BIRN journalists in various countries won a total of 13 awards in 2016:
An alumna of BIRN’s Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence programme received a commendation from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women in Albania, UN Women, for the “creation of a professional model of investigative journalism for the reporting on trafficking of women and girls”.
BIRN Macedonia journalists won the prestigious Nikola Mladenov award for investigative reporting for the Skopje 2014 Uncovered database and a series of investigative reports about the grand revamp of the capital.
A BIRN Serbia journalist scooped first prize for the best investigative journalism story in Serbia’s print media. The award was given by the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia, NUNS, and the US Embassy in Belgrade.
The documentary film ‘The Unidentified’ – produced as part of BIRN’s Balkan Transitional Justice programme – won the best short documentary award at the South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles. The film investigated the commanders responsible for brutal attacks during the Kosovo war.
An investigation into judges’ assets by BIRN Albania won first prize in the EU Investigative Journalism Award 2015 for Albania.
A BIRN Serbia journalist won first prize in the EU awards for investigative journalism in Serbia for a report on a controversial government tender to clear the flood-hit mine, while third prize went to a joint BIRN Hub and BIRN Kosovo story revealing how a multi-million-dollar road construction contract was quietly handed to a consortium with little highway-building experience linked to a controversial Serbian businessman.
BIRN Macedonia won the first and second prizes in the EU awards for investigative journalism for Macedonia for a series of articles related to the Telecom dossier and for Skopje 2014 Uncovered respectively.
The second prize in the EU awards for investigative journalism for Kosovo was awarded for the story published in BIRN Kosovo’s Gazeta Jeta ne Kosove.
BIRN Serbia’s documentary ‘Flatland without Birds?’, about illegal hunting in Serbia, was named in November the best Serbian film at the Belgrade International Green Culture Festival, Green Fest.
BIRN Albania journalist Lindita Cela won a prestigious prize for ‘hard-hitting investigations’ into organised crime and corruption in Albania. The Central European Initiative and the South East Europe Media Organisation, in special partnership with the Media Program South East Europe of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung awarded the prize.
BIRN Kosovo won an award for the Best Television Story on Transparency and Anti-Corruption at the Anti-Corruption Journalism Awards, chosen by the Association of Journalists in Kosovo in cooperation with United Nations Development Programme and the Kosovo Anti-Corruption Agency.