BIRN Hub News and Events

New report says legal guarantees on access to information across region are strong on paper, but journalists still face administrative silence, delays, weak enforcement and inconsistent institutional practice.

Fast stories fade. The important ones need digging.
Applications are now open for the BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting 2026. This is a space for journalists who want to move beyond daily reporting and focus on real investigative work.

Representatives of BIRN Hub participated in several discussions at the POINT Conference in Sarajevo, focusing on digital rights monitoring, online gender-based violence and the growing challenges facing civic space in the digital sphere.

On June 2, BIRN organised a roundtable discussion on women’s safety in the digital space, bringing together representatives of civil society organisations, media, institutions and human rights advocates from Montenegro and Serbia.

Award presented in Lisbon for investigation ‘Killing for a Photograph’, described as ‘fascinating story that raises many previously unexplored questions’.

Awarded report reveals how Netherlands routinely deports homeless East Europeans despite existence of ‘borderless’ EU.

On May 29 in Gorizia, Italy, the investigation ‘Follow the Money: Why the EU, Not China, Matters Most to Serbia and Georgia’, by Ana Curic and Maradia Tsaava, was awarded by Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli.

From Poznań to Podgorica, and from Prague to Plovdiv, journalists across Central and Southeast Europe are invited to pitch ideas for in-depth reporting projects on issues shaping democracy across the region.

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, has launched an open call for independent journalists in Kosovo and Montenegro to apply for anti-corruption reporting grants under the project Society Against Corruption in Montenegro and Kosovo.

Through the Media Organisations for Stronger Transnational Journalism (MOST) project, BIRN has awarded grants to 20 journalists to produce investigative stories addressing key issues across Europe.

The winners of the Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence were announced at a ceremony in Vienna on 14 May, honouring the fellows who completed the programme.

Through the second edition of the Media Innovation Europe (MIE) project, BIRN has supported 15 media outlets in producing audience-engaged journalism stories across Europe, tackling underreported issues and strengthening cross-border collaboration.

BIRN Hub’s Senior Project Manager has been working with BIRN for five years and has witnessed the changes in our organisation during this period.

Prestigious award for best journalistic works of 2025 goes to Matejcic for her forensic investigation of photographs of execution taken in Bosnia in May 1992.

‘Reporting War’, which opened on Wednesday, spotlights how some media in former Yugoslavia actively paved the way for conflict by fuelling fear and deepening divisions in society.