Tag: BIRN HUB

Journalists Serbeze Haxhiaj and Milica Stojanovic won First Prize with their article as part of Solidarity Stories, “Serb Monastery Shelters Kosovo Albanians”, which tells how a Serbian Orthodox Monastery provided shelter for Albanian civilians during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo.

Part of the First Prize was also the story by Serbeze Haxhiaj, “Serb Saves Albanian Neighbours in Kosovo”, published on November 9, 2002, which tells about a Kosovo Serb who protected his Albanian neighbours from Serbian police during the tough times of spring 1999. The article was also part of the series of Solidarity Stories which Balkan Insight published last year.

“These two articles address a taboo, a topic which is very rarely seen in our media …These two articles show that there were positive examples [of behaviour] that need to be highlighted,” Ismet Hajdari, a member of the jury and Kosovo journalist, said explaining the jury’s decision.

Another article published by BIRN Kosovo’s KALLXO.com, “Coexistence between Serb and Albanian Youth”, authored by Bubulina Peni and Ardona Popova, was awarded Second Prize. The article is about young Albanians from South Serbia and Serbs from Kosovo and discrimination they face in their lives.

Shkelqim Xhaqkaj’s story, “At a Village Market, Kosovo’s Ethnic Tensions Fade Away”, published on February 14, 2022, won Third Prize. The story concerns a popular food market near Gjilan/Gnjilane, where Serbs and Albanians trade together without caring who comes from which community.

The goal of the Peaceful Change Initiative’s Media Award was to promote and reward media content from Kosovo and Serbia that explore themes of co-existence between communities. It rewards outstanding media content that explores multi-ethnic co-existence.

 

Applications are solicited under this year’s theme, Security. Successful applicants will be selected by an independent committee to take part in our programme for professional development, culminating in the production of a compelling longform story to be published by BIRN and its media partners.

Our output takes the form of features, analysis and investigations, presented in depth for a global audience. We emphasise strong storytelling and rigorous, on-the-ground reporting – qualities traditionally associated with the best magazine journalism.

The Fellowship provides:

• a bursary of €3,000
• the chance to improve your reporting skills by working in close collaboration with world-class editors
• ongoing mentoring and support from BIRN’s leading regional journalistic network, present in 14 countries of the Central and SEE region
• the opportunity to participate in an introductory seminar in Vienna, May 13^th – 16^th , focused on reporting and storytelling techniques
• the chance to win additional awards worth between 1.000 and 3.000 euros for the best three stories
• worldwide publication of reports in local languages and English through our network of media partners
• membership of the Fellowship alumni network, designed to support networking between fellows who have participated in the programme since 2007

This year’s call is open until March 28th. Please send us your proposal using the official application form.

To maximize your chances of a successful application read more about the programme including the tips from our editors

Here is what our editor, Neil Arun, has to say about this year’s topic.

Questions of security have dominated the news in a year that saw the return of large-scale war to Europe. But security takes many forms beyond protection from invading armies or soaring energy prices. In his famous “hierarchy of needs”, the US psychologist Abraham Maslow ranked the human requirement for security as utterly fundamental, superseded only by physiological needs.

The theme of this year’s Fellowship invites you to consider the many ways in which security – and its absence – are shaping your society. You could, for instance, examine some of the institutions around you that are entrusted to provide some form of security. What happens when they fail? What happens when they over-reach, abusing the trust placed in them? Who suffers? Who benefits? You can report on protection from violence, abuse and injustice. You can also report on economic security – or protection from poverty and exploitation. And then there is the protection of the environment from pollution to consider, and the protection of society from harmful technologies, and of essential supply chains from disruption. You can report on any of these things and you can, of course, also examine the impact of the war in Ukraine if you have a new and compelling story to tell about it.

The annual theme is always broad, in order to attract the broadest range of applications. If you want to apply for the Fellowship but do not have a story in mind, the theme should help you generate ideas. If you already have a story lined up, find a way of linking it to the theme. We will always value a strong application that is loosely linked to the theme over a weak application that is tightly linked to the theme.

About the Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence

The Fellowship has been providing journalists with editorial guidance and funding to pursue agenda-setting stories for more than 15 years. Aimed at promoting the development of a robust and responsible press, the programme has helped shape journalistic standards across the region while boosting the careers of participating reporters.

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and Erste Foundation set up the Fellowship in 2007 with a view to encouraging in-depth cross-border reporting in south-eastern Europe. In 2020, the programme was expanded to include four central European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

To read our stories and find out more about the Fellowship please visit the Fellowship official page.

 

 

The conference gathered journalists and young people interested to become journalists, media workers and organisations from the Western Balkans involved within the project’s activities to talk about new trends in journalism, fact-checking and the importance of support and cooperation in journalism.

Representatives from BIRN involved in the project participated in the conference and shared success stories from its implementation in the past six months.

Together with representatives from the local media outlets supported for engaging in citizens reporting and for using the ECR tool developed by BIRN, they highlighted the importance of mentorship and support provided for local media for the production of quality fact-checked news. The need for continuous capacity building as an approach to countering disinformation was also highlighted.

“The ECR tool has helped us be closer to our audience. It supported us in establishing a sustainable two-way communication street with our audience.” Geri Emiri from Amfora, an ECR grantee from Albania, said.

Eleven mentors/editors from BIRN supported 28 local media outlets and enhanced the local journalists` skills in engagement journalism and raised their editorial standards, with a focus on storytelling, data analysis, verification and fact-checking, contributing to the fight against misinformation and disinformation.

Journalists from 46 media outlets included in the project were given training in fact-checking skills intended to combat misinformation and boost independent reporting.

“BIRN`s editors/ mentors provided comprehensive support for local media outlets for engaging citizens in their reporting, thus enabling direct communication with them and production of quality content. Through BIRN’s developed ECR tool, during the past six months, over 1,000 citizens from all Western Balkan countries were involved in the work of 28 local media outlets proposing topics of their interest and local importance that were further investigated and fact-checked by the local media outlets. Support for countering disinformation and misinformation and fact-checking was also provided through a set of training activities organised by BIRN,” Milka Domanovic, BIRN Network Regional Director, said.

The Conference agenda included discussions and presentations about gender and youth and discources on Digital Dis/Misinformation, Understanding Meta Algorithms and TikTok Distribution, Core Values as a Compass for Media Professionals, Gender Disinformation and other issues.

Key successes on using social media and engaging with audiences and relevance of the content were shared. Speakers also presented tips and tricks on why journalists should use TikTok, the strategy and context on TikTok, profiling the audience and the power of journalists’ creativity on TikTok and the importance of your community.

The Media for All project is being implemented in six countries in the region: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. BIRN is working in partnership with the British Council, Thomson Foundation and Intrac on the project, which is funded by the UK government, with special attention to engaging the public in reporting and fighting fake news.

 

In the next three years, BIRN Hub will continue to provide systemic support to improve the quality and professionalism of journalism in the Western Balkans and Türkiye through the project Strengthening Quality Journalism II funded by the European Union.

Together, Central European University, the Association of Journalists from Türkiye, Thomson Media, University Goce Delcev Stip, the Independent Union of Journalists and Media Workers from North Macedonia, Media Association of South-East Europe from Montenegro and Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Kosovo (BIRN Kosovo) will implement actions to strengthen trust-based engagement between citizens and media, provide resources and support for high-quality content production through education, training, mentoring, and supply editorial support.

Different trainings will be provided to young and mid-career journalists followed by editorial support. At the same time, mainstream and public service media will be included in the project activities, especially oriented towards content production through cross-border collaborations.

Through the already recognized EU awards scheme and the new regional award, the project will promote high standards in investigative journalism. Academia will be involved through different activities, among them working on a Master’s level programme for investigative journalism.

Over the three days, BIRN Hub and its seven partner organizations met and planned project actions that aim to support 600 young and mid-career journalists to produce quality news and conduct investigative reporting, provide journalism training, funds for content production and awards for merits in investigative reporting.

The partners also shared lessons learned from the previous phase of the project implemented over the past four years. In the previous phase, 1,000 journalists enhanced their skills through a set of different tailor-made capacity-building activities and over 1,500 pieces of quality news were produced. Cross-border stories, news, documentaries and investigations were developed and awarded through the EU awards.

This article was created with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of BIRN and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

The event focused on knowledge-sharing and brought together 13 participants from various organisations who explored the possibilities of new partnerships and collaboration in the field of digital rights.

In the first session of the meeting, SHARE Foundation presented the  work that the network has implemented so far, including collaborative activities in preparing digital rights-related reports and conducting campaigns such one in October 2022 focusing on cybersecurity.

This was followed by the presentation of an upcoming campaign called ‘Cyber Intimacy’.

The second session featured presentations of the work of network members from Serbia in the digital rights field.

The network members that attended were Partners Serbia, CRTA, YUCOM, Civil Rights Defenders, Share Foundation. They were joined by representatives of potential new members of the network, the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia, Belgrade International Law Circle and BIRN Serbia.

Afterwards, all the participants discussed future steps for the network and tried to find common denominators among members for potential collaborative opportunities.

The participants expressed great interest in contributing to forthcoming network activities and shared their views and recommendations for upcoming collaborations and internal capacity-building.

The meeting ended with an agreement about several activities that will be implemented within the network on the national level in Serbia, while follow-up meetings, including those with regional members of the network, were also announced.

Established in 2020 by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, and Share Foundation, SEE Digital Rights Network aims to respond to the challenges of the growing and fast-evolving use of advanced technologies and address data protection concerns and online violations.

This activity was carried out as part of the Mapping Digital Rights Violations and Fighting Disinformation in Central Europe Region project and made possible through support from the UN Democracy Fund.

 

 

A preliminary hearing in Predrag Koluvija’s defamation lawsuit against BIRN, claiming that the organisation incorrectly conveyed facts about his past while reporting on his trial for alleged marijuana cultivation, was held at Belgrade Higher Court on Monday.

The lawsuit claims BIRN’s report on a court hearing on September 21 at Belgrade Special Court damaged the reputation of Koluvija, the owner of the Jovanjica company, and caused him mental anguish. He is seeking 200,000 dinars (around 1,700 euros) in damages.

During the hearing in September, the prosecution presented documents from a cannabis-smuggling trial in Hungary in 2011 and 2012, stating that although Koluvija was not charged, his name was mentioned numerous times in connection with the defendants.

By Azem Kurtic

The environmental crisis in the western Balkan has become more visible in the wake of Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year, as countries struggled to obtain enough energy with rising prices, putting environmental protection in the shade.

“The crisis was already existent in the region and the war made it clearer that this is something that will stay for years and will take a lot of efforts to change,” said Pippa Gallop, Southeast Europe energy advisor at Bankwatch.

Over 50 journalists gathered in Sarajevo, Bosnia, for the “Going Environmental” conference, the culmination of a project by BIRN and German partner n-ost.

The project’s goal was to promote collaborative environmental journalism in the region by bringing together journalists from Western Balkan countries to collaborate and provide regional perspectives on environmental and climate change issues – which are quite often common ones.

The Western Balkans face a significant challenge in the form of its reliance on coal for electricity and heating, which has resulted in cities in the region frequently appearing on lists of the world’s most air-polluted cities.

However, with the escalating energy crisis, conference participants emphasized that many countries are now shifting away from renewable energy sources.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, closure of the Tuzla power plant’s Block 5 and Kakanj power plant’s Block 4, originally planned for 2022, has been postponed.

“We still don’t have a state-level environment protection strategy and are waiting for on to be made, which will be a historical moment in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Sabina Sahman – Salihbegovic, secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities in the country.

Training programs were held for journalists to report on various critical topics, including the effects of pesticide use, the loss of protected heritage sites to construction projects, illegal deforestation, and the consequences of small hydropower plants.

A special emphasis was placed on cross-border journalism, leading to the production of 19 insightful articles that were published in media outlets across the western Balkans.

In 2022, 18 participants from six Western Balkan countries underwent two training sessions with the objective of developing a new regional approach to environmental issues in the Balkans.

The culmination of their work was showcased at a presentation in Sarajevo on Thursday. The event highlighted the vital role of media in fostering an open and informed public discourse on the fight against climate change, as well as the far-reaching impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on environmental and energy policies in Europe and the Balkans.

 

 

 

BIRN held a four-day online training course in audience-engaged for 30 journalists from Balkan and Visegrad countries from December 5-8.

Thirty journalists from ten media outlets were given training in engagement journalism at the workshop held by Ariana Tobin, engagement editor of ProPublica, and BIRN’s experienced trainers and mentors Aleksandra Bogdani, Ana Petruseva, Gyula Csak and Katarina Zrinjski.

Participants were media outlets chosen to receive BIRN’s Audience Engaged Journalism Grants to create individual or collaborative cross-border engagement stories.

The media outlets selected for funding were Kujto Foundation (Albania), Atlatszo (Hungary), Live V Lice (North Macedonia), Suboticke (Serbia), Romea (Czech Republic), Kosovo 2.0 (Kosovo), Roditelji.me (Montenegro), UPS media (Bosnia and Herzegovina); whilst Oko Info (Serbia) and Kanal Vis (North Macedonia) received a grant to do a collaborative story.

Within the programme, the selected media outlets had an opportunity to participate in training and mentoring in order to bring innovation to their newsrooms, engage communities and develop investigative stories by using the B-engaged tool – a digital tool designed and developed by BIRN for the purpose of audience engagement.

The training course, which combined technical skills and editorial knowledge was the first step in the programme to help media outlets develop their engagement stories.

Tobin suggested some basic questions for journalists embarking on engagement stories: “Who is the community most impacted? Who are the stakeholders? How do we reach them? Who might be able to help us? What is the content plan? How might we keep them engaged and report back their progress?” she said.

With the guidance of the trainers, the participants learned how to create callouts to their audiences and read results using the B-engaged tool.

Audiences represent a valuable source of information for journalists and the B-engaged tool enables them to include the public in their reporting and crowdsource data for story investigations, the trainers explained.

The trainers said that audience research, the design and promotion of callouts for involvement, the verification of data and the creation of engaging final products are other important steps to consider in engagement journalism.

Engagement journalism is about building trust and two-way communication between the journalist and the communities, they said.

“Be compassionate to people you are approaching and continue doing some quality journalism,” Tobin concluded.

Audience Engaged Journalism Grants are part of the Media Innovation Europe (MIE) project, funded by the European Commission. The programme is run by the International Press Institute, the Thomson Foundation, the Media Development Foundation and BIRN and is intended to empower media outlets as they navigate the digital transition, giving them journalistic tools and skills in diverse products and business structures in order to reach audiences and bring sustainability.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Commision. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

China in the Balkans, an interactive map and a corresponding database produced by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, was shown to an international audience at the China in the World conference in Berlin on Tuesday.

Organised by Doublethink Lab, an NGO from Taiwan, the conference brings together various stakeholders researching China’s global influence as well as its disinformation strategies. Apart from debates and panels, new additions to the China Index will be made.

The index researches and analyses Chinese influence in 46 countries across the globe and has added 10 new countries to its latest list, including Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania, done in cooperation with the BIRN.

BIRN’s Ivana Nikolic, Programme Manager of Investigative Reporting Initiative, told the conference about BIRN’s motivation to map Beijing’s activities in the region, arguing that there is a growing need to critically assess the scope of Chinese-linked economic actions and their consequences.

“What we have seen is that while the number of Chinese economic activities in the Balkans is growing, access to official contracts and related documents is in the vast majority of cases impossible,” she said.

“This map is our own way to shed more light on Beijing’s interest in the Balkans as well as an effort to start important, critical discussions, which are unfortunately lacking in our societies,” Nikolic added.

BIRN journalists identified 136 Chinese-linked projects in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Greece worth of at least 32 billion euros.

However, as BIRN’s research shows, Chinese growing presence comes at a cost: among other things, Beijing’s economic activities often lack transparency and raise important concerns related to the environment, corruption, political influence, growing debt and disinformation.

In the coming months BIRN will continue the work on the interactive map, and also plans to research Russian and EU economic activities in the region, as part of its new “Spheres of Influence Uncovered” project.

 

 

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Regional Network, BIRN Hub, has appointed award-winning journalist and media professional Milka Domanovic as its next Regional Network Director.

Domanovic will replace Marija Ristic, who has resigned to pursue other professional challenges.

She will lead the BIRN Hub, which coordinates the BIRN Network, dealing with editorial, training, operations and development, as well as developing, fundraising and coordinating core regional projects.

“Throughout her career, Milka has been dedicated to the promotion of media freedom and brings extensive experience that the Network needs in the often very hostile environment that journalists and media workers operate in. I am confident that, with her skills and knowledge, she will lead BIRN to new heights,” Ristic said.

Domanovic brings over a decade’s experience in journalism, media development and press freedom to her position.

Until recently, she was Head of Business and Partnerships at BIRN Hub, working on the identification of new opportunities for BIRN’s growth, including different partnerships, development of cross-border projects and expansion of its commercial services. Working for BIRN, with some breaks from 2013, she was also a journalist and researcher for the Network.

She worked earlier for the fact-checking portal Istinomer [Truth-o-meter], the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia, CINS, Serbia’s public broadcaster, RTS, as well as as a fixer for international media.

Domanovic was awarded a fellowship programme by the International Factchecking Network in 2017, which she spent with Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact. She also won a Chevening scholarship awarded by the UK government to complete her Master’s studies at the University of London in 2018/2019.

“It has always been a true privilege to work in BIRN, an organization that nurtures highest professional standards in investigative journalism, supporting cross-border collaboration and processes of reconciliation in the region. Being in a position to lead BIRN and its team of accomplished, innovative and devoted individuals will therefore be even greater honour, as well as responsibility for me, and hopefully an opportunity to move additional boundaries together,” Domanovic said.

Marija Ristic has been leading the Network for the last five years.

Under her leadership, BIRN has expanded its activities, both geographically and thematically, to address the growing challenges and threats to independent journalism. BIRN Network expanded its coverage beyond the Balkans to Central and South Europe, while the organizational budget has tripled.

As director, Ristic in particular focused on the development of digital rights and tech programmes, empowerment of local media through capacity building and citizens’ engagement and expansion of human rights-focused programmes. During this period, BIRN supported the capacity building of more than 60 organisations in the region through mentoring and financial support.

Ristic has been the recipient of many awards, including the prestigious Reporters without Borders Annual Press Freedom Award, while under her leadership, the organization and its journalists received more than 70 awards, including the European Press Prize.

“It was an immense privilege and honour to lead such an exceptional and unique network and to work daily with some of the best journalists, dedicated and knowledgeable people across the region, who are the biggest strength of the network. From our staff to fellows, partners and donors, I am grateful for all the collaborations, ground-breaking journalism stories, as well as for difficult moments, that we managed to learn from,” Ristic said.

BIRN is a network of non-governmental organisations promoting freedom of speech, human rights and democratic values in Southern and Eastern Europe. It now has local organisations in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. The Network is editorially also present in Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia.