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Opportunities for young people in South Serbia

The fifth consecutive public debate on economic development in local communities organized by BIRN Serbia, Media Centre, NALED and Ekonomist magazine took a place in Vranje on April 11.

The event gathered more than 25 representatives from the public, business and civil sector from Pcinja and Jablanica district and the debate was focused on the problems of youngsters in that region of Serbia.

The mayor of Vranje, Miroljub Stojicic stressed the importance of the Strategy for sustainable development which defined the areas of main interest and recommended solutions. He said many things can be solved if the local community gets more decentralisation powers.

“We are forced to go to Belgrade for everything and this is big problem” said Stojicic.

The mayor said the local administration is open to new ideas and initiatives and that one should take their faith in their own hands.

Biljana Stankovic from the MIR programme presented the activities of the United Nations Development Programme in the region which were mainly based on increasing the capacities of the local administration and development in south Serbia.

Dobrila Sudimac Mratnikovic from the Centre for Regional Development in Jablanica and Pcinja district presented the possibilities for a better and stronger network between regional municipalities regarding cross-border cooperation.

The representatives of the non-governmental organisation, Generator, presented the main problems facing youths in South Serbia based on research. They stressed importance of bigger institutional involvement in these issues if the administration wants to create a good environment for youth employment.

The British Embassy in Belgrade supported this project.

“Life in Kosovo” Debates Students’ Election

This Thursday’s Life in Kosovo show will host a debate with the candidates running for the Students’ Assembly Speaker at the University of Pristina.

We will question some of the most crucial issues and problems facing the publicly-owned University of Pristina. Candidates running for the position will present their arguments on how they will fulfill their election pledges.

During the debate, candidates will be confronted with questions from university students.

Which are their priorities? How will they seek to depoliticise the students’ assembly and carry out their promises to really make a difference to students’ lives?

We will be asking these questions, plus many more.

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

BIRN Kosovo Launches Public Services Monitoring Project

The BIRN Kosovo office has launched its latest project in monitoring Kosovo’s public services in order to promote transparency, accountability and make them more efficient. The project particularly focuses on municipal and district courts, health and education.

As part of this project, BIRN held a two day training on effective monitoring of public services. At the end of training, eight out of 18 participants were selected to carry out the monitoring of courts, education and the health system.

Successful candidates were picked from a number that applied to participate in the training programme.

The purpose of the training was to inform the candidates of the project substance, organisation, the monitoring system, collection methods and formats and possible challenges in implementing the project.

Training also covered issues related to monitoring each of the project’s key fields (healthcare, judiciary, and education) where candidates received lectures on the main issues and problems on each of these sectors and the indicators they’ll have to follow during the monitoring process.

The main trainer during the workshop was Ilir Hoxha while experts for the different fields were Betim Shala, lawyer; Xhafer Ahmeti, expert on education and Alban Selimi, journalist for health issues with the daily newspaper Lajm.

Participants in the training were:

Ibrahim Feimi, Leonard Ibrahimi, Arber Jashari, Isa Gacaferi, Rexhep Gashi, Shpat Kastrati, Avni Mehmeti, Jehona Ahmeti, Blerina Uka, Valdet Krasniqi, Faton Ademi, Valdrin Beka, Xhemil Klinaku, Betim Musliu, Bekim Saliu, Nexhat Xhokli, Fatmire Terdevci and Krenare Maloku.

During this project, BIRN will establish a network to monitor municipal courts as well as other institutions responsible for providing public services to citizens. This support will help ensure media and public oversight on the performance of public services in Kosovo.

This network will cover seven regions of Kosovo (Prishtina, Peja, Prizren, Gjakova, Ferizaj, Gjilan and Mitrovica) and will report back to the headquarters in Prishtina.

BIRN will use its “Life in Kosovo” show, the most watched current affairs programme in Kosovo, to broadcast the main conclusions of the monitoring results. The televised debates and investigative reports will aim to highlight the defects of the system but also the success stories in order to encourage civil servants and help build trust between citizens and institutions.

This project is supported by Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

BIRN Presentation on Rape Victims in Chicago

Marking International Women’s Day, Gordana Igric, founder and Regional director of the Balkans Investigative Reporting Network and investigative journalist, explored the power of journalism to expose rape and impunity at the third annual “International Movement to Stop Violence Against Women: Sharing Strategies” conference in Chicago, Illinois.

The all-day conference hosted presenters from Mexico, Israel and United States. Igric’s presentation, “Documenting Rape as a Tool of War: Journalism, Human Rights and Accountability”, marked the first occasion on which a presenter had been invited from the Balkans.

Audience members ranged from university students to seasoned mental health professionals working with survivors of domestic violence. Most had never heard more than headlines from the Balkans, whispers of wars far away with hard-to-pronounce names and constantly shifting borders.

Igric began by offering an overview of the systematic use of rape in the early 1990s by Serbian paramilitary forces. She focused specifically on the town of Foca, recounting her own investigations there, 15 years ago.

“I had heard of this town, Foca, this town where soldiers went to fight during the day and rape women at night,” she said. “I wanted to interview these people. These women. These men.”

