News and Events Archives - Page 80 of 264

BIRN Albania Holds Roundtable on Justice Topics to Investigate

On National Justice Day, May 10, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, in Albania, held a roundtable on Zoom between journalists and civil society organisations

Two dozen journalists and representatives of civil society organisations attended the session where participants brainstormed on the theme of the upcoming call for investigative stories on the justice system that BIRN Albania is launching, sharing insights and building bridges between the reporters and civil society experts.

Discussion focused on fundamental rights and the COVID-19 pandemic, justice reform, the fight against corruption and organised crime and electoral crimes during the campaign for Albania’s April 25 parliamentary elections.

The main aim was to identify the most important issues or problems that civil society believes investigative journalists should explore in greater depth.

The discussion, moderated by TV anchor and lawyer Dafina Hysa, was organised as part of the EU-funded project, “Using Big Data and Multimedia to Boost Quality and Independent Journalism in Albania”.

The project aims to create an enabling environment for Albanian journalists to produce independent content through training, mentoring, technical and financial support, and close cooperation with civil society, so improving freedom of expression and strengthening media pluralism in Albania.

The findings of the roundtable will guide the main topics of the upcoming open call of BIRN Albania to support three local journalists to produce investigative articles.

The selection of the journalists by an independent jury will be conducted based on their proposed topics of investigation as well as partnership with civil society.

During the process of their investigations, the selected journalists will be supervised and mentored on the use of investigative journalism techniques, while establishing closer cooperation with civil society partners in the field of justice.

BIRN Journalist Given Prestigious Serbian Investigative Award

BIRN Serbia journalist Natalija Jovanovic was announced as this year’s winner of the Dejan Anastasijevic Investigative Award in the online media category by the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia and the US embassy in Belgrade on Friday.

Jovanovic won the award for her report entitled ‘Serbia Under-Reported COVID-19 Deaths and Infections, Data Shows’.

The winner in the print media category was NIN journalist Sandra Petrusic for her report entitled ‘Republic Public Prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac on the Move – Falsification of Data Essential for Public Health’.

Andjela Milojevic, received an investigative journalism award for her story ‘The Castle: How Serbia’s Rulers Manipulate Minds and the People Pay’ she produced as a fellow of BIRN’s Resonant Voices Fellowship Programme for Journalists.

‘Indictment – Jovanjica’ by Jelena Zoric, a journalist from N1 TV, won the prize in the electronic media category.

The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia organizses the awards with the support of the US embassy in Belgrade for outstanding investigative journalism and reporting on issues of public interest.

Two articles produced by BIRN journalists were also nominees this year: ‘Company Linked to Serbian Minister’s Husband Gets State Contracts’ (online media category) by Ivan Angelovski, Marija Ristic, Slobodan Georgiev, Aleksandar Djordjevic and Dzana Brkanic and ‘Son of Fugitive Ex-President Builds Raspberry Fortune in Serbia’ (print media category), published in Vreme magazine, by Sasa Dragojlo, Marko Vesovic, Vladmir Otasevic.

This year the members of the jury were: Jovana Gligorijevic, editor of Vreme, Irena Stevic, a journalist for Insajder, Dinko Gruhonjic, a journalist and Philosophy Faculty professor, and Milorad Ivanovic, BIRN editor-in-chief.

BIRN Environmental Investigation Wins Prize in Montenegro

A report published by BIRN has been awarded the first prize for the best investigative story in Montenegro by the Center for Civic Education, a prominent Montenegrin human rights organisation.

The NGO’s awards were presented last week for the best stories of 2020 that “made a change”.

The BIRN report entitled ‘Beneath the Surface: Adriatic Beach Waste Just “Tip of the Iceberg”’, by Mustafa Canka, is about the plastic accumulated on Adriatic seabed, which has devastating consequences for marine life, coastal communities and, longer-term, the economies of Adriatic states such as Montenegro

According to the report, the plastic waste is generated by some four million people who live along the Adriatic coast, and by tourists who increase that number six-fold every summer.

“This award is a pleasant recognition, encouragement for further work but also an increased responsibility,” Canka said.

