Tag: Albania

It was the third in a series of seven roundtables, part of a programme called ‘Exposing Corruption in Albania’, which is financed by the Open Society Foundation in Albania (OSFA),  the Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

The project aims to expose corruption cases in seven different sectors: the environment, the judiciary, education, public administration, local government, organised crime and health, by bridging the gap between journalists and CSOs, and by providing a solid basis for collaboration in exposing abuses of power.

About 12 representatives of non-governmental organisations and six journalists discussed different topics of concern regarding education in Albania, with a special focus on corruption and impunity in the judicial system.

The representatives of the NGOs listed a number of topics, ranging from bribery, nepotism and abuse of office in the judicial system, the promotion of judges, the functioning of the High Council of Justice and others.

The topics highlighted by the NGOs will be listed in BIRN Albania’s call for investigative stories in the field of justice.

In this call that closes on October 31, three journalists will be awarded a grant to cover their expenses while doing the investigation and writing the story on issues related to corruption and impunity in education.

Journalists will have about two months to dig deeper and research their ideas, but also will have the opportunity to work with experienced editors as their mentors to guide them through the process of writing to BIRN standards.

More calls for investigative grants will follow, for a total of 21 stories until December 2016. Topics for investigations of future calls will include: Health, Judiciary, Organized Crime, Local Government and Public Administration.
The call only applies to journalists from Albania.

Click for more information about the application procedure, with details in Albanian.

It was the second in a series of seven roundtables, part of a programme called ‘Exposing Corruption in Albania’, which is financed by the Open Society Foundation in Albania (OSFA),  the Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

The project aims to expose corruption cases in seven different sectors: the environment, the judiciary, education, public administration, local government, organised crime and health, by bridging the gap between journalists and CSOs, and by providing a solid basis for collaboration in exposing abuses of power.

About 22 representatives of non-governmental organisations and 10 journalists discussed different topics of concern regarding education in Albania, with a special focus on pre-university education.

The representatives of the NGOs listed a number of topics, ranging from access and quality of education for minorities and other marginalised groups, to the recruitment of teachers and the education budget, which merit special attention and coverage from the media.

The topics highlighted by the NGOs will be listed in BIRN Albania’s call for investigative stories in the field of education.

The guests were greeted by Andi Dobrushi, Executive Director of the Open Society Foundation in Albania (OSFA), and BIRN’s English-language editor Marcus Tanner.

Reporter.al is a general news website designed to promote excellence in journalism, with a particular focus on investigative reporting, with stories that cover the war against corruption and impunity in the country.

The interactive website will publish investigative stories, analyses, reports and blogs, but also features from Albania and the region in the local language.

Through the website, BIRN will expand its reporting from Albania with special projects on media development, culture, elections and human rights.

Since it went live on September 1, the website has received more than 150,000 visitors.

The online publication is supported by the Open Society Foundation in Albania (OSFA), National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD).

The call is part of the programme ‘Exposing Corruption in Albania’, supported by the Open Society Foundation in Albania (OSFA), the Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD) and the National Endowment for Democracy, NED.

The purpose of the programme is to contribute to overall democratization processes in Albania by bridging the gap between civil society organizations and journalists, building their capacities and creating common ground for joint action in exposing corruption cases in the country, by providing journalists with necessary reporting skills, and regular reporting in the Albanian language on the misuse of power in the country. 

BIRN Albania seeks three monitoring experts, who will be engaged for a three-month period, starting August 20, 2014, to monitor six media outlets, three newspapers and three national television stations.

The successful candidates should fulfill the following requirements:

–          University degree, preferably in communications or journalism;
–          Excellent Albanian and English language skills;
–          Previous experience in media monitoring or media development;
–          Excellent communication skills and willingness to work as part of a team.

The candidates who are chosen will have the following responsibilities:

–          Daily monitoring of articles on corruption in selected media outlets for a three-month period;
–          Preparing daily reports on published or broadcast stories;
–          Contributing to data analysis for a monitoring study;
–          Contributing to the writing of the media monitoring study.

Deadline for applications is August 12, 2014.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Interested candidates should send a CV and a letter of interest to [email protected]

BIRN Albania is an equal opportunity employer.

The call, which closes on June 30, is part of the programme ‘Exposing Corruption in Albania’, supported by the Open Society Foundation in Albania (OSFA) and the Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD).

Three journalists will be awarded a grant to cover their expenses while doing the investigation and writing the story on environmental crime and corruption.

Journalists will have about three months to dig deeper and research their ideas, but also the opportunity to work with experienced editors as their mentors to guide them through the process of writing to BIRN’s standards.

More calls for investigative grants will follow, for a total of 21 stories until December 2016. Topics for future investigations will include: Health, Education, the Rule of Law, Organized Crime, Local Government and Public Administration.
The call only applies to journalists from Albania.

Click for more information about the application procedure, with details in Albanian.

It was the first in a series of seven roundtables, part of a programme called ‘Exposing Corruption in Albania’, which is financed by the Open Society Foundation in Albania (OSFA) and the Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD).

The project aims to expose corruption cases in eight different sectors: the environment, the judiciary, education, public administration, local government and organised crime, by bridging the gap between journalists and CSOs, and by providing a solid basis for collaboration in exposing abuses of power.

About 20 representatives of non-governmental organisations and journalists debated the possibilities of working together on important issues for the environment but also for ordinary people.

The NGO representatives underlined that there are many environmental problems in Albania that the topic should be a ‘gold mine’ for investigative journalists.

They listed dozens of key topics, ranging from the use of chemicals in agriculture tothe impact of new hydropower plants, illegal fishing and deforestation and answered more detailed questions about the options for research on those topics.

The journalists said that they were interested in writing investigative stories on the topics that the NGOs highlighted and both groups agreed that closer cooperation between CSOs and the media was necessary to tackle complex issues.