Igric went on to show the CBS expose, “In Plain Sight”, which exposed on American, and later, Bosnian, television, the systematic impunity indicted war criminals appeared to enjoy, often with the complicity of international forces.

By challenging the idea of rape as a tool of war rather than simply a personal tragedy, Igric lead the workshop into a larger discussion of the reintegration of survivors of rape into society. “You would think justice came – but when you talk to the women they say it is not enough,” she noted. “If justice came at all, it came too late and didn’t help these women in everyday life.“

Many members of the audience asking questions, wanting to know more about the children of rape victims, as well as about the way the media and government had addressed the fate of these women.

Competition for the Balkan Fellowship closed

Entry to the competition for the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence closed on February 29, 2008. We have received total of 64 eligible applications.

Following the close of the appeal for applications, the selection committee intends to choose up to ten journalists to participate in this year’s programme.

The selection committee consists of six permanent members from the media community in the Balkans, Austria and Germany, as well as one annual member, who is an expert on this year’s Fellowship theme – energy.

The results of the selection will be announced on March 20 on fellowship.birn.eu.com.

Internship Opening at BalkanInsight.com

BIRN is looking for an enthusiastic,
creative and hard-working intern to help popularise BIRN’s new website, www.balkaninsight.com. This internship
position is not necessarily tied to our office in Belgrade,
with the intern able to work with us from anywhere in the world through
the internet.

Our preferred candidate should be an
active member of the online community, aware of all the latest
internet trends and services, familiarity with the most important blogging
sites and an interest in Balkan affairs.

Responsibilities:

To familiarise themselves with website
analytics and propose ideas for improvement

To monitor Google and explore other
marketing and advertising possibilities

To popularise website using available
services such as social networking websites like: digg, stumble upon
and delicious.

To initiate and participate discussions
about the articles and topics published on balkaninsight.com

Interested candidates should apply with a
CV to [email protected]

BIRN Partners British Council Project on Diversity Reporting

BIRN Bulgaria is among the media partners in a British Council project on
Media and Diversity. The two-year project was completed on Monday with the
publication of a journalistic handbook and the launch of a public awareness
campaign.

The journalistic handbook on reporting diversity was presented on Monday
evening in the Red House for Culture and Debate in Sofia. Albena Shkodrova, BIRN
Bulgaria’s Country Director, is one of the handbook’s three editors.

Written by Yana Buhrer Tavanier – an editor for the Bulgarian weekly
newspaper Capital, the guide contains practical tips, resources, dictionaries,
positive and negative examples and other useful information for Bulgarian
journalists reporting on five minority groups: ethnic minorities, disabled
people, LGBT and people with HIV/AIDS.

The Bulgarian-language handbook is also available electronically here.
BIRN Bulgaria will help distribute the handbook to its contributors and other
national and regional journalists from its network.

While the guide is directed at journalists, the second aim of the project is
focuses on Bulgaria’s society at large. A series of five animated clips, created
to raise the public’s awareness on each of the five groups, is being shown on a
number of Bulgarian TV channels and in public venues.

The short video pieces can be seen here

BIRN Serbia Holds Newswire Reporting Course

BIRN Serbia organised a two-day advanced workshop on newswire reporting for contributors from the region as part of its Minority Media Training and Reporting Project.

At the training in Belgrade’s Media Center BIRN’s Editor Aleksandar Vasovic and James Heintz, a Moscow-based Associated Press news editor held three specialized sessions on different types of reporting techniques to seven BIRN contributors for the In Brief section on Balkan Insight’s website.

Vasovic focused his presentation on reporting in crisis situations. He explained news gathering techniques ranging from alerting the public about ongoing developments, handling the news desk, organising reporters’ teams and handling the story to its end. The discussion examined the problems of reliability of the sources and witnesses, aspects of security for a reporter in the field, interviewing techniques as well as the key differences between urgent and detailed reporting.

Heintz introduced local journalists to AP standards and explained the chain of information distribution from the spot to the editorial desk. Heintz also demonstrated some key elements of AP writing style and in a discussion highlighted usage and usefulness of press conferences and official press statements as sources.

Life in Kosovo’s Jubilee Show

The Life in Kosovo programme broadcasts its 100th show Thursday.

Join us for the Jubilee show where we screen the best of how people celebrated Kosovo’s independence around the world.

We have been undated with videos from our viewers on how they celebrated Kosovo’s big day, and we will be showing some of our best picks.

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

Life in Kosovo: Exclusive live Pristina-Belgrade debate

With Kosovo set to declare independence, how will Serbia react? On this Thursday’s Life in Kosovo special programme, we’ll be putting that question to our guests in both Pristina and Belgrade.

How will Serbia deal with Kosovo in the future? Are parallel institutions being set up in Kosovo’s Serb-majority north? How will Kosovo’s Serbs react when Pristina declares independence? Does Kosovo’s government have a security plan? We’ll be asking our live guests these questions and more.

Joining us from Pristina are:

Astrit Salihu – adviser to the Prime Minister of Kosovo;
Ylber Hysa – political analyst;

And we’ll be joined from the Serbian capital by:

Dusan Prorokovic – State Secretary in Serbia ’s Ministry for Kosovo;
Goran Svilanovic – political analyst and former Serbian Foreign Minister;

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