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Open Call for Applications for EU Investigative Journalism Award in North Macedonia

Investigative stories published from January 1 to December 31, 2019, and related to freedom of expression, rule of law, transparency, abuse of power and fundamental rights, corruption and organised crime are welcome to apply.

The award fund in each country in 2020 (for achievements in 2019) is 10,000 EUR. The first prize will be 5,000 EUR, the second 3,000 EUR, and the third will be 2,000 EUR.

Individuals or groups of journalists are eligible to apply in all journalism forms (print, online, radio and TV) published or broadcast in the media in each country in official, minority or international languages.

Articles eligible for submission must appear in print, online, radio and TV media outlets during the 2019 calendar year.

EU Investigative Journalism Awards in the Western Balkans and Turkey aim to celebrate and promote the outstanding achievements of investigative journalists as well as improve the visibility of quality journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey.

The awards are a continuation of the ongoing regional EU Investigative Journalism Award in the Western Balkans and Turkey and part of the ongoing project ‘Strengthening Quality News and Independent Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey’, funded by the European Union.

The project partners involved all have extensive expertise in the field of media freedom and have been recognised locally and internationally as strong independent media organisations.

The jury for the EU Award comprises media experts, some of them from the project consortia. Others are drawn from the extensive network projects that the consortium members have, such as editors, members of academia and journalists with merits.

The awards will be given annually in all six Western Balkan countries and Turkey.

For more information, please get in contact by email at [email protected] or +389 2 2671 201. All the details and guidelines for North Macedonia can be found below this article.

The deadline for the applications is July 27, 2020.

To download all necessary documents for North Macedonia in Macedonian click here

To download all necessary documents for North Macedonia in Albanian click here

BIRN Journalists Win Serbian Prize for Investigative Journalism

BIRN Serbia journalists Jelena Veljkovic and Aleksandar Djordjevic have won this year’s Dejan Anastasijevic Investigative Journalism Award in the online media category for a series of articles about the father of the Serbian interior minister’s involvement in arms trading.

The prize was awarded on Thursday by the Independent Association of Journalists in Serbia with the support of the US embassy in Belgrade. This year, the award was renamed after the late Dejan Anastasijevic, a highly respected Serbian journalist.

BIRN’s story investigated how the minister’s father was buying weapons at preferential prices from the weapons manufacturer Krusik and then selling them at drastically higher prices.

In 2018, BIRN published the first article based on the testimony of a whistleblower from Krusik, Aleksandar Obradovic, and continued uncovering new facts through 2019. The story became one of the biggest political scandals in the country in 2019.

Vuk Cvijic, a journalist from weekly news magazine NIN, was given the Dejan Anastasijevic award in the print media category, while Adam Santovac was awarded for a documentary made for N1 TV in the broadcast media category. Masina and Juzne vesti’s newsrooms were awarded for making special contributions to investigative journalism.

This year, BIRN was also nominated for the cross-border investigation Illumination of Serbia, Hungarian Style, and Dragan Gmizic’s documentary ‘Predators’ about fish theft, co-produced by Greenfield Production from Novi Sad and BIRN.

BIRN and Partners Hold Environmental Reporting Course in Montenegro

A training course in investigative journalism for environmental topics was held on June 11-12 in Petrovac in Montenegro, aiming to strengthen the in-depth reporting of Montenegrin journalists on envronmental issues.

The event was also held to select journalists to receive research grants, supervision and mentoring from an editorial team from Montenegro and the wider region.

On the course’s agenda were topics such as online storytelling, work with sources and fact-checking, along with explanations of the Chapter 27 in the EU acquis, which covers environment policy. The course also addressed sustainable development and the challenges it poses for Montenegro.

On the second day, stories that were pitched through a call for proposals were presented and evaluated.

The training was organised by BIRN,CIN-CG and Monitor, as part of a project entitled ’Investigative Journalism on EnvironMEntal Issues, with Citizens’ Engagement’ supported by the EU Delegation in Montenegro.

After the investigations are complete, all stories will be published on the CIN-CG and BIRN websites, as well as in a special bilingual publication and e-book.

BIRN Wins European Press Prize for Justice Reporting

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Bosnia and Herzegovina has won the prestigious European Press Prize for its reporting on war crimes trials, transitional justice issues and the problems faced by victims of the 1990s conflict.

BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina was given the European Press Prize Special Award for 2020 on Thursday for its groundbreaking work in covering transitional justice topics.

