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Romanian Fellow Awarded

Magda Munteanu, Romanian Fellow of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, on May 27 won the prize for “Best Financial Journalism” in a contest organised by the Romanian Press Club.

Magda was awarded for an investigation “Behind ARLO’s gate”, which looked into the main Romanian aluminum smelter, owned by a Russian company. The investigation was published by Romanian Business Week news magazine.

Cezar Ion, the president of the jury praised Magda’s investigation as having been written according to Anglo-Saxon journalism standards.

On her part, Magda said: “I am very proud of this prize. I believe that economic reporting is still a minor journalism genre in Romania so, there, I will continue to publish such articles and to better promote them.”

Romanian Press Club is the country’s main press organisation.

BIRN Holds Annual Network Board Meeting

The board of the regional Network held its annual meeting in Skopje between 19 to 22 May to discuss results achieved in 2007 as well as further development of the Network and its member organisations.

On the first day of the meeting, Gordana Igric, Regional Network Director, presented the regional organisation’s annual activity; directors of member organisations presented their activities and plans for the following period.

BIRN regional also presented the impact of the self-sustainability strategy launched in November 2007, with further options for development of commercial activities of the Network.

Representatives of member organisations adopted the annual report as well as several decisions on the future activities of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

BIRN held workshop on investigative reporting in Tirana

The group comprised reporters who have become regular BIRN contributors. Participants in the workshop included journalists from the dailies Koha Jone, Korrieri, Shqip, and Albania, MAPO magazine and the TV stations News24 and Top News.

The workshop was conducted by BIRN Executive Director Gordana Igric, BIRN Kosovo Editor Krenar Gashi and BIRN Albania Editor Besar Likmeta.

Special attention was given to the issues of sources and interviews – finding the right people, checking their reliability, building a network, using anonymous sources and protecting them, dealing with individuals in positions of power and confronting interviewees with relevant information and arguments.

Editors worked with journalists on the preparation of articles dealing with specific subjects, such as corruption in the health service, politicians’ declarations of wealth etc. Several investigative articles were commissioned and outlined.

The workshop was organized with the help of the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy, a private, not-for-profit foundation.

BIRN-Justice Report editor at Global Inter-Media Dialogue

BIRN – Justice Report Editor Nidzara Ahmetasevic took part in the third conference on Global Inter-Media Dialogue. The conference was held in Bali, Indonesia, from May 6 to May 9 this year.

The theme of the Conference was “Ethical Journalism in Extreme Conditions: The Challenge of Diversity.” More than 130 journalists, editors, producers and representatives of international journalist organisations took part in this year’s Conference.

The BIRN – Justice Report Editor presented at the plenary session a talk on “Reporting on Minorities in Zones of Tension.” The focus of Ahmetasevic’s presentation was media reporting on minorities who live in Bosnia, with particular emphasis on the rights of the Roma population. Last year Justice Report published a text on “Victims – Forgotten by Everybody,” focusing on the suffering of Roma in the course of the war in Bosnia. Not much research has been invested in the subject and nobody has been tried for those crimes as yet.

This theme generated much interest by the participants. The presentation was followed by a two-hour discussion on the current state minority rights and the present political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Besides Ahmetasevic, Institute for War and Peace Reporting associate based in Afghanistan, Said Yaqub Ibrahim, gave a presentation at this session.

Media professionals from India, Afghanistan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Norway, New Zealand, Macedonia, USA among others also participated in the Conference.

The Conference was co-organised by the Governments of Indonesia and Norway, with the help from the Government of New Zealand. The Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hassan Wirajuda, and State Secretary, Wegard Harsvik, on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry for Culture and Church opened the Conference.

The dialogue, which was jointly arranged by the Government of Norway and Indonesia, was initiated in the wake of the controversy regarding the cartoon of Prophet Mohammed. The theme and agenda of this year’s Conference was determined by members of a working group, composed of media professionals from those two countries.

