BIRN Hub News and Events

A department of Serbia’s finance ministry tasked with tackling money laundering and terrorism financing has asked banks to hand over data about the transactions of dozens of individuals and NGOs known for their work on human rights, transparency and exposing corruption.

BIRN Kosovo was one of four organisations that implemented the ‘Europeanisation of Kosovo’s Environmental Agenda’ project, which has awarded journalists in Kosovo for the best stories about the environment, energy efficiency and climate change.

BIRN’s Reporting Democracy project is to cooperate with a newly-created network of independent media outlets that report on the Central and Eastern Europe region in English, with the aim of increasing global understanding of important events taking place in a region.

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.

Aleksandar Vucic said BIRN report on the real number of COVID-19 victims in Serbia relies on data that are ‘not authentic’ – and again attacked the outlet over its 2015 investigation into the Tamnava mine clearance.

Kosovo politician Gani Koci has threatened several public figures on Facebook, including BIRN Kosovo director Jeta Xharra, calling them malodorous ‘Serbian septic tanks’ that need to be ‘covered in concrete’.

Media for All Project (Supporting Greater Media Independence in the Western Balkans) invites local and regional media in Serbia to apply for Engaged Citizens Reporting grants.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We are pleased to announce the names of the journalists chosen for this year’s Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence. Over the coming months, they will work on investigations, in-depth analysis and features on the theme of the Rule of Law.

To mark World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, BIRN joined more than 125 journalism support, media development, and press freedom organisations and networks making an emergency appeal for action, support, and assistance to journalism organisations and independent media during the COVID-19 crisis.