BIRN on Monday named Matthew Collin as the new managing editor of Balkan Insight, its flagship English-language website for news, analysis and investigations.
Collin has already been working for BIRN for more than a decade, overseeing the editorial content of the Balkan Transitional Justice programme with its in-depth coverage of war crimes trials and other stories relating to the conflicts in the Balkans and their continuing impact on the contemporary political situation and people’s lives in the region.
He was also co-editor of BIRN’s book Last Despatches, which told the stories of media workers killed during the 1990s wars, and the Eyewitness Ukraine video project, which documented how Ukrainian journalists experienced the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“I’m proud to be working with our talented and committed team at Balkan Insight,” said Collin.
“Balkan Insight and BIRN in general are standard-bearers for quality journalism in a region where free speech is often under threat,” he added.
“For over a decade, Matthew had a central role in BIRN’s core work on transitional justice, while also contributing to our reporting in other areas,” said Milka Domanovic, BIRN’s regional director.
“His remarkable writing talent, mentoring skills, patience, collegiality, attention to detail and impeccable editorial standards for me serve as a guarantee that Balkan Insight, with him at the helm, will continue to provide quality journalism and ensure good cooperation with journalists across the region,” she added.
Before joining BIRN, Collin had a long and varied career working for major media organisations including the BBC, where he worked as the corporation’s Caucasus correspondent and covered the 2008 Russia-Georgia war.
He also worked as Caucasus correspondent and Tbilisi bureau chief for the French news agency Agence France-Presse, AFP, and as a television reporter for Al Jazeera English.
Before that, Collin was the editor of The Big Issue current affairs magazine, which won several awards for its coverage of social issues, and previously the launch editor of Time Out magazine’s website – one of the first websites to be established by a major media company in Britain.
The previous managing editor of Balkan Insight was Dusica Tomovic, who oversaw high-profile, award-winning coverage from September 2018 to May 2024.