The first Conference was held in Bali three years ago. The second one was held in Norway last year. The Justice Report Editor was one of the speakers at that Conference.

The Conference organizers would like to encourage cooperation between journalists from all over the world and thus develop a continuous dialogue and facilitate a discussion on the issues, which are of interest to all professional journalists.

Fellows Start Three Months of International Research

On May 1, after an initial seminar in Berlin, ten journalists taking part in the 2008 programme of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence started their research.

Selected to pursue their own story ideas within the broad theme of ‘energy’, each of the reporters from Southeast Europe devised local, regional and European research agendas before embarking on a summer of chasing stories, sources and statistics.

Under the supervision of their individual mentors – the editors who make up the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN – they came up with a range of interesting approaches to their chosen investigations.

Fellows will have to overcome many difficulties in their pursuit for stories, and to test their organisational capabilities and adventurous spirit. This year they will travel not only to their neighboring countries and EU, but their stories will also take them to further and less known destinations such as Russia, Georgia and Abkhazia.

To learn more about their experiences and impressions read the fellows’ blogs,  and in addition you can check the fellowship gallery  for 2008.

Fellows’ reports will be published in a book and on BIRN’s Balkan Insight after the Fellowship’s Selection Committee announces the winning result in late November at a closing ceremony in Vienna.

The Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence is an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the ERSTE Foundation, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

BIRN Debates Elections In Presevo

As a regional network of investigative reporting, BIRN will discuss this week about the problems and challenges in the Presevo Valley. This week, three debates will be shown both in Kosovo and Serbia, aiming to inform the citizens of Presevo Valley about the platform of the political parties who run in the parliamentary and local elections in Serbia on May 11.

Few days before local and parliamentary poll takes place, BIRN will discuss with Albanian and Serb representatives from the fields of politics, economy and civil society about the main problems of both Albanians and Serbs living in southern Serbia

Has the Presevo Valley politics a self-identity or it is influenced by Pristina and Belgrade? Do local representatives have concrete projects for bettering the life of the Valley citizens? Why isn’t there potable water yet? Are there enough investments in this region? Why are Albanian and Serb youngsters leaving the valley? What is the perspective of the youth?

The debates will be broadcast in Presevo’s ALDI TV in the last week before the elections take place, in both Albanian and Serbian languages.

In addition, the same debates will be broadcast in the Kosovo public broadcaster, RTK. The debate on local elections in Presevo will be broadcast on Wednesday, May 7, whereas the debate on local elections in Bujanoc will be broadcast on Friday at 23:15.

The debate on parliamentary elections in Serbia and accountability of the local Albanian politicians towards their electorate will be broadcast on Thursday, May 8, 20:15 in RTK.

The following panellists will discuss on these debates:

The following panellists will participate in the general elections debate:

Ragmi Mustafa – Mayor of Presevo
Nikolla Llaziq – Editor of Vranjske Novonine from Bujanoc
Jonuz Musliu – Deputy Mayor of Bujanoc
Andrej Nosov – Youth Initiative for Human Rights
Baki Rexhepi – from SPEKTRI television channel and
Riza Halimi – Head of the election list from Party for Democratic Action and current member of the Serb Parliament

The following panellists will participate in the debate for local elections in Presevo:

Skender Destani – Democratic Union of the Valley, BDL
Dragolub Filipovic – ‘Serb List for Presevo’ Coalition
Riza Halimi – Party for Democratic Action, PVD
Naser Haziri – Citizens’ Group
Orhan Rexhepi – National Albanian Movement, LKSH
Basri Mehmeti – Democratic Alliance, AD and
Ragmi Mustafa – Albanian Democratic Party, PDSH

The following panellists will participate in the debate for local elections in Bujanoc:

