The region faces a surge in surveillance and censorship practices that have profound implications for freedom of speech, human rights and democracy. BIRN’s report from April 2025, “Surveillance and Censorship in the Western Balkans”, highlighted the urgent need for a safe and accessible reporting mechanism. SPEAK was created to meet this need – a secure space where individuals can report abuses of surveillance and censorship.
What is SPEAK?
SPEAK allows users to safely and anonymously report abuses of surveillance and censorship across the Western Balkans, in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. As BIRN also monitors digital rights violations in Romania, Hungary, Turkey, and Croatia, submissions from these countries are welcome as well.
The platform empowers users to speak out against illegal surveillance and censorship. All submissions are reviewed by BIRN, which may further investigate relevant information and include them in in-depth stories or ongoing research projects. This approach ensures that critical issues are brought to light and further examined.
How to report?
Reporting through SPEAK is simple and fully anonymous, using BIRN’s Engaged Citizen Tool (ECR) a dedicated questionnaire consisting of basic questions in required fields, where the user is asked to provide information describing the incident they are reporting. The ECR tool does not collect or store IP addresses or any personally identifiable information, ensuring full anonymity and data protection. Users are not required to provide any personal details, guaranteeing complete identity protection.
By using SPEAK, journalists, human rights defenders, civil society organisations and the general public can report violations without fear of retaliation. Highlighting and reporting these abuses helps to increase transparency, raise awareness, and strengthen human rights in the region.
Visit our new platform and learn how to report, what can be reported, and how the whole process works here.
This website was produced with the support of the Open Society Foundations – Western Balkans, as a part of Surveillance and Censorship in the Western Balkans project. The thoughts and opinions expressed herein belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.