The investigation, published on BIRN’s Balkan Insight website, was produced as part of the ‘Investigative Journalism on EnvironMEntal Issues, with Citizens’ Engagement’ project.

The two-year project was implemented by BIRN, the Center for Investigative Journalism Montenegro, CIN CG, and weekly news magazine Monitor, supported by the EU Delegation in Podgorica.

BIRN Reports Nominated for Prestigious Serbian Investigative Awards

Investigative reports by nine BIRN journalists exposing alleged corruption and official malpractice have been shortlisted for awards by the Independent Association of Journalists in Serbia.

Investigations produced by nine BIRN journalists exposing alleged corruption, nepotism and malpractice within local government as well as the concealment of data about the COVID-19 death toll in Serbia have been shortlisted for the Dejan Anastasijevic Investigative Journalism Award in the online media and print media categories, the Independent Association of Journalists in Serbia, NUNS, announced on Monday.

Among the four BIRN investigations shortlisted, ‘Son of Fugitive Ex-President Builds Raspberry Fortune in Serbia’ by Sasa Dragojlo, Marko Vesovic and Vladimir Otasevic was nominated in the print media category.

The report reveals how Serbia serves as a ‘safe haven’ for the family of the fugitive Montenegrin former politician Svetozar Marovic. Since fleeing a prison sentence in Montenegro in 2016, Marovic’s son Milos has built up agricultural land holdings in Serbia worth more than a million euros. After the investigation was published, the Montenegrin authorities renewed their call for Svetozar Marozic’s extradition.

Another investigative piece by Dragojlo, ‘There is a Secret Connection’ (‘Ima neka tajna veza’), co-written with Serbian investigative journalist Dragana Peco, was also nominated in the same category. The report revealed the controversial business connections and deals of Belgrade’s former chief architect, Milutin Folic.

In the online media category, two BIRN investigations were nominated. ‘Company Linked to Serbian Minister’s Husband Gets State Contracts’ by Marija Ristic, Ivan Angelovski, Slobodan Georgiev, Aleksandar Djordjevic and Dzana Brkanic, revealed that companies connected to Serbian then justice minister’s husband, who is also the brother of a leading health official and current minister, won 27 public contracts worth around 26.8 million euros, including a three-million-euro bid for a healthcare information system.

Natalija Jovanovic’s investigation ‘Serbia Under-Reported COVID-19 Deaths and Infections, Data Shows’, which was nominated in the same category, revealed that more than twice as many COVID-infected patients had died than the authorities announced, and hundreds more people tested positive for the virus than admitted in the period from March 19 to June 1, 2020.

NUNS organises the awards with the support of the US embassy in Belgrade. As of 2020, the awards have been named after the late Dejan Anastasijevic, a highly respected Serbian journalist who was also a BIRN contributor.

This year, 61 journalists from 22 media outlets applied for the awards, submitting a total of 47 investigative pieces.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Belgrade on May 7.

Reporting Democracy Identifies 7 Trends in COVID’s Lingering Effects

Trends Report highlights how symptoms of “Long COVID” in Central and Southeast Europe include assaults on transparency and media freedom, infectious disregard for the rule of law, and ideological entrenchment and polarisation.

Governments in Central and Southeast are taking advantage of the pandemic to continue their assault on democratic values and the still-fragile system of checks and balances, Reporting Democracy, a cross-border journalistic platform run by BIRN, warns in its annual Trends Report published on Wednesday.

“While Long COVID symptoms in people include extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, chest pain, and problems with memory; symptoms for countries in this region include assaults on transparency and media freedom, infectious disregard for the rule of law, ideological entrenchment and polarisation, and problems with memory,” the report, COVID’s Lingering Effects, says.

Marking the second year of the Reporting Democracy initiative, the report highlights the key “signals to watch” and “what to expect in 2021” as the political, economic and social consequences of the coronavirus crisis continue to unfold.

The report seeks to examine the political and social implications of the pandemic that has exacerbated some pre-existing trends, like assaults on media freedom and eroding of the rule of law, that were also covered in the inaugural edition of the Trends Report. It also identifies some new ones, including the vaccine dimension to disinformation, misinformation and propaganda; the return of rising poverty in the region, and the destruction of the cultural economy by COVID-19 and government partiality over the financial aid provided to it.

