, he said: “Being this direct with war criminals as Igric was on the film, asking them how many people they killed, is extremely brave – I would never dare to do that.”

The session, which was followed by talks from Anna Politkovskaia, a Russian journalist working in human rights violations in Chechnya, and Alfred McCoy, a historian who spoke on reporting about torture and its definitions through different conflicts in history.

Ana Petruseva, from BIRN Macedonia and Jeta Xharra, Krenar Gashi and Casey Cooper Johnson from BIRN Kosovo, attended the training.

The investigative journalism summer school was organised by the Centre for Investigative Journalism.

For more information on the topics covered during the training go to link..

Discussion on Sandzak at the Media Centre Belgrade

BIRN Serbia is holding a panel discussion “Political Fallout and Future of Sandzak”, at the Media Centre Belgrade, on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 , at 14:00.

The fierce conflict between Sandzak’s two strongest Bosniak parties – The Party of Democratic Action, SDA and Sandzak Democratic Party, SDP, whose roots can be traced back to the mid-nineties, recently reached a climax following the murder of a candidate running for a seat in the local assembly of Novi Pazar.

The murder helped to thrust this troubled region, on which Belgrade imposed an interim local government earlier this year, again into the limelight.

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (www.birn.eu.com), together with its panel guests and audience, intend their discussion, “Political Fallout and Future of Sandzak”, to come up with dynamic and realistic proposals aimed at resolving tensions in the region.

A wide-ranging discussion will include, among other points, the role of the Serbian government in the conflict, the behaviour of the local media and the impact of dysfunctional local authorities on the lives of ordinary people.

Panel discussion moderator

Dragana Nikolić-Solomon, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network

Participants

Jelica Minić, Associate of the Institute of Economic Science in Serbia

Hannelore Valier, Head of Democratisation, OSCE

Aida Ćorović, Urban IN

Ishak Slezović, Editor of Radio 100 Plus

James Lyon, Senior Balkan Analyst, Crisis Group

Mehmed Slezović, Sandzak Intellectual Circle

Life in Kosovo: Kosovo’s Economical Potential

Another episode of the BIRN-organised “Life in Kosovo” programme was broadcast on Kosovo public television, RTK, on June 7, looking at economic life in the region.

RTK, Pristina, June 7, 2006.

The issues raised in the discussion ranged from Kosovo’s economic potential to the sectors of the economy that offered the best prospects.

The debating panel comprised Albin Kurti, leader of Levizja Vetevendosje (movement for self-determination); Mimoza Kusari, head of American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo, Avni Zogiani from Cohu (rise); and Baton Haxhiu, director of Express, a daily Kosovan newspaper.

At the outset, the predominant view of the panellists was that economic situation in Kosovo is poor and there were problems associated with fiscal policy.

Albin Kurti, who is currently running a campaign for a boycott of all products that come into Kosovo from Serbia, said that poverty here was growing and would not be halted unless local products were promoted.

“Our fiscal policy is only good for Serbia,” said Kurti. “Only by boycotting Serbian products can our economy begin to develop.”

Kusari Serbian products were cheaper than local ones because they are not properly taxed when they are imported. She disagreed that a boycott was the solution.

“Very little, or nothing at all is being done for proper economic development,” added Kusari.

Haxhiu said that civil society should put more pressure on international authorities and the Kosovo government to change fiscal policy.

“The root of the problem is that Kosovo institutions and ministers are building a corrupt political system,” said Haxhiu.

The debate also examined how Kosovo could extricate itself from the current economic situation.

Kurti said it was all the fault of political leaders and that his movement aimed to overthrow the system by revolutionary means, then hold a referendum on independence.

He said after this, he and his followers would seek to develop agriculture and invest in energy resources.

Zogiani suggested that there was unlikely to be a revolution, and unless there were practical solutions the situation would only get worse.
“As we wait for this revolution,” he said,
“politicians will create an inferior economy.

“We need to exert pressure on these men and show that they are not working properly.”

Kusari said that “the only factor that can save our economy is direct investment from abroad”.

MONTENEGRO SPECIAL

A special edition of Balkan Insight examining critical issues facing post-independence Montenegro was published on June 23. The edition, Montenegro Special, comprising seven articles by BIRN journalists, followed a four-day workshop on the subject in Budva at the beginning of June, organised by BIRN Serbia

The articles dealt with issues ranging from the economy, relations between groups of different ethnic backgrounds, tourism, the question of refugees, forthcoming elections and achieving the long-term goal of joining the European Union.