“The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network’s work ensures a unique archive of all war crime trials, as well as many personal stories of survivors, documentary films about the victims of sexual violence and families of the missing, and numerous other research and analytical stories,” the European Press Prize judges said in a statement.

The judges noted that BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina “was founded in 2005 to provide people in Bosnia and Herzegovina with accurate and timely information about the rule of law in the country and wider region”.

The European Press Prize Special Award is given for excellence in European journalism and has previously been won by the editor of The Guardian for the publication of stories based on the Edward Snowden files, and last year by the Forbidden Stories team “for their mission to continue and publish the work of journalists facing threats, prison or murder”, the judges said.

BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina’s executive director Denis Dzidic said the award is important for journalists in the media outlet’s newsroom, but that it also belongs to the survivors of the Bosnian war.

“This award means an indescribable amount to all of us who have spent days, weeks and months writing about war crimes and reporting daily from courtrooms to record the testimony of every victim who has come to tell their story,” Dzidic said.

“This award also belongs to the victims, because our work would be worthless if it were not for the surviving women and men who gathered the courage to share with us the most horrible things they experienced, showing courage, patience and strength that we cannot comprehend,” he added.

BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina is part of the BIRN regional network, which uses the same methods of covering war crime trials and transitional justice processes across the whole of the former Yugoslavia.

BIRN’s regional director Marija Ristic said that covering war crime trials and transitional justice issues has been one of the core topics for network’s journalists for 15 years.

“BIRN’s first ever news report in 2005 was from a war crime trial. Years later, we continue with the same passion and dedication to providing accurate and balanced reporting and bringing uncompromising stories from a region that is still battling with revisionism and the denial of war crimes,” Ristic said.

One of the members of the European Press Prize judging panel, Alexandra Föderl-Schmid from Süddeutsche Zeitung, said that “the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network… really supports investigative journalism in Bosnia and that is really a difficult task there”.

The managing editor of BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina, Semir Mujkic, said that receiving the European Press Prize Special Award is a great honour from the best European journalists.

“The daily commitment of our journalists to writing investigative stories and the perseverance in conveying sensitive and relevant stories has now received recognition and new encouragement,” Mujkic said.

The European Press Prize is one of most prestigious European journalistic awards and is given to journalists and media from 47 Council of Europe countries.

“Never did we have such a diverse list of entrants, nominees and winners,” Thomas van Neerbos, executive director of the European Press Prize, said of the 2020 awards.

“From the newsrooms in Norway to the brave offices of BIRN and DoR [Romanian media outlet Decât o Revistă], from taking on China’s surveillance state, via sexism in sports to a personal account of euthanasia, this is the true scope of European journalism, these are the topics that we ought to debate,” van Neerbos added.

The winner of the 2020 Investigative Reporting Award was ‘Trigger Warning’ by Annemarte Moland, Even Kjølleberg and Ruben Solvang, published by NRK from Norway.

The winner of the Distinguished Reporting Award was ‘The Uyghur Women Fighting China’s Surveillance State’ by Isobel Cockerell, published by Coda Story from Georgia.

The winner of the Opinion Award was ‘How We Stopped Being Comrades’ by Beata Balogová, published by SME in Slovakia.

The winner of the Innovation Award was ‘How DoR Organised an All-Team Pop-Up Newsroom in Transylvania’ by Decât o Revistă from Romania.

Reporting Democracy Report Warns of ‘Democratic Emergency’ in Region

Report says democracy in Central and Southeast Europe was being eroded even before COVID-19 erupted, and cautions that the coronavirus pandemic has made a bad situation worse.

Democracy is deteriorating across Central Europe and the Balkans says “Democracy after Coronavirus”, the first annual trends report published on Thursday by Reporting Democracy, a cross-border journalistic platform run by BIRN, a leading regional non-profit media network.

“Even before coronavirus, the patient had underlying conditions, including allergies to good governance and a weakened immunity to populist excesses. Now, in some countries at least, the pandemic has turned chronic malaise into a democratic emergency,” the report says.

Marking the first year of the Reporting Democracy initiative, BIRN’s “Democracy After Coronavirus” report highlights the key “signals to watch” as the political and social consequences of the coronavirus crisis come into view.

They include increasingly autocratic regimes, assaults on transparency and media freedoms, disregard for the rule of law, profound demographic and social changes in the region as well as heightened geopolitical tensions in an increasingly divided Europe.

The report seeks to examine the political implications of the pandemic, but also proposes some key remedies, such as greater support to free media, more parliamentary oversight, judicial independence and respect for the rule of law.

“While democracy’s sickness has an air of inevitability in the midst of the pandemic, it is too early to say if the prognosis is terminal. Many analysts believe the patient can be saved if given the proper intensive care,” the report concludes.

BIRN Serbia Monitoring Examines Media Reporting on Corruption

Organised crime and corruption are regular topics in the Serbian media, but BIRN Serbia’s monitoring, carried out in cooperation with the Centre for Judicial Research (CEPRIS) NGO shows that only a small number of articles reported on the court cases, indicating that the media often do not follow such cases to their judicial conclusion.

Content analysis of media reporting on organised crime and corruption was conducted on a sample of seven media outlets – three daily newspapers, one weekly, two TV stations with national coverage, and one cable TV channel.

The monitoring sample contains 186 pieces – articles and TV reports published or broadcast during 2019. Topics covered include conflict of interest, misuse of public finances, influence peddling, and corruption in certain specific fields, such as the education system.

Analysis shows that the way media report on corruption and organised crime depends on the editorial policy of a particular media outlet – those inclined to the ruling party report in a propagandistic way, praising the state’s fight against corruption, at the same time systematically avoiding reporting on court cases and issues such as conflict of interest, particularly when representatives of the ruling party are involved.

At the opposite end is a critical approach which criticises the judicial system in the country and political pressure on the judiciary.

A genuine public debate at which alternative opinions could be heard, which are supposed to be reported by the media, is missing.

An additional difficulty is the duration of court proceedings – in some cases more than ten years – which makes continuous media coverage of this topic even more difficult.

Tabloid media tend to use a small number of sources of information, and frequently their reports are based only on information from one source or on anonymous sources.

As well as sensationalism and partial reporting, the most frequent ethical problems are the breaching of the presumption of innocence and the spreading of rumours.

Three BIRN Journalists Nominated for Serbian Investigative Awards

Investigative articles by BIRN journalists Ana Curic, Jelena Veljkovic, and Aleksandar Djordjevic have been shortlisted for the Dejan Anastasijevic Investigative Journalism Award in the online media category.

Dragan Gmizic’s documentary ‘Predators’ about fish theft, co-produced by Greenfield Production from Novi Sad and BIRN, was also nominated in the broadcast media category.

BIRN journalists Ana Curic and Aleksandar Djordjevic worked with Hungarian colleague Blanka Zöldi on the cross-border investigation Illumination of Serbia, Hungarian Style.

The investigation dealt with companies connected to ruling political parties and their engagement in suspicious public procurements to install new public lighting systems in Serbia and Hungary.

Aleksadnar Djordjevic and Jelena Veljkovic’s series of articles entitled Firm Linked to Minister’s Father Paid Less for Arms exposed how the Serbian Interior Minister’s father bought weapons at preferential prices from the weapons manufacturer Krusik.

The Independent Association of Journalists in Serbia with the support of the US embassy in Belgrade announced the nominations for the awards on Wednesday.

The awards are named after the late Dejan Anastasijevic, a highly respected Serbian journalist who was also a BIRN contributor.

This year, 38 investigative journalists were entered for the awards.

The winners will be announced on June 11.

Over 150 Digital Rights Breaches During COVID-19 Pandemic

During the coronavirus pandemic in Central and Southeastern Europe, more than half of the digital rights violations were related to propaganda, disinformation, falsehoods and the publication of unverified information, four months of monitoring reveals.

From January 26 to May 26, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, and SHARE Foundation uncovered 163 cases of digital rights breaches in Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and North Macedonia, of which 68 were linked to manipulations in the digital environment, while 25 were related to publishing falsehoods and unverified information with the intention to damage the victims’ reputation.

According to these monitoring findings, more than half of the digital rights violations were related to propaganda, disinformation, falsehoods and the publication of unverified information, while citizens were the affected parties in almost 80 per cent of the cases.

In almost 25 per cent of all cases, the state itself or state officials were described as the perpetrator of certain guaranteed rights and freedoms violations.

