Category: News and Events

As primarily a media organisation, we want to open space and provide a platform to discuss and reshape our alliances in light of the challenges facing democracies in South-East and Central Europe.

This effort comes at a critical time when the region is seeing several troubling trends: centralized power, reduced transparency, assaults on media, politicized judiciaries, unchecked corruption, online violations, and social polarization – all amidst heightened geopolitical tensions and deep divisions in Europe.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, the Platform B event series will be organised in accordance with all relevant health measures. As the situation improves, we hope to be able to host some of the events in BIRN spaces in Sarajevo and Belgrade, and elsewhere in the region.

Platform B will be an opportunity for individuals and groups to meet monthly on selected topics.

Next event: Resilience of local media – what can we learn from the region and beyond?

Date: January 28, 2022 (Friday)

Time: 11am-1pm, CET

Local media in the region face a number of structural problems, which have got worse since the pandemic started. The aim of this online event is to discuss the perspectives of local journalism in the Western Balkans through a discussion of media professionals from the region and the EU. During the event, we will also present an interactive publication that will hopefully become an important resource for all local media in the region. 

The first part of the event aims at an exchange between media representatives and journalists from EU countries who face the same or similar problems in their work as media in the region. 

Panelists that will take part in the discussion include: 

Anna Petersen, editor at Landeszeitung Lüneburg, Germany

Márton Kárpáti, CEO of Telex.hu, Hungary

Brigitte Alfter, director of Arena for Journalism in Europe

The panel will be moderated by Besar Likmeta, BIRN’s editor in Albania. 

The second part of the event will be dedicated to tackling specific issues related to the local media in the region. By creating room for discussion on three specific topics, we will try to reach conclusions and come up with possible solutions to some of the problems that local media face. This discussion will be moderated by Amer Bahtijar, president of Tačno.net from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Darija Ranković, editor of Kolubarske from Serbia and Ivana Petrović, editor of City Smart Radio from Serbia.

More information can be found in the agenda.

You can register for the event HERE.  

This event is organized in cooperation with partner organization n-ost within the project “Local journalism – European perspectives”. 

At one of the series of Platform B events, on Friday, BIRN presented the main findings of its report on the position of female journalists in the Balkans, “Women in Newsrooms: Perspectives on Equity, Diversity and Resilience”, which concluded, among other things, that, a “one-size-fits-all approach” to fixing issues women journalists face is not practical, as these women are not a “monolithic” group.

The report includes 21 interviews and a survey filled in by 175 participants, whose responses highlighted trends, opportunities and obstacles, identified through the sharing of experiences and perspectives by women working in the media, to paint a more nuanced and complex picture of women’s role in newsrooms, news-making and the region’s societies more broadly.

“When it comes to women journalists, prevailing narratives have focused on almost exclusively online violence and women’s vulnerability, rather than on the systems that make this type of abuse prevalent, normalized and even profitable,” the report notes, adding that, “when women who are proven to create space for narratives that fall outside of mainstream dialogue are marginalized, the negative implications for society are compounded”.

The report’s six sections depict women as : a monolith; a liability; a workforce; a community; as accessories; and as guerrillas, as “an attempt to paint a picture that is more nuanced – to address the intersecting identities and diverse experiences that actually characterize women’s media – and newsroom more specifically – participation and representation in the Western Balkans”.

In BIRN’s debate on Friday, the co-authors of the report, Bojana Kostic and Jennifer Adams, emphasized the need for “solidarity zones  – spaces created by and for women for support, innovation and connection”, where women can support each other “online and minimize their exposure to social media” which, as the report reads, has “since its inception, failed to provide a safe space for women and marginalized populations”.

One of the panelists, Elida Zylbeari, ethnic Albanian editor-in-chief of the North Macedonian-based Portalb.mk, said that being a journalist can be difficult both as a woman and as part of a minority ethnic group in North Macedonia.

“There’s a (first) language barrier and privilege; the community thinks Macedonians are more important than Albanians, so, when it comes to government briefings, for example, you see even fewer Albanian female journalists,” Zylbeari said, adding that “other minorities (Turks, Bosnians, etc) are practically non-existent – left out, taken less seriously, and undermined”.

Women journalists in the Western Balkans “are not taken seriously”, as Zylbeari points out. Katarina Radović, a journalist for a regional broadcaster from Novi Pazar in Serbia, agrees. Certain professions such as teaching are perceived as more suitable for women than “being a journalist”, she said.

Adams said international organisations that work in media and women empowerment should work more “to reflect change” and make sure increasing women’s safety in the newsrooms is not translated into a narrative about women being weaker.

“We [international organisations] wanted to push for women’s safety in the newsroom, but the lack of response had the opposite effect. Many women in international media were sent to smaller events because they are considered weaker,” Adams lamented, explaining that, “despite the online violence that is more towards women than men, the reality of women … is not one of weakness”.

Kostic called for more focus on “solidarity zones”, for women to “continue being outspoken”, and for stakeholders to “continue empowering women journalists” by learning lessons from existing women movements.

Together with our partners, BIRN is launching a series of online and offline events aimed at amplifying the voices of strong and credible individuals and organisations in the region that promote the core values of democracy, such as civic engagement, independent institutions, transparency and the rule of law.

As a primarily media organisation, we want to open space and provide a platform to discuss and reshape our alliances in light of the challenges facing democracies in Southeastern and Central Europe.

This comes at a critical time when the region is seeing several troubling trends towards: centralized power, reduced transparency, assaults on media, politicized judiciaries, unchecked corruption, online violations and social polarization – all amid heightened geopolitical tensions and divisions in Europe.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, Platform B event series will be organised with respect for with all relevant health measures. As the situation improves, we hope to be able to host some of the events in BIRN spaces in Sarajevo and Belgrade, and elsewhere in the region.

Platform B will be an opportunity for individuals and groups to meet monthly on selected topics.

Next event: Women in Newsrooms: Perspectives on Equity, Diversity and Resilience

Date: January 14, 2022 (Friday)

Time: 3pm-4.30pm CET

At this event, BIRN will present the main findings of its report on the position of female journalists in the Balkans, Women in Newsrooms: Perspectives on Equity, Diversity and Resilience.

The report highlights trends, opportunities and obstacles, identified through the sharing of experiences and perspectives by women working in the media, to paint a more nuanced and complex picture of women’s role in newsrooms, news-making and regional societies more broadly. When it comes to women journalists, prevailing narratives have focused almost exclusively on online violence and women’s vulnerability, rather than on the systems that make this type of abuse prevalent, normalized and even profitable.

This report, and accompanying platform, is an attempt to paint a picture that is more nuanced – to address the intersecting identities and diverse experiences that actually characterize women’s media – and newsrooms more specifically – and their participation and representation in the  Balkans.

The report includes in-depth interviews with more than 20 female journalists, editors, fact-checkers, editor-in-chiefs and activists as well as a broad data collection, comprising a total of 175 responses BIRN obtained through an online survey conducted in October and November 2021.

Together with the authors and regional journalists and gender equality experts, we will reflect on the findings of BIRN’s report and offer some recommendations to regional media outlets, journalists’ unions and institutions on how to advance women’s positions in the newsrooms and stop perceiving them as victims but as agents of change.

A complete list of panelists is to be published soon.

Upon registration you will receive a Zoom link.

Semira Degirmendžić, Nino Bilajac, Mubarek Asani, and Džana Brkanić are the winners of the European Union’s Awards for Investigative Journalism in 2021 for stories published in 2020.

The awards were presented on Wednesday, December 15, at BIRN’s Reporters’ House in Sarajevo.

Degirmendžić won first prize for the best investigative story in 2020, “Agricultural farm got 10.5 million marks for the purchase of respirators”, which resonated strongly with the public last year.

In her comprehensive research, Degirmendzic revealed that the supplier of the respirators did not obtain the necessary permits from the Medicines Agency to import the respirators from China.

Together with Fikret Hodzic, owner of the supplier company Srebrna malina, Prime Minister Fadil Novalic and the head of the crisis staff, Fahrudin Solak were all involved in the affair.

Mubarek Asani and Nino Bilajac, journalists from the Centre for Investigative Journalism, won second prize for their story about a network of vote traffickers in the northern Brcko District.

“Vote selling network exposed by CIN reporters“ was conducted by the journalists in cooperation with the police and the Prosecutor’s Office, who infiltrated the organisers of the scam as intermediaries between the vote-seller and the local politician to whom these votes were supposed to bring victory.

Both the local politician and the seller were later arrested. This research also resulted in the arrest of eight others – three members of the local assembly members and five intermediaries.

Third prize went to Dzana Brkanic, a BIRN BiH journalist, for her story about fake humanitarian organisations deceiving citizens and collecting donations to build wells in African countries.

