Donor: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Summary
The project aims to support investigative journalists by giving financial support and providing a space for their stories to be published. The project is part of the USAID programme for strengthening independent media in Macedonia and is implemented in partnership with Center for Civil Communications, Center for Investigative Journalism – SCOOP Macedonia, TV magazine KOD and daily newspaper KOHA.
The project, which was launched in December 2012, has several different elements including fostering links between journalists and NGOs, training of NGO representatives, and supporting journalists to investigate and publish their stories.
Macedonia’s media are troubled by many challenges. The closure of independent and critical media, increasing pressure and government control over numerous media outlets and the rising trend of self-censorship have led to a journalism guided by the political and business interests of media owners and limited space for objective reporting, which has almost wiped out investigative reporting. At the same time, professional journalistic standards are largely ignored.
With this project, BIRN Macedonia is promoting and seeking to strengthen the relationship between the media and NGOs by identifying priority issues of common interest. Ten debates on different topics between journalists and NGOs are included. The goal is for the participants to identify the topics that need to be tackled.
BIRN Macedonia is supporting investigative journalism by opening 11 calls for investigative stories. More than 50 journalists will be awarded financial support for in-depth investigations on specific topics. The selected journalists will be provided with mentors from BIRN and partner organisations who will guide the journalists through the investigative process.
The project provides for the publishing of stories written by the selected journalists on a separate website designed for the project, but also via other media. The website will not only serve to publish the stories but also function as a database for NGOs and experts in various fields which journalists and NGO representatives can use to get the information and contacts they need.
BIRN Macedonia together with its partners will provide training and expertise for the NGOs and media through 10 workshops so they create a common language, and also train the NGOs to achieve higher visibility in the media.
Together with the KOD TV magazine, 17 investigative programmes will be created in the framework of the project.
In addition, the comprehensive databases and research on issues of wider interest will be published.
The project was initiated by BIRN Macedonia in 2012 and was supported by USAID.
Information Sheet
Main Objective:
To bridge the current gap between journalists and non-governmental organisations on issues of public interest.
To build operational and efficient partnerships between CSOs and media as the base for more objective journalism and a more informed public.
Specific Objectives:
Establish partnership relationships between media and CSOs that will enable long-term cooperation, instead of one-off contacts on issues of public interest. Currently media tend to ignore or use the work of CSOs selectively, thus depriving the public of the big picture. At the same time, both media and CSOs have not forged any strong ties or cooperative relationships.
Achieve greater visibility of the work of CSOs and in turn greater media legitimacy; design a line of communication between media and CSOs, so CSOs can arm journalists with necessary reporting information in the public interest, helping their professional, fact-based, and objective reports, resulting in more professional journalistic stories.
Support public interest journalism by improving journalists’ skills, capacities, tools, information and offering financial resources for in-depth and investigative reports, as well as space for the publishing of their stories, the project aims to create a pool of investigative journalists, create a web platform and contribute a significant number of reports on key issues.
Provide the public with better and more substantial information as the basis for making informed decisions (in their private lives, businesses and as members of society), raise public awareness on key issues and stir up debate.
Main Activities:
Identifying media and CSOs’ common issues through a series of public debates between journalists and CSO representatives.
Research on the current media coverage of the identified common issues through an in-depth monitoring of the way Macedonian media and journalists report on these issues
Creating a common language for CSOs and media through 10 workshops for CSOs.
Technical assistance to Macedonian journalists in reporting on important issues in a more professional, fact-based and objective way.
Providing journalists and CSOs with space for reporting issues of common interest and for offering citizens important information.
Sharing information and news reporting materials with other Balkan countries.
Delivered outputs:
17 debates on topics of public interest
10 workshops for cooperation between journalists and civil society organisations
11 calls for investigative stories
More than 100 CSO representatives involved in the project’s activities
2 media monitoring reports on reporting on topics of public interest
16 journalists awarded with scholarships to participate in BIRN’s Summer School for Investigative Reporting
4 complex databases developed
17 TV investigations produced
55 investigative reports supported through the calls for investigative stories
24 databases with analysis on given topics
Over 150 investigative reports published on the website prizma.mk
1 interactive web application developed
Target Groups:
Journalists and CSOs from Macedonia
Highlights:
The investigations that originated from the project have received numerous awards and acknowledgments for investigative journalism in Macedonia, such as, the Nikola Mladenov award, the Jashar Erebara award and the European Union award for investigative journalism, to name a few.
The database ‘Skopje 2014 Uncovered’ was awarded the best investigation for 2015 by the Macedonian Media Institute. The BIRN Team received the Nikola Mladenov award for investigative journalism for this investigation.
The 2016 winner of the Nikola Mladenov award was the KOD Team for the TV investigation ‘The Case of Kosta Krpach’, which was supported by the project.
‘Skopje 2014 Uncovered’ was also awarded the second prize for investigative journalism in 2015 by the EU Delegation in Macedonia, while Boris Georgievski was awarded the first prize for ‘Dossier Telecom’, published on Prizma.
BIRN journalist Vlado Apostolov won the Jashar Erebara award for investigative journalism from the Association of Journalists of Macedonia in 2016 for the investigation ‘Dossier Zdravev’.
The database on agricultural subsidies was awarded the best investigation of 2016 by the EU.
The database ‘Foreign Investments Uncovered’ is shortlisted for the Global Data Journalism Award for 2017 in the Small Newsroom category.