BIRN Hub News and Events

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.

Have you ever reported any violations on Facebook or Twitter? Was your report processed, content deleted or suspended, or the harassment, violence or hate speech continued? Tell us your story.

Adam Santovac, Jelena Veljkovic, Aleksandar Djordjevic, Nemanja Rujevic, Sanja Kljajic and Ajdin Kamber were announced on December 29 as the winners of this year’s EU Awards for Investigative Journalism, given for stories published in 2019 in Serbia.

New government in Montenegro has renewed a request to extradite Svetozar Marovic, ex-president of the former State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, who fled the country to avoid prison – after a BIRN investigation revealed the family’s business activities in Serbia.

Journalists from across the Balkan region participated in a series of online workshops and trainings to learn about the best practices in engaging citizens in the reporting process.

Online outlets in Western Balkan countries need to be better regulated to tackle hate speech and defamation, but restrictions should be crafted to avoid censorship, media and legal experts told a BIRN debate.

The jury awarded four journalists for “uncovering previously unexplored areas”, stressing that investigative journalism is of great importance for Kosovo and a wider region.

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network will hold a second public debate on December 22 with group of experts from across the region who will discuss case law and legal challenges of online media regulation.

Ivan Angelovski, an investigative reporter and editor working on long-term international projects for BIRN, will talk at this year’s Prague Media Point.

In an online event, the jury said all three stories from Bosnia are of utmost importance as “they point to many anomalies our society suffers, and that the government persistently ignores.”

Artist Vladimir Miladinovic will present an exhibition of drawings based on research into Hague Tribunal’s archive material about mass graves of Kosovo Albanian war victims in the Belgrade suburb of Batajnica.

The latest report published by BIRN and Share Foundation sheds further light on the trends in digital rights violations in Central and Southeastern Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic.