The events will take place in the venue that next year will become the Reporters’ House – a space that will host BIRN’s museum dedicated to media and journalists, the war in the former Yugoslavia, and challenges to contemporary journalism.
Even though the venue is being renovated, we want to open it to the public temporarily, in the hope that BIRN Open House will become an annual series of events at our new museum from next year.
As we work across Southern and Eastern Europe, and due to the global pandemic, we cannot bring all of our participants to Sarajevo, so a limited number of the week’s events will be held online.
First day: Tuesday 14 December
18:00 Offline: Opening programme – Last Despatches: exhibition and launch of a new book published by BIRN that profiles some of the journalists killed during the wars in Yugoslavia. The exhibition is a follow-up to our multimedia project last-despatches.balkaninsight.com, which inspired us to create the Reporters’ House.
The exhibition will be otherwise open to the public without RSVP from December 14 to December 19, from 12:00 to 20:00 at Ferhadija Street 10.
Second day: Wednesday 15 December
15:00 Online: Platform B discussion: Chinese Investments in the Balkans: Transparency Locked. Presentation of our database that mapped the Chinese investments in the region, including more than 100 projects in infrastructure, technology and culture. Read more.
18:00 Offline: Presentation of the EU Award for Investigative Journalism followed by a panel discussion “Investigative journalism and challenges of COVID-19 pandemic”.
Third day: Thursday 16 December
11:00 – 11:45 Offline: BIRN Annual Regional Digital Rights Report: Misinformation, Denial and Threats.
12:00 – 12:45 Offline: Discussion: The Far Right, Violence and Misinformation.
Fourth day: Friday 17 December
10:00 – 13:30 Offline: Meeting: Online Content Removal and Blocking.
18:00 – 21:00 Offline: Screening of the documentary ‘Journalism is Not a Crime’.
Fifth day: Saturday 18 December
18:00 Offline: Book launch and discussion: Poems, stories and dealing with the past.
Sixth day: Sunday 19 December
18:00 Offline: Discussion: Remembering Srebrenica through journalism, oral history and activism.
Seventh day: Monday 20 December
11:00 Offline: Panel discussion and brunch: Female Empowerment Online: Practices and Challenges.
Eight day: Wednesday 22 December
15:00 – 17:00 Online: Presentation of a report on conflict prevention in collaboration with Impunity Watch.