Uncategorized Archives - Page 14 of 118

BIRN Albania Holds Roundtable on Energy

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Albania held a roundtable on energy on February 22 in Tirana, bringing together civil society organizations, environmental activists, experts and journalists working in the field of energy.

The roundtable was supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and aimed to create bridges between civil society organizations, experts and the media in order to enhance public debate on the future of a sustainable energy model in Albania, clean energy sources, transparency and corruption in the energy sector.

About 25 experts, representatives of civil society organizations and journalists were present at the meeting, highlighting the need for greater cooperation between civil society groups and the media in order to highlight for the general public important issues on the energy sector.

The participants discussed the wildcat development in Albania’s hydropower sector, the use of green taxes by the government, the construction of hydropower plants in protected areas without proper environmental assessments, the lack of transparency and proper corporate governance of state-owned energy companies and the illegal sale of substandard fuels.

The experts and activists agreed that there is a need for greater cooperation between civil society groups in order to strengthen the public consultation process for energy projects, which is often formal and does not treat the public as a stakeholder.

The topics highlighted during the roundtable will help inform BIRN Albania’s upcoming call for investigative stories in the field of energy.

Fellowship Journalist Commended for Trafficking Investigation

Lindita Cela, a 2015 alumni of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, has received a commendation from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women in Albania, UN Women, for the “creation of a professional model of investigative journalism for the reporting on trafficking of women and girls.”

The commendation was issued to Cela by David Sander, representative of UN Women in Albania, during a roundtable held in Tirana by UN Women and the Interior Ministry entitled “Reporting in the Media of the Phenomenon of Trafficking of Women and Girls: Problems and Recommendations”.

Cela was recognized for her story Vicious Circle: Albanian Victims Struggle to Escape Shadow of Sex Trade, published as part of the 2015 Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence programme.

The investigation highlighted the plight of Albanian women and girls trafficked and exploited as sex slaves and their struggle to rebuild their lives with little help from the state and a society that often refuses to treat them as victims.

Every year the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence awards ten journalists from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Greece, financial and professional support to conduct in-depth research into a topic of regional and EU significance.

The project, which is supported by ERSTE Foundation and the Open Society Foundations, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, aims to encourage regional networking among journalists and advance balanced coverage on topics that are central to the region as well as to the European Union.

BIRN Celebrated the 200th Anniversary Issue of Belgrade Insight

Over 150 guests joined BIRN in marking the 200^th issue of Belgrade Insight at a commemorative party on top of the USCE Tower in Belgrade on Thursday, February 18^th.

BIRN founder and Regional Director Gordana Igrić welcomed partygoers with a speech that recalled Belgrade Insight’s challenges and successes over the last eight years.

“The timing for our own celebration could have been worse, but it does highlight just how remarkable it is to launch a newspaper in today’s chaotic media world and to reach a milestone like 200^th issue we are now celebrating. It’s an achievement that has to be seen in the context of the political landscape in which we publish… Despite all this we have found a core group of devoted readers who are willing to struggle quite literally to find us. Week after week they seek out our newspaper even if it means coming to our office building to grab the latest copy” said Igric while welcoming the guests.

Throughout its history, Belgrade Insight has been an invaluable resource for readers seeking news and information about life in Belgrade.

Guests included diplomatic notables, journalists and prominent local tastemakers. The Nada Pavlovic Band provided the entertainment.

The bi-weekly newspaper is a publication of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and focuses on news, culture and happenings in Belgrade. First published in May 2008, then-editor Mark R. Pullen described Belgrade Insight as a “brave new English-language newspaper, destined to become a ‘must-read’… for opinion-makers, expatriates, and everyone else who has a need to know.”

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BIRN Documentary ‘The Unidentified’ Showing in US

BIRN’s documentary about Kosovo war massacres and their subsequent attempted cover-up, ‘The Unidentified’, will be screened in New York and Williamsburg, Virginia.

The first US screening of the film is being staged on Monday at Columbia University in New York, organised by the Harriman Institute.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the film’s director/producer Marija Ristic, author and human rights advocate Fred C. Abrahams, and sociologist, journalist and policy analyst Anna Di Lellio.

