BIRN Serbia News and Events

Each month, BIRN introduces you to a different member of its team. For May, meet Radmilo Marković, journalist at BIRN Serbia.

Radmilo Markovic, investigative reporter with BIRN Serbia, was awarded the prestigious Dejan Anastasijevic Investigative Award in the online media category for his reporting on illegal constructions in Belgrade.

Belgrade mayor Aleksandar Sapic is suing BIRN Serbia over two articles about properties he owns, seeking 100,000 euros in damages – a move that the media organisation says is an attempt to discourage public interest reporting.

The Serbian state distributed 6.8 billions dinars, almost 58 million euros, on public competitions last year, a big rise on the year before and much of it spent in an untransparent way, according to a new BIRN Serbia report.

Court rules that lawyer’s words grossly violated the ethical code, but did not constitute a direct threat to the journalist’s life – an outcome Zoric said she had expected.

Visibility is replacing public interest as editors’ priority, while the media landscape is becoming ever more fragmented due to media drives to accommodate tech-companies’ algorithms, BIRN Serbia report finds.

Former State Secretary in Serbia’s Ministry of Interior Dijana Hrkalovic, who is accused of abusing her official position, in a guest appearance in the show Ćirilica (Cyrillic) on Happy Television, aired on Tuesday, presented a series of incorrect pieces of information about BIRN and Vreme journalist Jelena Zoric, and also mentioned her brother.

Untransparent and uncontrolled surveillance enables infringement of citizens’ privacy and changes how journalists work with sources, concluded the participants of the panel „Influence of new technologies, artificial intelligence and surveillance technology on freedom of expression and the media“, which BIRN organized in cooperation with OSCE.

Stories on air pollution, cronyism in business and manipulation of the COVID death toll received the top prizes at an awards ceremony on November 16.

BIRN Serbia journalist Natalija Jovanovic was announced as this year’s winner of the Dejan Anastasijevic Investigative Award in the online media category by the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia and the US embassy in Belgrade on Friday.

Investigative reports by nine BIRN journalists exposing alleged corruption and official malpractice have been shortlisted for awards by the Independent Association of Journalists in Serbia.

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.

BIRN Serbia published a new report on financial media sustainability in the digital environment on December 24 as a part of a project entitled Where is the Place of Media in New Internet Governance Policies?

Human Rights House in Serbia, marking International Human Rights Day on December 10, awarded BIRN journalist Natalija Jovanovic for her outstanding commitment to the protection, respect and promotion of human rights.

Natalija Jovanovic wins top award for her groundbreaking story on the number of COVID-related deaths in Serbia, which President Vucic initally rubbished, only for it to be confirmed later on.