“The European Commission called the pandemic a ‘real-life stress test’ for our legal and constitutional systems – and in many regards they are failing. The Trends Report is part of our effort to unleash the power of independent journalism to explore the issues, trends and events that are shaping the future of democracy in Central and Southeast Europe,” Reporting Democracy Editor Nicholas Watson said.

The Trends Report streams from the regular coverage of the most important developments in the Visegrad region, provided by the Reporting Democracy correspondents, grants for in-depth features and investigations available to local journalists and the expert commentary from leaders in policy, civil society and academia.

BIRN BiH to Build Database of Judicially Established Facts About Bosnia War

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, has begun to create an interactive educational database of judicially established facts about the 1992-5 war with the aim of confronting revisionist narratives and war crimes denial.

The goal of the project, launched in early April this year, is to raise the level of public understanding, ensure support for coming to terms with the past by developing a tool for teaching and learning about the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and challenge revisionist narratives.

BIRN BiH executive director Denis Dzidic said the project will present a unique approach to war crime judgments. Instead of focusing on individuals, he said, BIRN BiH will investigate and report judicially established facts about the things that happened in certain areas of the country during the war.

“The idea of the project is to create a source of fact-based data, which can be used for educational and informational purposes and which will contribute to combating disinformation and improving media literacy,” Dzidic said.

As a result of the project activities, BIRN BiH will create a multimedia database enriched with short documentaries, as well as educational tools for teachers that will help them prepare a methodology for teaching and learning about the Bosnian war.

“The database, documentaries and teaching tools will be developed in a unique manner, leaving no space for interpretations and misuse of established facts,” Dzidic said.

The project is supported by the UN Democracy Fund.

Meet the People Behind BIRN: Claudia Ciobanu

Each month, BIRN will introduce you to its people. For April, meet Claudia Ciobanu BIRN’s Poland Correspondent

Claudia Ciobanu joined BIRN in 2019, when the Reporting Democracy* platform was launched. Previously she had been a fellow of The Balkan Fellowship of Journalistic Excellence. Timothy Large, her editor back then, offered her the chance to cover Poland for BIRN’s Reporting Democracy.

Claudia has been working as a journalist for more than 10 years. She was born in Romania but lives and reports from Poland. Social movements (progressive and ultra-conservative), the illiberal takeover of institutional structures and inequality are some of her favourite subjects.

For Claudia, it was meant to become a journalist. As she explains: “I was a political science graduate and just happened to get my first job at a daily in Bucharest, but I discovered quickly that this is my profession. I am totally sold to the ‘speak truth to power’ ethos … I love the feeling of making a little difference and feel an enormous responsibility for the people I write about and for,” she states.

Two of her favourite articles published on Balkan Insight are, “Poland begins push in region to replace Istanbul Convention with Family Rights Treaty”, and, “Poland’s replacement for Istanbul Convention ban abortion and gay marriage”.

The first was written in collaboration with BIRN journalists, which she found a great experience. These investigations “brought fresh elements to Polish readers too, not just international ones; both pieces, especially the second, were picked up broadly in the Polish media and even discussed in the Polish parliament, so I guess we did something useful,” she recalls.

Women journalists face many challenges, mostly because of their gender; the harassment they often confront often takes gender-based forms – threats to their families, sexual abuse etc. We wonder if it is difficult to be a women journalist in Poland. “There is definitely online abuse. It has, sadly, become a part of the job,” Claudia responds.

Her advice to young women who want to become journalists is: “Just breathe. You learn with each and every piece you do. You just keep getting better with each piece, little by little. Don’t get discouraged by comparisons with others. There are so many stories to be told.

“Cooperate with your fellow journalists, some of the best stuff happens this way. Stick to topics, some of the best stuff happens this way as well. Pursue the stories that get you excited about and you’ll find a place to publish them when you are done, and be read.”