The film will then be screened a week later on February 29 at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, which will also be followed by a discussion with Marija Ristic.

‘The Unidentified’ is a feature-length documentary which follows two story lines that focus on large-scale state-sponsored wrongdoing – war crimes in four Kosovo villages and the subsequent cover-up operation.

Both victims and perpetrators recall gruesome memories of the attacks, when scores of ethnic Albanian civilians were killed by Serbian forces in the course of a few days in the spring of 1999.

The result of a two-year-long investigation, the documentary names the officers who ordered attacks on villages and those who were involved in the removal of victims’ bodies to mass graves at the Batajnica police centre near Belgrade in Serbia.

Beside disturbing testimonies never seen before, the documentary also features exclusive images and documents from the war.

Life in Kosovo Debates Language Usage

This Thursday, Life in Kosovo will host a debate on language usage in Kosovo at the local and central levels.

Kosovo has two official languages at the central level – Albanian and
Serbian – while at the local level, the Turkish language is in official
use in Prizren district. The show will point out the level of
implementation of language usage in practice. What are the
practical barriers to fully implementing the law on language usage? How
does the Governmental Commission for Languages function in monitoring
the implementation of this law? How content are the non-Albanian
communities with the situation of their native language usage in
Kosovo?

The following panellists will be in the studio:

Dragisa Krstovic – Serb List for Kosovo and member of the Commissions
for Judicial Issues, Legislation and Constitutional Framework; Gender
Equality; and Petitions and Public Request of the Kosovo Assembly
Mahir Yagcilar – from Turkish Community, representative of the Parliamentary Group 6 +
Ismet Caka – Chairman of the Commission for Languages in the Prime Minister’s Office/Legal Office;
Veton Vula – Ombudsperson’s office;
Gjyzel Shaljani – Roma Activist,
Sazan Ibrahimi – Executive Director-Kosovo Association of Municipalities, AKK

Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television, RTK
and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. It is broadcast
every Thursday, starting from 20:15.

The 10th Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence Competition Still Open for Applications

Become a BFJE fellow this year! To download and fill in the application to participate, please go to http://fellowship.birn.eu.com/en/page/home.

You have still two weeks to think about the topic you’d like to cover.

Journalists from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Greece and Serbia are eligible to apply for a bursary until March 1^st.

Also this year, ten journalists from across the region will be chosen through open competition to receive funding and professional support to conduct in-depth research into a topic of regional and EU significance.

Send us your application with your proposal for a story based on this year’s theme of Trust by March 1^st.

Applicants selected by an independent committee to take part in the fellowship will receive a €2,000 bursary and up to another €2,000 for travel and research expenses. They will also attend international seminars and receive continuous one-to-one mentoring for their stories.

Completed articles will be published in English and local languages by leading regional and international media. In addition, the top three articles will receive awards of €4,000, €3,000 and €1,000.

The closing date for applications is March 1st, 2016. The application form, guidelines and further information about the fellowship are available online: fellowship.birn.eu.com.

In order to foster quality reporting, initiate regional networking among journalists and advance balanced coverage on topics that are central to the region as well as to the EU, the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence programme is supported by the ERSTE Foundation and the Open Society Foundations, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN.

For more information contact:

Fellowship programme manager, BIRN

Kolarceva 7/V

11 000 Belgrade, Serbia

Email: [email protected]

BIRN Kosovo publishes assessment report on Kosovo’s privatisation process

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) Kosovo and Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS) published the report titled “Panic Selling: Assessing the main challenges and deficiencies of Kosovo’s privatization”.

The analysis provides an overview of the main challenges and problems encountered during the privatization process in Kosovo.

More precisely, it highlights problems such as institutional dualism, ownership disputes, Kosovo’s unresolved international status, methods of privatization, the negative impact on employment, highly under-priced sale of SOEs, corruption, undervalued agricultural land, non-utilization of privatization funds, and the exclusion of citizens from the privatization process.

In addition, this policy analysis offers a range of policy recommendations, which if seriously taken into consideration by relevant institutions, would result in the improvement of the privatization process.

Click to download report in English

Trust Slipping in Balkan Police, TV Show Says

People are losing trust in the police in the Western Balkans, a special TV show broadcast by the regional television network N1 Info channel in cooperation with BIRN Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo concluded.

