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E-Government in the Balkans Still a Work in Progress: BIRN Report

A new BIRN report says a lack of funds and political will means that e-government services and open data provision in the Balkans remain very limited.

E-government is becoming the norm around the world, but people in the Balkans are not benefitting in full because of a lack of political will in some cases and a shortfall in institutional capacity in general, a new report on open data and digitalisation published by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network shows.

The idea of ‘electronic government’, or e-government, is to eradicate queues, reduce paperwork and provide users with quicker, more convenient access to public services, from health to taxation and schooling.

In the Balkans, however, the roll-out has only been partial and faces a range of challenges, according to BIRN’s report, Open Data and Digitalisation in the Western Balkans: The State of Play,

“There remains a significant gap in their capacity to fully leverage digitalization across various dimensions, including skills development, system integration, cybersecurity, and user-centric solutions,” said an Albanian digital security expert.

Limited services

BIRN’s report highlights how Balkan countries are performing badly in e-government development; the online offering of public services remains limited.

In 2022, Serbia ranked 40th on the UN’s E-Government Development Index, ahead of Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia in 63rd, 71st and 80th place respectively. Bosnia and Herzegovina came in at 96. Kosovo was not listed.

The governments of all six Western Balkan countries covered by the BIRN report have specialised e-government websites and all e-government portals analysed by BIRN are active and up to date; new services are created on a regular basis.

Serbia launched ‘eUprava’ in 2010. A decade later, the portal was updated with a new design and functionality adapted for mobile and tablet devices. The address remained the same – euprava.gov.rs.

Serbia offers 186 unique e-government services, enabling users to access documents, certificates and services concerning education, family, healthcare, employment and urban planning.

Montenegro’s e-government system claims to provide over 500 services under the jurisdiction of 50 public institutions, but 349 of these are instructions on how to use government services.

North Macedonia’s offers services from 170 public institutions, out of a total of roughly 1,300.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has three separate e-government portals – one for each entity and a third for the autonomous district of Brcko. But there is no information on how many services these offer.

The e-Albania portal offers 1,237 online services and boasts a total of almost 3.2 million registered users. The portal, which is managed by the National Agency for Information Society, AKSHI, is accessible in web, iOS and Android mobile app versions, with more than 415,000 users also registered on the mobile app.

Kosovo’s portal, e-Kosova, offers more than 30 e-government services and also makes possible online payments.

Cybersecurity concerns

With increasing digitalisation comes greater scrutiny of digital security given the amount of sensitive, personal data carried on such portals.

“E-Kosova is managed by a private company which does not have a security clearance,” a civil society digital expert told BIRN. “There are no certified security officials because we have no laws that classify information, classify who got access, etc… the security behind e-Kosova has been the main problem.”

Montenegro has already paid dearly for lax security, after its e-government portal was one of the targets of a major ransomware attack in 2022. Services have not yet fully recovered.

In a report published in June, BIRN urged Montenegro to upgrade its cyber security institutions to tackle potential threats, as well as increase public awareness about private data protection, digital rights and online security.

The same year, Albanian government systems, albeit not on the e-Albania platform itself, were hit in July and September by large-scale cyber-attacks, which led to the temporary disruption of most online public services.

An FBI-aided investigation pointed the finger of blame at Iranian hackers, saying they had accessed the Albanian system 14 months earlier.

Lack of financial resources

Digitalisation and the accompanying security requirements do not come cheap. Balkan countries are particularly limited in how much they can invest.

“State budgets for digital transformation are often limited and insufficient to achieve comprehensive progress,” a representative of the institution in charge of e-government services in Bosnia and Herzegovina told BIRN. “Budgetary allocation priorities are not always focused on digitalisation, resulting in a lack of funds for digital transformation projects.”

EU and international actors such as the UNDP and German GIZ provide some financial support for e-government projects but one expert told BIRN that these are project-based and not long-term solutions.

Additional funds are required to promote e-government services once they are developed.

A 2023 survey by NALED in Serbia found that 61 per cent of Serbian citizens lack proper information on the eUprava portal and how it works.

Read the full report here.

