In 2009, Besar received the CEI/SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism and in 2010 he was runner-up for the Global Shining Light Award, presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva. Besar studied philosophy at the University of North Florida.
He has been editor of BIRN Albania since 2007 and is the country correspondent for Balkan Insight. He’s also a mentor in the Western Balkans Media for Change project. Find out more about this important role in strengthening Albania’s media landscape.
- What type of support do you offer media outlets?
The support we offer to partner local media outlets includes all the stages of designing and implementing an Engaged Community Reporting (ECR) program. This ranges from the design and planning of activities to the selection of reporting topics, technical and editorial expertise for the drafting of effective questionnaires, call outs for distribution planning, data analysis and visualization, storytelling and editing.
- What does the mentorship process look like?
Our mentorship process is designed to provide knowledge-sharing and know-how between BIRN editors and mentors and Western Balkans Media for Change implementing partners, working closely with journalists and editors in local newsrooms. The mentoring process is based on BIRN’s built experience in supporting newsrooms in implementing ECR programs and is also continuously updated with the data – the responses and the experiences we crowdsource from each partner newsroom every month. Mentorship involves continuous in-person and online communication with journalists and editors, lessons learned analysis on thematic call-outs and published stories, videos, reels and podcasts.
- What were the biggest successes achieved through this type of mentorship?
As mentors, we collect data on what works and what does not work in Citizens Engagement Reporting and share it with our partners. This in turn arms them with the practical ability to engage diverse communities – from cancer patients to beach dwellers – in their reporting in order to produce rich, data-driven and compelling storytelling for their media. Our biggest success through this mentorship program has been the engagement generated from some of the implementing partners, which has exceeded expectations – and the excitement of journalists and editors to use the ECR tool.
- What reactions did you receive from the media outlets supported through this process?
Most media outlets are surprised how well the ECR tool works and are glowing from the response in reaching diverse communities and the possibility of engaging them in their reporting, which builds up trust between the media outlets and its readers.
The Western Balkans Media for Change project is funded by the UK government and implemented by the British Council in partnership with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Thomson Foundation and The International NGO Training and Research Centre, INTRAC.