The TV show was based on research conducted within the framework of “Western Balkans Pulse for Police Integrity and Trust,” a project of which BIRN Serbia is part.

According to the research results, a majority of citizens think their police forces are corrupt. In their communications with BIRN Serbia, experts said people’s negative perception of the police was based on their everyday contact with police officers. Many people perceive them as uneducated, arrogant and inconsiderate.

Other factors in Serbia include a number of affairs and scandals that surfaced involving the Ministry of Interior. These include last year’s dismissal of five heads of police directorates with no explanation provided as to the reasons for this action.

More information find at http://pointpulse.net/activities/affairs-are-decreasing-the-citizens-trust-in-police/.

Belgrade Insight to publish 200th Issue

Belgrade’s only English-language newspaper is marking anniversary with special issue and party.

Belgrade Insight is set to publish its 200^th issue on February 18th, a milestone of survival through a landscape of dramatically shifting newspaper economics, volatile political climates and clear intimidation, censorship and assaults on press freedom in Serbia.

“Since its establishment, Belgrade Insight had endured many challenges – from 2008 financial crisis when we saw businesses cutting off their advertisements, followed by disregard of advertisement agencies that were reluctant to associate with a paper not in favour with the governments to a censorship campaign that has raged against BIRN in the last few years,” says Gordana Andric, Belgrade Insight’s editor.

Throughout its history, Belgrade Insight has been an invaluable resource for readers seeking news and information about life in Belgrade.

That ambition has threatened Belgrade Insight’s existence more than once. After BIRN published damaging investigative reports into his administration, Prime Minister Vucic’s government kicked out Belgrade Insight from key distribution points at Tourist Organisation of Belgrade centres, and Nikola Tesla Airport. Belgrade Insight has moved to a subscription model to make up for the lost circulation. But no matter how the paper is distributed, Andric has high hoped for Belgrade Insight’s future.

“In today’s Serbian media scene, where censorship rules almost everyone, we see Belgrade Insight’s role ever more important and we hope to continue to bring our readers relevant and balanced journalism for many more issues to come,” says Andric.

BFJE and Alumni Initiative Investigations Reach Big Audiences

Stories by reporters on the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence and alumni of the programme have reached large international audiences in recent months.

An investigation into women from Kosovo who join ISIS, “Few but fanatical” by BFJE alumna Arbana Xharra, had a big impact in online media. The article was published in English, Serbian and Albanian — and the Albanian version alone has been read by more than 20,000 people and republished by most Albanian-language media in Kosovo and Albania. The article was also picked up by international outlets such as the EU Observer, Daily Mail, Al Jazeera Balkans and many others. Arbana spent six months last year working on her investigation. Previously she has reported on religious extremism and its links with non-governmental organisations and terrorist groups, which resulted in her receiving death threats. In 2015, the US Department of State honoured her with a Women of Courage Award.

Mariya Petkova, a BFJE fellow in 2015, investigated the use of Bulgarian arms in the war in Syria for her fellowship story. Her article was highlighted by Wikileaks and reached more than 40,000 readers. Mariya’s research involved extensive travel in Bulgaria and Turkey, taking her as far as the border with Syria. The story was also republished by Middle East Eye. Now a BFJE alumna, Mariya is a freelance journalist covering eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Other 2015 fellowship stories also reached broad audiences, with versions published by The Guardian, the New Statesman, Politico, programme media partners such as Austria’s Der Standard and other international outlets

“Hearts and Minds: The battle for Montenegro’s Mamula Fortress” by Nela Lazarevic was another story from the alumni programme to attract a lot of international attention. The article focused on plans to convert an island fortress used as a prison camp during World War Two into a tourist resort. The story was picked up by CNN, the New Statesman, the Daily Mail, the Independent and other international and local media. Following the attention generated by Nela’s story, state authorities and the project investor pledged that Mamula’s heritage would be respected as part of the development.

In all, thanks to the support of the Erste Foundation and Open Society Foundations, BIRN produced 17 in-depth stories as part of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence and the Alumni Initiative in 2015. Assisted by a team of local and international editors, 19 journalists tackled sensitive, complex and under-reported topics of regional and international importance.