The story, “Murky Bosnian Charity Appeals for African Wells Raise Concerns”, revealed the misuse of humanitarian funds and non-transparency of collecting and spending of more than 4 million Bosnian marks.

Inadequate controls over such humanitarian actions and associations is one of Moneyval’s recommendations to Bosnia, which is why this research was extremely timely.

It led to the termination of projects, the closure of the accounts on social media through which the funds were being collected, as well as the confessions of the main actors that evidence on the construction of wells in African countries was photoshopped.

The head of the EU Delegation and EU Special Representative in BiH Johann Sattler, addressing the audience in Sarajevo, emphasized the importance of the work of investigative journalists who reported on some of the irregularities that occurred during the pandemic.

Sattler highlighted that journalists are the ones who have raised important issues in society, including those related to the EU integration process.

In their explanation of this year’s awards, the jury composed of Zlatan Music, Davor Glavas and Slavoljub Scekic said that all three stories

were of crucial importance for Bosnia and the public.

The chairman of the jury, Music, praised the courage of the journalists, and their commitment to the topics, reflected in their research, and presentations with an abundance of details and data.

All three investigations were socially responsible and pointed out irregularities that the government not only ignored but in some cases also participated in, he said.

He added that the number of attacks on journalists was growing, due to the work they do, and he called on them to use all available protection mechanisms.

BIRN director Marija Ristic, said that we need responsible journalism today more than ever, to bring about change and have a greater impact on the public.

The awards were presented at the Reporters’ House, which will become a BIRN space and museum dedicated to journalists and media during the wars of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia, and will also serve as a meeting and learning place for all journalists.

The focus of the EU Award for Investigative Journalism is to celebrate and promote outstanding investigative journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey, as well as to improve the visibility of investigative journalism among readers in these countries.

The EU Award for Investigative Journalism is awarded as part of the EU-funded project “Strengthening the Quality of News and Independent Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey” in 2019, 2020 and 2021 in candidate and potential candidate countries: Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. Awards are given for research stories published between 2018 and 2020. A total of 63 awards will be presented over a three-year period.

The awards in Bosnia and Herzegovina are coordinated by the BIRN Hub, which also runs a regional consortium.

Panelists at a BIRN debate entitled ‘Female Empowerment – Online Practices and Challenges’ in Sarajevo on Monday said that online insults, threats and false accusations are commonly-used weapons to discredit and discourage women who work in the public arena.

Iva Paradjanin, a Serbian journalist whose work mostly focuses on women’s rights and who runs a podcast called Tampon Zona, said that even though online violence against women has become more visible, it is still not taken seriously enough.

“We are working to empower women, to raise awareness that violence is not only physical,” Paradjanin said.

She said that online attacks have a real impact on women’s lives, and those who write offensive comments should not be allowed to remain under the illusion that they are free from any kind of responsibility.

Bosnian journalist Dalija Hasanbegovic Konakovic said that women are often attacked because they are seen as a “weaker target”.

“You should not be silent. You will feel better once you start speaking out. In that way, at least you will know that you are fighting back and that you will not be perceived as weak,” Hasanbegovic Konakovic said.

“What scares me the most is that we are losing the thread of humanity,” said Lana Prlic, a member of parliament in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Federation entity, who came under attack online after posting on social media about her COVID-19 vaccination in September 2020.

“We are mothers, sisters, daughters and so on. Those people who are sending us insults, they are forgetting about these identities,” Prlic said.

In the second part of the debate, moderator Zlatan Music from the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and panelists Samra Filipovic-Hadziabdic, director of the Agency for Gender Equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Maja Raicevic, director of the Centre for Women’s Rights, and Adnan Kadribasic, a lawyer and expert on human rights and gender equality, said that the main problem is the lack of response, support and goodwill from the authorities, particularly the police and prosecution.

They urged the authorities in the Western Balkans region to start implementing existing laws and sanctioning perpetrators.

“We have a good legal framework that we can use to sanction these acts. There are various possibilities, we just need to know how to use them, and to want to use them. Improving the institutional response is crucial,” said Kadribasic.

The panelists argued that speaking out about violence empowers other women who have had the same experience and gives them courage to speak out too.

“If you stand by one woman who speaks out, you are showing that she is not alone. By our example, we show whether we are united or not. We must stop normalising violence,” said Hasanbegovic Konakovic.