BIRN Hub News and Events

As part of BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting, Paul Radu has tried to explain, by going through personal experience, how to track organised crime over borders and offshore.

How to track organised crime and corruption, to deal with victims of trauma  and how to outsmart Google were some of the main topics of the third day of BIRN Summer School of Investigating Reporting held in the Serbian town of Novi Sad.

Leading journalists and trainers from all over Europe have gathered in the Serbian town of Novi Sad to take part in the first BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting.

Places are still available for the BIRN summer school for an all-inclusive course fee of €549, which covers tuition, accommodation, meals and activities. However, the August 9^th deadline is approaching fast, so please submit your application without delay.

Journalists from South East Europe still have time to apply for full scholarship to attend BIRN’s unique Summer School of Investigative Reporting from August 22 to 28 within the Petrovaradin Fortress, in the stunning Fruska Gora National Park.

Thanks to BIRN’s generous sponsors, The Open Society Institute and the OSCE Serbia, we are happy to provide scholarships for a limited number of participants. Journalists from South East Europe, who have at least three years experience, can apply for a full scholarship.

Pack a notebook and perhaps some hiking shoes and join BIRN for a unique Summer School of Investigative Reporting from August 22nd – 28th within the Petrovaradin Fortress and in the stunning Fruska Gora National Park.

More than 20 journalists from the Balkan region and elsewhere gathered last weekend in the coastal resort of Becici, in Montenegro, for the first Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence Alumni Meeting.

An Investigative story, written by 2009 Fellow Adrian Mogos received an honorable mention at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference, held in Geneva in April 2010.

The Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence programme 2010 has been launched this Monday, April 26^th, at the opening dinner attended by this year’s fellows and representatives of the Robert Bosh Foundation, Erste Foundation and BIRN.

A regional cultural conference dubbed “The Balkans, Media and Culture – Time for Change” was held on Tuesday in Skopje and marked the start of the forthcoming three-year project: Balkan Initiative for Cultural Cooperation, Exchange and Development, BICCED.

The regional conference “Balkan, Media and Culture – Time for Change” will be held on April 20, 2010 at the Kaproš hotel in Skopje, as part of the three-year project “Balkan Initiative for Cultural Cooperation, Exchange and Development” – BICCED, which will be implemented by the Balkan Investigative Regional Reporting Network and its partners, and funded by the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans (SCP).

We are very pleased to announce the names of the ten journalists selected for the 2010 Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence. This year’s competition was very tight as proposals received depicted the most interesting taboo issues throughout the Balkans. The Selection Committee has chosen the ten most exciting, interesting and relevant proposals from the 150 ideas submitted by journalists from across the region.

Outdated laws in the field of culture, delays in adopting new legislation a lack of transparency, insufficient budget for cultural activity, partitocracy in cultural institutions – election of leaders based on political affiliation rather than expertise, a lack of tax benefits for investment in culture, poor regulations of the art market, vague criteria for the award of funds finance in ‘open competition’, a lack of long term financing for projects and institutions, marginalisation of productions in the independent cultural scene.

Balkan Fellowship team members are engaged in selecting the best candidates for this year’s programme, on the topic of ‘Taboo’. The exact number of eligible applications received per country is the following: Serbia 42, Romania 27, Croatia 19, Bulgaria 15, Albania 12, Bosnia & Herzegovina 10, Kosovo 6, Macedonia 6, and Montenegro 6.