Nedjeljko Rudovic, Vijesti, looked at Montenegro’s European aspirations; Petar Komnenic, Monitor, assessed upcoming elections and the fact that independence will no longer represent the major campaign issue; Bojana Stanisic, Dan, revealed Serb intentions to sell their property and move to Serbia; Sead Sadikovic, freelance journalist, explained how the independence poll created ethnic divisions in Bijelo Polje. Izedina Adzovic, Radio Tuzi, and Zeljko Madzgalj, Polje, explored the economic potential of an independent Montengro. Tufik Softic, Radio Berane, reported on the plight of refugees; and Nikola Doncic, Monitor, profiled Montenegrin tourism.

In a separate article, Samir Adrovic, Vijesti, examined whether the independence poll had been manipulated by Albanians.

Gordana Igric, BIRN director and editor-in-chief, Nedjeljko Rudovic, a Vijesti journalist and BIRN representative in Podgorica, as well as Dragana Nikolic Solomon, BIRN Serbia director and editor, worked intensively with the journalists who contributed to the Montenegro Special, providing them with on-the-job training and editorial support for their articles.

Montenegrin journalists were delighted with the BIRN mentoring programme and the subsequent package of stories.

Sadikovic said the workshop was very important to him and represented right way forward, “I was happy that I had the opportunity to exchange views with my colleagues and by working on the articles together, we were able to help each other.”

Debate on Custom Service in Kosovo

A BIRN-organised RTK debate at the Pjeter Budi Institute on July 3 looked at the problems facing the Customs Service of Kosovo, which collects 70 per cent of the revenue of the Kosovo govenment budget.

RTK, Pristina, July 3, 2006.

To discuss issues such as the battle against corruption within the service and the education of it staff, BIRN invited a panel consisted of Naim Huruglica, deputy director of UNMIK Customs; Ekrem Hajdari, head of special services within the customs service; Allma Shabi, chief of the service’s anti-smuggling unit; Hans Turner, head of the EU Customs and Fiscal Assistance Office; Avni Haxhiu, owner of a fast forwarding company; Sofronija Miladinoski, professor of international marketing in Pjeter Budi Institute, which educates Kosovo customs officers; and Baki Koleci, board member of the same institute.

The debate, which took place in front of a student audience, initially centred on the customs service’s important revenue-raising role, but Huruglica pointed out that it also played a key part in securing the borders and watching out for smuggled goods.

Hajdari said Kosovo was no longer part of the drugs distribution network as was the case in the immediate post-war years, although he admitted that contraband cigarettes were still a problem.

“Recently the presence of untaxed cigarettes in the Kosovo market today has increased to 20-30 per cent of the total number of cigarettes in Kosovo,” he said.

A recent success in combating cigarrette smuggling was a crackdown on illegal sales by some members of the NATO mission in Kosovo, KFOR.
Huruglica said KFOR help was crucial in this operation as the civil customs service has no access to international military personnel.

Turner said the “custom service in Kosovo is the best such service in Balkans”.

Miladinoski said the inefficiency of the legal system and the courts constituted a problem for the customs service today.

Shabi gave an example. Once her team confiscated 70 thousand litres of ethanol – which can be very dangerous – that was designed for production of counterfeit alcoholic drinks, but were forced to hand it back by the public prosecutor.

The student audience was mostly concerned with the service’s employment policies.

Huruglica said none of its officers have any college qualification for customs work as there was no higher education institute providing diplomas in this field when the service was set up.

Commenting the importance of proper education, Miladinoski said that “when people are properly educated, it won’t be easy for politicians to manipulate with them”.

Koleci said that Pjeter Budi Institute had started cooperating with a university in Macedonia to provide a special education programme for customs officers in Kosovo.

Turner stressed that one of the strengths of Customs Service in Kosovo was that it had started from scratch with mostly young officers – and so had not inherited the vices of previous customs services in the Balkans.

The debate was moderated by Jeta Xharra, BIRN Kosovo Director

BIRN BiH Guest on “Arena” Talk Show

An editor of BIRN’s Justice Report magazine, Nidzara Ahmetasevic, made a guest appearance on the political talk show ARENA, in Belgrade on June 29.

The topic of the show was the Hague fugitive Radovan Karadzic. There was discussion of a number of issues, including the local consequences if he remains on the run and, more generally, the influence of the Hague tribunal on the region.

The show was hosted by the Forum for South-eastern Europe, a non-governmental organisation with headquarters in Zurich.

Other guests on the show were Biljana Kovacevic – Vuco, president of the Committee of Attorneys for Human Rights, Serbia; Djordje Mamula, senior official in the Democratic Party of Serbia; and Jelena Markovic, spokesperson of the Democratic Party.