During the reporting period, many governments imposed new rules and regulations to curb the spread of COVID-19, but the nature of this legislation clearly showed these practices were not tailored to achieve their objective, while having the adverse effect of damaging certain guaranteed rights. Of which, the most obvious examples being the endangering of media freedom in Serbia, Hungary and Romania amid the coronavirus pandemic.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the newly established practice of mass arbitrary arrests and fines for disseminating false information on social media quickly became the most common measure for fighting the spread of fake news and panic. In order to stop the spread of the disease, citizen’s personal data were often violated while their digital rights and freedoms were abused on many occasions. Health and personal data breaches were noticed in 18 cases.

Cybercriminals have taken advantage of the current situation created by the COVID-19 epidemic, with 11 occurrences of computer fraud taking place during the reporting period, while the destruction and theft of data and programmes came about in three instances.

In comparison to the cases of online violations reported before the COVID-19 outbreak, our monitoring noted a significant rise in the number of the cases in which the attackers could not be determined; in 45 cases the perpetrators were unknown.

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As the collected data highlights, journalists, free-thinkers, migrants and refugees, women and quarantine citizens were particularly vulnerable groups, who were often exposed to insults, discrimination and threats.

The monitoring database is being updated on a regular basis, covering the state of digital rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. The regional database can be seen here. All cases of violations associated with the COVID19 outbreak can be found on our live updates page on BIRN Investigative Resource Desk (BIRD).

To read the full report “From Cures to Curses, Digital Rights During Pandemic”, click here.

Applications Wanted for EU Investigative Journalism Award in Serbia

Applications are being invited for the Serbian part of the EU Investigative Journalism Awards in the Western Balkans and Turkey, which is being administered by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN Hub) and local partners.

Investigative stories published in Serbia from January 1 to December 31, 2019, and related to freedom of expression, the rule of law, transparency, abuse of power and fundamental rights, corruption and organised crime can be accepted.

The award fund in Serbia in 2020 (for achievements in 2019) is 10,000 euros. The first prize will be 5,000 euros, the second 3,000 euros, and the third 2,000 euros.

Individuals or groups of journalists are eligible to apply with work published in all journalistic formats (print, online, radio and TV) in official, minority or international languages.

Articles eligible for submission must have appeared in print, online, radio and TV media outlets in Serbia during the 2019 calendar year.

The project partners involved all have extensive expertise in the field of media freedom and have been recognised locally and internationally as strong independent media organisations.

The jury for the EU Investigative Journalism Award comprises media experts, some of them from the project consortia. Others are drawn from the extensive network projects that consortium members have, such as editors and academics.

The awards are presented annually in all six Western Balkan countries and Turkey.

Read about the winners of the last year’s competition and their stories here.

For more information, please get in contact by email at [email protected]. All the details and guidelines for Serbia can be found below this article.

The deadline for applications is June 21, 2020.

To download all necessary documents in Serbian click here.

BIRN Kosovo Holds Online Training for Islamic Studies Students

BIRN Kosovo organised an online training session on May 4 for students of the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Pristina.

Twelve students took part in the training session. The focus of the training was the strengthening of critical thinking, protective mechanisms against defamation and slander, combating fake news, and reporting on an ethical basis.

The training was led by Kreshnik Gashi, anchor of the ‘Justice in Kosovo’ television programme, and Labinot Leposhtica, the legal office coordinator at BIRN Kosovo.

Gashi discussed the evolution of the media, provided participants with techniques to help stay safe on social media, and described the role of algorithms on social media.

Talking about ethical reporting, Gashi described the impact that the reporting by the Kosovo media had on the reintegration process of those affected by violent extremism, specifically those who have returned from fighting in Syria and Iraq, and the families that have been affected.

In terms of reporting, Gashi emphasised the importance of fact-checking, as provided that it is done correctly, it fulfills the media’s role in serving the public interest.

Leposhtica explained Kosovo’s media code of ethics, legislation governing the media, and the meaning of freedom of speech on social media.

According to Leposhtica, even though the Kosovo constitution and international conventions ensure freedom of speech, this freedom has limitations, “especially in cases when the freedom of one person violates the freedom of somebody else.” For Leposhtica, “these limitations are in place to prevent hate speech and calls for violence”.

Leposhtica added that the role of the media is to inform readers and viewers correctly and promptly in accordance with international media standards, and to prevent the incitement of discrimination and intolerance on social media.

Since April this year, BIRN has organised two online training courses as part of the ‘Consortium: For a sustainable community’ project, which is funded by the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, GCERF. The previous one was on April 4, for the students of the Medresa Alauddin high school.