*Balkan Insight’s cross-border journalistic platform dedicated to investigating the state of democracy in the heart of Europe brought by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

BIRN Bosnia’s Nermina Kuloglija Longlisted for One World Media Award

Nermina Kuloglija, a journalist with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, has been longlisted for the One World Media award in the New Voice category for young journalists who have made a substantial contribution to international journalism during the year.

She has been listed alongside ten other journalists in one of the categories of the One World Media international awards for her series of articles on far-right organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Kuloglija was the first journalist to investigate the links between right-wing groups in Bosnia and extreme right organisations in the USA Europe, Russia and Ukraine. She is the only journalist from Bosnia put up for this year’s award.

The nomination refers to these published investigations: In Bosnian River Town, Far-Right Symbols and a Link to Ukraine, Ultra-Right Groups Show Their Face in Bosnian Town as well as a TV Justice episode, Nationalism Festers in Srebrenica, 25 Years after Genocide.

A total of 150 journalists and media workers are competing in 15 categories. The short list of three nominees in each category will be announced in May. The winners will be announced during an online ceremony on June 17.

Kulogija joined BIRN BiH in August 2019. She began journalism after graduating from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo in 2017. As a member of BIRN BiH team, she has won the European Press Prize award for reporting on transitional justice and war crimes processes in Bosnia for many years, as well as a special plaque of the Srdjan Aleksic award for reporting about marginalized groups.

BIRN Albania-Supported Journalists Win Investigative Award

The OSCE Presence in Albania has given Rashela Shehu and Fiori Sinoruka its award for the best investigative story for 2020 for their investigation into the impact of the lack of financing of scientific research on Albania’s public universities.

The investigation, entitled ‘Lack of Scientific Research Leaves Albania in Ruins’ was published by BIRN Albania’s publication Reporter.al.

The investigation was supported by BIRN Albania as part of an open call for investigative stories, backed by the National Endowment for Democracy.

As well as Shehu and Sinoruka, two other journalists were awarded grants to cover their expenses to conduct investigations and write stories on the education system in Albania.

Fiori Sinokura is a freelance journalist based in Tirana and a former participant in BIRN’s Resonant Voices Fellowship. Rashela Shehu is a television journalist with Albania’s national broadcaster TV Klan.

BIRN Kosovo and jCoders Academy Hold Film-Making Course

jCoders Academy, in partnership with BIRN Kosovo, held the last event of its film-making course on March 27, when high school students presented their video productions.

The film-making course, which makes up part of an EU-funded project entitled ‘Solidifying the Resilience of Kosovo’s Current and Future Journalists’, offered eight months of hands-on training that focused on enabling students to tell stories through video and other media content.

At practical workshops, students learned a number of skills including video editing, scriptwriting, pitching and the basics of journalism, with each part of the training course playing a role in preparing students for their final video project.

A total of 75 high school students, 41 of them female, from municipalities across Kosovo including Pristina, Mitrovica, Gjilan, Peja and Prizren, took part in the training programme.

Over a period of eight months, students participated in various phases of the programme including the technical training phase, in which they learned how to use the video editing tool Adobe Premier Pro, the Design Thinking Marathon, through which students selected topics for their final project, and the training and implementation phase, in which students learned new techniques for creating video content and started working on their video presentations.

Students also learned about the basics of journalism through three sessions with guest speaker Jeta Xharra, BIRN Kosovo’s executive director. Xharra spoke about the importance of news, ethics and tackling false information, and shared her experienced with students, helping them create their video work.

At the final event, students presented their video projects in front of an audience of trainers, project representatives and their peers. The event was held at Kino Armata, a local cinema, with fewer than 50 attendees due to measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

A total of 13 videos were presented by various groups covering topics including patriarchy, Down’s Syndrome, the traditions of the Roma community, mental health, deforestation, the education system in Kosovo, the pandemic and its consequences in schools, child labour, cinematography, and functional illiteracy.

The videos were published on BIRN Kosovo’s KALLXO Rinia (KALLXO Youth) platform, as well as on its social media pages. Participants were provided with certificates for successfully finishing the programme.

BIRN Kosovo and its partner jCoders Academy’s aim for the project was to help students learn about technology and develop skills that will be necessary for their future.