BIRN Albania Holds Training on Project Management

The Balkan Investigative Reporting in Albania held a training on September 24 on project management for representatives of civil society organizations, grantees of the EU-funded project: “Strengthening Media Freedom, Professionalism and Journalists’ Safety in Albania”.

The project was launched in January 2024 and is being implemented by BIRN Albania in partnership with the Science for Innovation Development Centre, SCiDEV, and Qendra Faktoje.

The goal of this project is to strengthen the resilience of local media and journalists to provide independent and fact-based information in order to foster people’s understanding and inform participation in public debate.

In the framework of this project, BIRN Albania has provided grants to three organisations/ local media.

The training session focused on the main aspects of the project’s management, such as the monitoring and evaluation process, record keeping, narrative and financial reporting procedures and visibility standards for the sub-grantees.

The sub-grantees will also receive training on fact-checking, provided by Faktoje, and on digital security and safety of journalists, provided by SCiDEV. Each training session will be followed by on-the-job mentoring for each of the media supported.

The training session included representatives from Community Reporters Albania, CRA, Kujri Center and the Information Network & Active Citizenship, INAC.

EU Awards for Best Investigative Journalism for 2024 in Kosovo Presented

Behar Mustafa, Kreshnik Gashi, Alberta Hashani, Dardan Hoti, Aulonë Kadriu and Dafina Halili were selected from many colleagues as 2023’s winners of awards for best investigative stories in Kosovo, for stories that exposed corruption in building premits, judicial misconduct and online and image-based sexual abuse and harassment.

The ceremony took place in Europe House in Prishtina, Kosovo on September 25.

The jury consisted of Imer Mushkolaj,a veteran journalist, columnist and opinionist who has led the Kosovo Journalists Association (KJA) and now heads the Press Council of Kosovo; Amra Zejneli Loxha, director of RFE/RL’s Kosovo Service; and Darko Dimitrijević, Editor-in-Chief at Radio Goraždevac since 2005 and a founding member of the Kosovo Media Association (KOSMA). More about the jury members here.

First prize went to Behar Mustafa and Kreshnik Gashi from Kallxo.com for their series of investigations into corruption with building permits in Brezovica.

Second prize went to Alberta Hashani from Betimi për Drejtësi for her story revealing judicial misconduct involving a bribed prosecutor.

Third place went to two stories from the same media outlet, Kosovo 2.0. The first, by Dardan Hoti and Aulonë Kadriu, focused on the consequences of online harassment and the victims of image-based sexual abuse.

The second, by Dafina Halili, was for her investigation of sexual harassment at the University of Pristina.

Hoti and Kadriu produced their awarded story as part of their project included in the Media Innovation Europe project – Audience engaged grants. This was their third award.

The Head of the EU Office in Kosovo/EU Special Representative, Ambassador Aivo Orav, handed the awards to the winners, highlighting the key importance of journalistic work in every society.

BIRN Kosovo, KCSS, Train Students in Gjilan to Combat Russian, Chinese, and Religious Disinformation

On September 25, about 20 students of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Education in Gjilan participated in a training session on combating Russian, Chinese and religious disinformation in Kosovo.

Organised by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN Kosovo) and the Kosovar Center for Security Studies (KCSS), the training focused on equipping participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to identify and counter misleading narratives that threaten local communities.

The first session, led by Labinot Leposhtica from BIRN Kosovo, addressed the influence of Russian and Chinese disinformation on Kosovo’s media and justice systems.

Leposhtica discussed how disinformation campaigns, often orchestrated by foreign powers, aim to destabilize the region by undermining trust in institutions and spreading false narratives.

He provided examples of how these actors manipulate information, particularly regarding the justice system, and introduced mechanisms for regulation and self-regulation that can help counter these efforts.

Students learned to differentiate between disinformation, misinformation and narratives, and were given practical tools to spot and debunk false narratives spread by state-controlled foreign media.

The second session, led by Skënder Perteshi from KCSS, shifted the focus to religious disinformation. Perteshi discussed how radical religious groups in Kosovo and abroad use disinformation as a strategic tool to promote extremist ideologies.

Participants were introduced to the various narratives used by these groups to mislead vulnerable audiences as well as the strategic goals these groups aim to achieve through disinformation.

Perteshi emphasized the importance of understanding the target audiences of religious disinformation and provided strategies for building positive alternative narratives to counteract extremist messaging.

The session also covered how secularism, democracy and the rule of law are often attacked by such disinformation campaigns, and how individuals can protect themselves and their communities from being misled.

By the end of the training, students gained a stronger understanding of the dynamics of disinformation and were better prepared to act as critical consumers of information.

Leposhtica and Perteshi emphasized that tackling disinformation requires active participation from the community, especially from young people who play a key role in shaping Kosovo’s future.

The training was held by BIRN Kosovo and KCSS within the project “Increasing public awareness on Russian, Chinese influence and religious disinformation and equipping media students and journalists with the necessary tools to identify, analyze, and combat disinformation”, supported through the Digital Activism Program by TechSoup Global.

BIRN Kosovo and KCSS Train Students to Combat Russian, Chinese and Religious Disinformation

On September 23, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN Kosovo) and the Kosovar Center for Security Studies (KCSS) held a training for students in South Mitrovica.

The training aimed to empower students with the knowledge and tools they need to identify and combat disinformation, particularly narratives originating from Russia and China, and religious ideologies.

The training tackled the complex nature of disinformation. The first session focused on foreign influence, specifically Russian and Chinese disinformation, and the second addressed religious-based misinformation that often targets vulnerable communities in Kosovo.

Visar Prebreza, from BIRN Kosovo, led the discussion on Russian and Chinese disinformation. He provided a deep dive into how foreign powers, especially Kremlin-led and Chinese state-controlled media, have disseminated misleading narratives that affect local perceptions in Kosovo.

Prebreza highlighted the challenges that Kosovo’s media face when addressing such disinformation. He walked participants through the key elements of identifying false narratives and offered real-world examples of how these tactics play out in the Kosovo media landscape.

Skënder Perteshi, from KCSS, led the second session, on how extremist religious groups use disinformation as a tool to spread radical ideologies.

In his presentation, he outlined the various strategies these groups use, including targeting specific audiences with narratives designed to undermine secularism, democracy and the rule of law in Kosovo.

He also explored the broader strategic goals of radical religious actors and how their disinformation campaigns aim to divide communities.

The session concluded with practical advice on how to build positive counter-narratives to disinformation and promote unity.

The training allowed the students to engage directly with experts and discuss the role of media literacy in defending against disinformation.

Prebreza and Perteshi both emphasized the importance of youth involvement in creating resilient communities capable of identifying and responding to misleading information.

This training was held by BIRN Kosovo and KCSS within the project “Increasing public awareness on Russian, Chinese influence and religious disinformation and equipping media students and journalists with the necessary tools to identify, analyze, and combat disinformation”, supported through the Digital Activism Program by TechSoup Global.

BIRN Holds Regional Meeting with GIF Local Partners

Local partners gathered in Belgrade to discuss challenges and lessons learned during implementation of the GIF regional project.

Partners involved in the Greater Internet Freedom, GIF, project, focusing on enhancing digital rights advocacy in the region, met for a two-day event in Belgrade for productive discussions, knowledge sharing and strategic planning on, among others, ensuring the sustainability of the GIF initiative beyond its conclusion in September.

Local partners shared success stories, addressed challenges and crafted plans for continued regional collaboration on digital rights advocacy and policy development.

On the first day, participants reflected on lessons learned from the GIF project, learned how to develop impactful policy briefs, engage civil society in international digital rights forums, and discussed what should be improved in regional cooperation when it comes to content moderation and freedom of expression.

Some of the success stories participants highlighted include BIRN Albania’s advocacy campaign that engaged police and strengthened networks, Metamorphosis’ practical cybersecurity training, and KVART’s streamlined, flexible application process.

Other successes include KCSS’s accessible cybersecurity handbook, Mediacentar’s digital strategy guide and SCIDEV’s simplified procedures.

Participants emphasised the need for a strategic, consistent presence throughout the year, especially on social media. Organisations should tailor content to each platform and focus on understanding target group habits. Additionally, efforts should concentrate on a few core topics, and youth campaigns must customize messages for different platforms.

