BIRN Hub News and Events

Winning stories tackled tragic fate of Balkan lynx, pandemic profiteers and over-employment in a government ministry.

Murat Ağırel, Hale Gönültaş, Volkan Nakiboğlu and Fevzi Kızılkoyun are the winners of this year’s EU Awards for Investigative Journalism, given for stories published in 2020 in Turkey.

BIRN’s flagship Summer School of Investigative Reporting returns for the 11th time in August, offering journalists a unique opportunity to learn investigative skills from award-winning trainers and journalists.

‘Bitter Land’ is an interactive database of mass graves that aims to demonstrate the scale of the atrocities, ethnic cleansing and operations to cover up war crimes during the 1990s conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

Trends Report highlights how symptoms of “Long COVID” in Central and Southeast Europe include assaults on transparency and media freedom, infectious disregard for the rule of law, and ideological entrenchment and polarisation.

The winning applications have been selected for BIRN’s first digital rights oriented programme – which aims to explore the effects of digitalisation processes and the challenges facing digital rights.

BIRN’s unique new database includes court verdicts handed down in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia for domestic terrorism and for going abroad to fight in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.

Do you have an idea for a big story in the public interest? Do you want to explore topics relevant for Montenegro and the EU integration process? Do you want to conduct your story to the highest standards, with training and a quality editorial mentoring from the country and the region that let you explore your subject in depth? Would you like your story to be published in the region, translated into English and to reach wider public?

The Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence is opening its 2021 call for applications.

Applications are now open for submission of investigative articles.

Reporters, editors and producers from six Western Balkans countries are invited to apply for a training in investigative podcasts led by prominent international trainers who produce podcasts for the Reveal and Bellingcat investigative journalism websites.

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network will host a group of journalists and editors from across the Balkan region in a live online debate on February 24 to discuss the issues of online media regulation while preserving freedom of speech and avoiding censorship.

Journalists from Central and Southeastern Europe are invited to apply for BIRN’s Digital Rights Programme for Journalists that aims to explore the effects of digitalisation processes and to go deeper into the challenges facing digital rights.

Media representatives from six Western Balkans countries with or without previous knowledge of fundraising are welcome to apply for the two-day online training.