Shaip Kamberi – Party for Democratic Action, PVD
Miodrag Milkovic – Citizens’ Group (Grupa Gradjana)
Nenad Mitrovic – Coalition for a Better Tomorrow (Koalicija za bolje sutra)
Jonuz Musliu – Democratic Progress Movement, LPD
Sali Salihu – PDSH- PDK Coalition (Albanian Democratic Party and National Democratic Party)
Dalibor Stanojkovic – Democratic Party of Serbia, DSS
Goran Taskovic- Democratic Party, Election List for Bujanoc – for a European Serbia – Boris Tadic
Mejdi Zeqiri – Albanian Democratic Union, UDSH

These debates have been endowed with the assistance of Youth Initiative for Human Rights, ALDI TV, a local television channel from Presevo, and Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

BIRN Debates Elections In Presevo Valley

As a regional network of investigative reporting, BIRN will discuss this week about the problems and challenges in the Presevo Valley. This week, three debates will be shown both in Kosovo and Serbia, aiming to inform the citizens of Presevo Valley about the platform of the political parties who run in the parliamentary and local elections in Serbia on May 11.

Few days before local and parliamentary poll takes place, BIRN will discuss with Albanian and Serb representatives from the fields of politics, economy and civil society about the main problems of both Albanians and Serbs living in southern Serbia

Has the Presevo Valley politics a self-identity or it is influenced by Pristina and Belgrade? Do local representatives have concrete projects for bettering the life of the Valley citizens? Why isn’t there potable water yet? Are there enough investments in this region? Why are Albanian and Serb youngsters leaving the valley? What is the perspective of the youth?

The debates will be broadcast in Presevo’s ALDI TV in the last week before the elections take place, in both Albanian and Serbian languages.

In addition, the same debates will be broadcast in the Kosovo public broadcaster, RTK. The debate on local elections in Presevo will be broadcast on Wednesday, May 7, whereas the debate on local elections in Bujanoc will be broadcast on Friday at 23:15.

The debate on parliamentary elections in Serbia and accountability of the local Albanian politicians towards their electorate will be broadcast on Thursday, May 8, 20:15 in RTK.

The following panellists will discuss on these debates:

The following panellists will participate in the general elections debate:

Ragmi Mustafa – Mayor of Presevo
Nikolla Llaziq – Editor of Vranjske Novonine from Bujanoc
Jonuz Musliu – Deputy Mayor of Bujanoc
Andrej Nosov – Youth Initiative for Human Rights
Baki Rexhepi – from SPEKTRI television channel and
Riza Halimi – Head of the election list from Party for Democratic Action and current member of the Serb Parliament

The following panellists will participate in the debate for local elections in Presevo:

Skender Destani – Democratic Union of the Valley, BDL
Dragolub Filipovic – ‘Serb List for Presevo’ Coalition
Riza Halimi – Party for Democratic Action, PVD
Naser Haziri – Citizens’ Group
Orhan Rexhepi – National Albanian Movement, LKSH
Basri Mehmeti – Democratic Alliance, AD and
Ragmi Mustafa – Albanian Democratic Party, PDSH

The following panellists will participate in the debate for local elections in Bujanoc:

Shaip Kamberi – Party for Democratic Action, PVD
Miodrag Milkovic – Citizens’ Group (Grupa Gradjana)
Nenad Mitrovic – Coalition for a Better Tomorrow (Koalicija za bolje sutra)
Jonuz Musliu – Democratic Progress Movement, LPD
Sali Salihu – PDSH- PDK Coalition (Albanian Democratic Party and National Democratic Party)
Dalibor Stanojkovic – Democratic Party of Serbia, DSS
Goran Taskovic- Democratic Party, Election List for Bujanoc – for a European Serbia – Boris Tadic
Mejdi Zeqiri – Albanian Democratic Union, UDSH

These debates have been endowed with the assistance of Youth Initiative for Human Rights, ALDI TV, a local television channel from Presevo, and Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

BIRN Kosovo Director Participates In Press Freedom Debate

Jeta Xharra, BIRN’s Kosovo Director took part in the International Festival of Journalism in Perugia, Italy where she was on the panel for a discussion on Press Freedom and Human Rights, on 13 April 2008.