The meeting closed with sessions on developing a communication strategy, building capacity for digital rights advocacy, and an open-floor discussion on future advocacy strategies, focusing on emerging technologies.

The session on communications provided an overview of the development of the GIF Communication Strategy, with a focus on sharing success stories.

Additionally, Olga Kyryliuk’s session, on CSO Engagement in Digital Rights Spaces, explored opportunities and strategies for local civil society organisations to engage in international digital rights forums, such as the Internet Governance Forum, RightsCon, and SEEDIG.

Participants learned how to navigate these global and regional spaces effectively and how local perspectives can shape global digital rights discussions, fostering stronger connections between local initiatives and international advocacy efforts.

BIRN’s local partners include Mediacentar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Youth Centre KVART (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Centre Science and Innovation for Development, SCiDEV (Albania), BIRN Albania, BIRN Serbia, the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, and Metamorphosis (North Macedonia).

BIRN Holds Training Camp on Legally Safe and Crisis Reporting

Journalists from Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia attending BIRN’s Regional Training Camp on Legally Safe and Crisis Reporting on September 18-20 in Bjelasnica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, learned how to protect themselves and their newsrooms from different kinds of attacks, including physical attacks, legal actions such as SLAPP lawsuits, as well as how to preserve their digital security.

The camp was organised in cooperation with the Silk Training Centre from the UK, which has developed a unique, tailor-made training to suit participants’ needs.

The first part of the programme focused on understanding the threats and risks the participants might be exposed to – and what they can do about them.

The second part focused on building the participants’ skills as first aiders.

The trainer and participants worked on practicing first aid and applying trauma first aid in a remote high-risk setting, including many skills that will be useful on a day-to-day basis.

The training also included a session about the protection of critical assets, assessments of threats and vectors, and physical and cyber information security risks.

During the training, participants had a chance to practically test the first aid tactics, helping an injured journalist with augmented reality techniques, and developing a protection scenario for a crisis.

Radmilo Markovic, from BIRN Serbia, then led a session about how journalists can recognise and protect themselves from SLAPPs.

He presented the definition of a SLAPP, including its background, characteristics, targets, legal and financial burden and its psychological effects on journalists and newsrooms.

Radmilo also presented four cases studies of SLAPPs from the Western Balkan region. He finished his presentation with advice on how journalists can best protect themselves from SLAPPs.

Participants expressed their appreciation of the Regional Camp, especially about its practical part.

The Regional Camp was part of the EU-funded project “Strengthening Quality Journalism in Western Balkans and Türkiye II”.

BIRN Kosovo and KCSS Provide Training on Detecting, Countering, Disinformation

On September 21-22, journalists and journalism students in Pristina participated in a two-day intensive training focused on disinformation held by Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN Kosovo, and the Kosovo Centre for Security Studies, KCSS.

The training aimed to provide practical tools and knowledge to identify and counter Russian, Chinese and religious disinformation in Kosovo.

The first day of the training, led by Skënder Perteshi from KCSS, focused on the context of religious radicalization and extremism in Kosovo and the broader region.

Perteshi highlighted the ways in which extremist groups, both Islamist and Orthodox Christian, utilize disinformation to promote their radical agendas. He discussed how these narratives often target vulnerable populations, aiming to disrupt secularism, democracy and social harmony.

The session explored key topics, such as the dynamics of religious extremism and online radicalization, how extremist groups use disinformation as a tool for recruitment and the importance of developing counter-narratives to combat extremism and false information.

Participants engaged in discussions about the real-world impact of religious disinformation on Kosovo’s communities and how journalists can play a crucial role in exposing and countering these harmful narratives.

On the second day, Visar Prebreza from BIRN Kosovo, introduced participants to the historical and ongoing influence of Russian and Chinese disinformation in Kosovo and the wider Balkans. Prebreza, an expert in fact-checking and disinformation mapping, delved into how these foreign actors use propaganda to shape public opinion and destabilize political and social environments.

Key topics of the second day included: the strategic objectives behind Russian and Chinese-driven disinformation campaigns in the Balkans; the role of investigative journalism in identifying and exposing sources of disinformation; how local media can strengthen their internal capacities to resist and counteract fake news.

Participants were encouraged to think critically about how disinformation affects Kosovo’s political landscape, especially in terms of electoral processes, public trust in institutions and media freedom. The session also emphasized the importance of building a professional foundation in fact-checking and sourcing reliable information.

The training concluded with participants working in groups to develop ideas for citizen activism against disinformation. The focus was on creating community-driven initiatives that empower individuals to recognize and reject false information.

BIRN Albania Opens Call for Investigations on Local Government

BIRN Albania launched a call on September 20, 2024, offering grants to produce investigative in-depth articles on local government in Albania.

BIRN is offering three reporting grants for individual journalists or journalistic teams to cover stories on abuse of office and corruption at local level in Albania.

The grants, as well as the mentorship, fact checking and editorial support are made possible through the funding of the Swedish International Development Agency, SIDA.

The call will fund reporting grants for journalists that investigate corruption and abuse of office in local government, with a particular focus on the topics highlighted during a roundtable held in Tirana on September 17 between journalists and representatives of civil society organisations.

Topics discussed at the roundtable included:

The lack of implementation of integrity and anti-corruption plans, particularly on the elements of ethics and conflict of interests in municipalities and municipal councils;
Nepotism and clientelism in the human resources of municipalities;
Transparency of budgets, public procurement procedures and public contracts awarded by municipalities;
The appointment of people with a criminal background to public inspectorates and their role during elections;
Corruption cases with contracts on waste management or treatment of solid waste;
The lack of representation of rural areas at municipal level;
Lack of sewage and sewage treatment plants in rural areas;
Problems of urban development, building criteria, parking, garbage bins, etc;
Lack of budgets to implement social plans or address the needs of marginalized groups.

The journalists will have around three months to dig deeper and research their ideas. They will also have the opportunity to work with experienced editors as mentors to guide them through the process of writing in accordance with BIRN standards.

The call only applies to journalists from Albania. It closes on October 10, 2024.

Click here for more information (in Albanian) about the application procedure.

Click here to download the application form (in Albanian).

Funding Open to Engage Your Audience: Calling Media Outlets in the Balkans and Visegrad Countries

Media outlets from 10 Balkan and Visegrad countries are invited to apply for grants, training, mentoring, and access to BIRN’s innovative audience-engagement digital tool.

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) is calling on media outlets to involve their audiences in reporting by applying for Audience-Engaged Journalism Grants.

This innovative approach places the audience as a direct and active participant in content creation, fostering trust and stronger relationships between media outlets and their communities, ultimately making them more credible and reliable sources of information.

Do you want to engage your audience and build trust within your community while addressing underreported issues? Submit your original story proposal and share details about the community you wish to engage.

Who is eligible to apply?

Media outlets from the following 10 Balkan and Visegrad countries may apply: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia and Slovakia.

What are we offering?

Grants for individual stories of up to €4,000.
Grants for cross-border stories of up to €8,000.
Four-day online training on audience engagement.
Mentoring throughout the project.
Access to a digital tool to enhance audience engagement.

In this circle BIRN will fund up to nine media outlets to strengthen their reporting and investigate underreported issues within diverse communities. Stories focusing on marginalized communities, youth and women are strongly encouraged.

Media outlets will utilise the audience-engagement tool developed by BIRN to crowdsource, gather and analyse data from their communities. Audience-engaged journalism seeks to bridge the gap between newsrooms and their audiences, transforming journalism into a service that directly responds to the needs of the community.

About the project

The Audience-Engaged Journalism Grants are part of the project Media Innovation Europe: Independence Through Sustainability (MIE). This two-year initiative is led by the International Press Institute (IPI) and its consortium partners, The Fix Foundation, BIRN and Thomson Media (TM). The project focuses on building networks, providing consultancy and offering guidance to participating newsrooms.

The first edition of Media Innovation Europe was launched in June 2022 to invigorate the European ecosystem for independent and local journalism. As part of this initiative, media outlets produced a range of audience-engaged stories, some of which you can read here:

How to apply?

To learn more about the grants, click HERE to read the full call for applications. After reviewing the information, follow the link to access the application form.