Freedom of Information in the Balkans: No access and no progress

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Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, will present its annual Freedom of Information Report in an online event on Wednesday, October 19.

The panel, including representatives from the Freedom of Information commissioner’s offices from several countries in the region, will discuss main findings of the report: that politics in the Balkans has a significant influence on access to information.

The report is part of BIRN’s ongoing project, A Paper Trail to Better Governance, whose main aim is monitoring access to information and exposing wrongdoing through country-based and cross-border investigations.

Speakers:

Krenare S. Dermaku, Commissioner of the Information and Privacy Agency, Kosovo

Besnik Dervishi, Commissioner for the Right to Information and Personal Data Protection, Albania

Irma Hadžiavdić, Deputy Ombudsperson, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Biljana Božić, Head of Department for Free Access of Information, Montenegro

Cvetan Stanoeski and Makfirete Morina Sulejmani, lawyers, Agency for Protection of the Right to Free Access to Public Information, North Macedonia

Helen Darbishire, Executive Director, Access Info Europe

Shengyl Osmani, author of BIRN’s Freedom of Information in the Western Balkans report in 2021: “No political will, no access, no progress”.

Moderator of the event: Ivan Angelovski, BIRN Investigations Editor

Date and time: Wednesday, October 19., 1400 CET

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82662905904?pwd=Z2dKZTJoeGo4RjB0Rytwck11VlUwdz09

The report will be available on https://bird.tools/publications/ after the official launch event.