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Xharra spoke about the experiences of establishing the most watched current affairs programme in Kosovo, “Life in Kosovo”, a show which tackles head-on the most pressing and controversial issues in Kosovo’s society, ranging from the lack of inter-ethnic tolerance, weak education system, corruption in the healthcare system and Kosovo’s main power supplier as well as topics such as political transparency and the much debated Kosovan identity.

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Xharra was in a panel with Ahmat Zeidane Bichara, a journalist from Chad currently seeking political asylum in France because of the stories he has covered, Cai Chongguo, a Chinese expert on online censorship, Domenico Affinito a member of Reporters sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) in Italy and Enzo Nucci, the chief Nairobi correspondent with Italy’s RAI network.

The session was open to the public and the audience, mainly comprised of the students from the journalism school in Perugia, participated in the question and answer session.

Other international speakers at the 2008 festival included Carl Bernstein, Alastair Campbell, Christopher Dickey, Peter Eisner, Robert Fisk, Roy Greenslade, Bachi Karkaria, Eric Laurent, Ann Leslie, Robert Ménard, Anne Nivat, Fred Pearce, Knut Royce, Michael Specter, Alexander Stille, Philippe Val and many more.

Media represented included Al Jazeera International, BBC, Charlie Hebdo, CNN, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Economist, Le Figaro, France Presse, The Guardian, The Independent, The New Scientist, Newsweek, The New Yorker, The Observer, Le Point, Private Eye, Reporters sans Frontières, Reuters,
The Times, The Times of India, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and others.

More details can be found on:
http://www.journalismfestival.com/festivaldelgiornalismo.php?article162

Local media and election campaigning

BIRN Serbia, together with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe mission in Serbia organised in April, two workshops in Novi Pazar and Novi Sad for journalists and editors from local media in order to help them cover and understand the political campaign.

The event was separated into two sessions. The first focused on the legal framework, the obligations of the media in campaigns and the use of different kind of election polls.

Rade Veljanovski, a professor from Belgrade’s Faculty of Political Science gave a wide overlook of the actual conditions in Serbia and introduced participants to best European practice. He stressed that the situation in the Serbian media is not appropriately regulated because of the lack of good legislative and the absence of professional independent organisations.

Djordje Vukovic, a researcher from election monitoring body, CESID explained the difference between professionally-implemented research and false election polls whose authors are dubious. He said journalists must be aware when getting results of election polls from an undefined source.

Zoran Stanojevic from RTS presented his experience from covering the election campaigns. He compared Serbian media coverage practice with US-based media and said that here we do not have a thematic approach which is crucial in western media. He said that there was no space for real debates of the main political players because they did not show interest in taking part in that kind of programme.

Slobodan Basic and Nadezda Milenkovic gave the participants a possibility to look behind the campaign’s main stage and to understand how electoral teams work. They explained the point of view of party members and their chancellors and the way of formulating main ideas for the campaign. Basic and Milenkovic explained the different strategies and the importance of marketing and public relations in the campaigns in Serbia.

Fellowship Programme Kicks Off in Berlin

This year’s edition of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence was inaugurated on Thursday in Berlin.

Ten fellows from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia, are taking part in events hosted by the Robert Bosch Stiftung in the German capital.

The fellows have already attended training sessions designed to help them understand international standards in journalism and sharpen their professional approach to research and writing.

The ten journalists had an opportunity to discuss this year’s theme of the programme – energy – and held individual sessions with BIRN editors, exploring the details of their planned research.

Over the following days, they will attend a set of presentations by experts on energy, government officials and civil society activists.

Then, over the coming months, they will make their individual research trips to countries in the region and the EU, followed by a seminar and award ceremony in November.

The Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence is an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and Erste Foundation in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN.