Tag: Bosnia and Herzegovina

BIRN BiH Marks the Fifth Anniversary

The Balkans Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) in Bosnia and Herzegovina marked the fifth anniversary, and promoted a publication on complete work of the War Crimes Chamber with the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On Thursday, May 27 at 6 p.m. in “Mak” Gallery in Sarajevo, in the presence of representatives of The State Court and Prosecution, international and domestic partners, and collegues journalists, BIRN marked the fifth anniversary of its work in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

 

“We started working in 2005. as a small group of enthusiasts who believed that the truth is the only way towards reconciliation and progress in our country. The beginning of the War-crimes Chamber of the Court of BiH was an invitation for us, to join those who are fighting for truth every day”, Anisa Suceska-Vekic, the director of BIRN BiH said.

 

From March 2006 to the present date BIRN journalists have followed, from the beginning to en end, each trial conducted before the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They have written more than 8,000 daily trial reports, analysis and research articles.

Reports made by BIRN’s Justice Report Agency publicly raised numerous issues on war-crimes processing, judicial reform and coming to terms with the past in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region.

“I would like to thank all our readers, listeners, and those who are watching our program, for their letters of support. I would also like to thank our colleuges journalists, for enabling our work to reach as many citizens, as it can. I owe a special grateness to the victims associations for their support, cooperation and eternal patience”, Suceska-Vekic added.

<!** Image 3 align=”right” >Beside that, the director of BIRN BiH thanked the donors: the governments of Norway, Switzerland, Canada, United Kingdom, and United States, SOROS fondation, organization NED, OSCE mission in BiH, and Konrad Adenauer fondation.

BIRN also promoted its publication titled “The Age of Truth”, which contains an overview of the work performed by the War Crimes Chamber with the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 2005 to 2010.

For each case presented in it, the publication brings basic data on the person or the past and present proceedings against the person. It also gives a brief overview of crimes described in indictments or verdicts.

“We paid special attention to explanations of second instance verdicts, because they contain historically significant court facts determined by trial chambers in relation to certain crimes, victims and perpetrators”, Aida Alic, BIRN journalist, and the author of publication, said.

The electronic version of the publication can be downloaded from www.bim.ba web page

Fifth Anniversary of BIRN BiH

The Balkans Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN)in Bosnia and Herzegovina marks the fifth anniversary. On that occasion it promotes a publication on complete work of the War Crimes Chamber with the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On Thursday, May 27 at 6 p.m. in “Mak” Gallery (address: 7 Sime Milutinovica Sarajlije) BIRN will mark the fifth anniversary of its work in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From March 2006 to the present date BIRN journalists have followed, from the beginning to en end, each trial conducted before the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They have written more than 8,000 daily trial reports, analysis and research articles. Reports made by BIRN’s Justice Report Agency publicly raised numerous issues on war-crimes processing, judicial reform and coming to terms with the past in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region.  

Its publication titled “The Age of Truth” contains an overview of the work performed by the War Crimes Chamber with the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 2005 to 2010.  

For the first time ever the publication brings a complete overview of all cases conducted up to the present date, including both the ongoing ones and the ones that have been completed by pronouncement of first or second instance verdicts. It also contains information about the indictees who are on the run.

From 2005, when the first verdict was pronounced before the State Court, to March 31, 2010 60 war-crimes verdicts have been pronounced, sentencing the indictees to more than 1,000 years in prison.

For each case presented in it, the publication brings basic data on the person or the past and present proceedings against the person. It also gives a brief overview of crimes described in indictments or verdicts.

We paid special attention to explanations of second instance verdicts, because they contain historically significant court facts determined by trial chambers in relation to certain crimes, victims and perpetrators.

A copy of the publication can be obtained at the presentation, while the electronic version can be downloaded, as of tomorrow, from www.bim.ba web page

State Department Delegation Visits BIRN BiH

A five-member delegation from the US State Department has visited BIRN BiH, where the delegation was briefed about war-crimes reporting and trials conducted before the State Court.

The Delegation, consisting of Linda Toth, Christopher Merill, Stephen Page, Paul Saupe and Trim Vernelle, representatives of the Bureau for European Affairs with the US Government, met Anisa Suceska-Vekic, BIRN Director, and Merima Husejnovic, Justice Report Editor.

Members of the delegation expressed interest in BIRN’s past work reporting on war crimes, and asked about the influence and interest of the public in these cases.

Anisa Suceska-Vekic presented the members of the delegation with an overview of projects initiated by BIRN over the past five years, including Justice Report, Justice Radio and Justice TV. She also spoke about the training sessions on court reporting, organized by BIRN, for journalists from different towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Merima Husejnovic explained the importance of reporting on war crimes and described practical experiences in reporting on trials conducted before the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and problems that BIRN journalists face in their work.

The State Department Delegation expressed its wholehearted support for the work being done by BIRN, and stressed the importance of this work.

BIRN Attends High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council’s Workshop

BIRN Justice Report journalist Aida Alic attends a workshop on “Support for the judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina – strengthening prosecutorial capacities in the criminal judiciary system”, held in Sarajevo.

The High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, HJPC, organized a half-day workshop for media and NGO representatives in order to apprise them of the new judicial reform project in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the importance of informing the public about the role of prosecutors in criminal investigations.

A three-year project on “Support for the Judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Strengthening Prosecutorial Capacities in the Criminal Judiciary System” is due to begin in the autumn of 2010. The project aims at improving prosecutors’ methods of work, strengthening collaboration with police during investigations and providing information to the public in a more effective way.

The project is being funded by the Swiss Government through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SDC, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and will be implemented by the HJPC with the help of governmental and non-governmental agencies, and the media.

Representatives of media, NGOs, HJCP and SDC, as well as Zurich Cantonal Prosecution attended the workshop.

Workshop participants said it was necessary to enhance information sharing with the public on the work of prosecutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to educate the media, the NGO sector and citizens about the nature of investigations.

Reporting from Local Communities

On April 27 and 28 the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, in collaboration with USAID’s Judicial Sector Development Programme, continued a training course for journalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina reporting on war-crimes trials conducted before cantonal and district courts.

In the second week of the training course Mehmed Halilovic, former Ombudsman for Media, explained how journalists can obtain necessary information in accordance with the Law on Free Access to Information, while Boris Grubesic, Spokesperson of the State Prosecution, explained what type of information can be provided by the institution, also describing the criminal prosecution process.

Ljiljana Zurovac, Director of the Press Council, spoke about the ethics codex, which includes recommendations for court reporters.

At this training session, lecturers drew the journalists’ attention to the most frequent mistakes made in war-crimes trials reporting. Participants were then asked to prepare news on the basis of verdicts, indictments and judicial institutions’ announcements, avoiding potential mistakes.

On the second day, participants were presented with cases in which journalists were charged or convicted for contempt of court or denial of facts determined by verdicts. Ways of avoiding such situations were discussed.

The training course continues on May 27 and 28. These sessions will focus on the importance of information provided by judicial institutions, for the country and the region.

The goal of the course is to train journalists in reporting war-crimes trials conducted before courts in their local communities, as the transfer of “less sensitive cases” for further processing by cantonal and district courts and Brcko District Court has now begun.

TV Justice Doubles its Ratings on State Television

According to TV ratings data, three months after the TV Justice show was first broadcast, its ratings on Radio and Television Bosnia and Herzegovina, RTVBiH, have doubled.

 TV Justice is a 30-minute monthly magazine produced by BIRN journalists and FLASH Production team members. The show has been broadcast by RTVBiH and more than 15 independent TV stations via local and satellite channels since January 4.  

In addition to reports on the work of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are regularly produced by BIRN, TV Justice has featured a report on Foca Prison and an interview with Gojko Jankovic, who is serving a 34-year sentence for crimes committed in Foca municipality.

In the second issue we reminded our viewers of the anniversary of the massacre at Markale market place in Sarajevo in 1994. The third issue of TV Justice covered the continuation of the trial of Radovan Karadzic before the Hague Tribunal.

In addition, the show has hosted Meddzida Kreso, President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Barasin, Chief Prosecutor with the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Patrick Robinson, President of the Hague Tribunal.

TV Justice is available on BIRN’s web page (www.bim.ba) with English subtitles, making it accessible to BiH citizens living abroad as well as foreigners interested in war-crimes trials in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  

The production of TV Justice magazine is generously supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office via the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Sarajevo, the Swiss Federal Office for Foreign Affairs, and the National Endowment for Democracy.

For additional information on TV Justice magazine please contact us by e-mail at [email protected]

 

Training of Journalists from Local Communities Begins

The Balkans Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, in collaboration with USAID’s Judicial Sector Development Programme, has begun a four-month training course for 30 journalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina reporting on war-crimes trials conducted before cantonal and district courts.

At the first training session, held on March 30 and 31, journalists had a chance to familiarize themselves with the work of the State Court and its Prosecution and to learn the importance of respecting fundamental journalistic principles in writing trial reports.

Meddzida Kreso, President of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that from the very beginning of the work on war-crimes cases State Court judges have been aware of the influence of the media and the importance of presenting correct information, because this “contributes to building general trust in society”.

“Trials are misused in everyday political disputes,” Kreso said. “In order to avoid this, we have to convey correct information. This is why the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has opened itself to all media outlets.”

Selma Hadzic of the State Court Public Relations Section explained the organizational structure of the Court and court proceedings, citing major war-crimes trials that have been completed before the Court.

Local community journalists visited the premises of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition to courtrooms, they had an opportunity to visit the Witness Support Section. Representatives of the Section spoke about its work at the training session, explaining that the Section offers support to vulnerable and protected witnesses.

Zlatko Knezevic, a member of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, explained the process of selecting judges and prosecutors working with judicial institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Vesna Budimir, Chief of the War Crimes Section with the State Prosecution, briefed journalists on the problems prosecutors face, stressing the need for better cooperation with the media.

“Journalists can criticize us when we make a mistake or do something that is not consistent with our responsibilities, but the criticism should be based on evidence,” Budimir said.

The training of journalists will continue on April 27 and 28, 2010, when practical details will be tackled – ways of court reporting, possibilities for obtaining information, most frequent mistakes and rules that have to be followed in court reporting.

The goal of the course is to train journalists in reporting on war-crimes trials conducted before courts in their local communities, as the transfer of “less sensitive cases” for further processing by cantonal and district courts as well as Brcko District Court has begun.

At the upcoming training sessions journalists will be given an opportunity to develop court reporting skills aligned with international and domestic codices and become certified court reporters in their media outlets.

TV Justice Starts Airing

Based on the success of our Justice Report and Justice Radio, BIRN BIH has created a regular monthly televised magazine about the country’s fight against the impunity.

Justice TV – a 30-minute programme is produced by BIRN’s journalists and FLASH production team on monthly basis throughout the year and offered to TV stations across the country and neighboring countries for airing. The programme is heavily concentrated on war crimes trials before the Court of BiH.

 

Justice TV will be produced once a month and in the same month distributed to interested TV stations in the country and the region. BIRN has already negotiated with State Television-BHT to broadcast the magazine in their prime timing on every first Monday in a month at 19:30. More than 15 independent TV stations with thier local and satellite channels already started broadcasting the programme as well.

 

The programmes will also be available on internet through uploads on website of BIRN : www.bim.ba , thus ensuring the programmes are reachable for the country’s citizens in the diaspora. An English language subtitled version of each programme would also be uploaded on the internet for the many international actors interested in the work of the Court of BiH.

 

Our aim is to ensure justice is accessible to all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the region and the diaspora as well as interested international actors through a unique production of monthly informative programme dedicated to the rule of law, truth and justice. The team’s overall goal is to increase understanding of and support for the work of the local judicial institutions dealing with war crimes, to ensure a transparent and accessible justice system and thereby contribute to the establishment of truth and reconciliation in the region.

 

TV Justice programme has been generously supported by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office – FCO, through the UK Embassy in Sarajevo, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and NED.

 

You can receive additional information on the TV JUstice magazine through the following email address: [email protected]

 

 

The First Meeting under BICCED Held in Sarajevo

As part of the project recently awarded to BIRN  by the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans, Balkan’s Initiative for Cultural Cooperation, Exchange and Development (BICCED), BIRN brought together some of the most active players the cultural scene in Sarajevo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Danis Tanovic, the movie director, Amra Kresevljakovic from Deblokada, Nihad Kresevljakovic from the festival MESS, Elma Tatarevic from the Sarajevo Film Festival and Amila Ramic from the ARS AEVI shared their views and knowledge of the cultural scene in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the problems facing the creative industries.

As much as other spheres of life of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the culture is also suffering from the consequences of the division of Bosnia & Herzegovina into largely separate entities. There is no ministry of culture at the state level, and this affects many institutions which are of national importance. The main areas of concern identified by the participants are related to the lack of of a national cultural policy, lack of clear criteria for the allocation of funds, politically-driven support both for organisations and for appointments to leading positions, along with a range of administrative obstacles, VAT policies, ATA Carnet, tax exemption, etc.

The participants gave a valuable input to the creation of an editorial strategy for the programme and provided their views on how the leading players might work together.

Similar meetings will be held in Republika Srpska, and in other countries participating in the project – Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia – to arrive at a cohesive and inclusive approach to cultural poly across the wider region

BIRN Marks Five Years of Growth in Bosnia

New radio and TV shows have enabled us to bring news and analysis of war crimes trials, and of the judicial process in general, to a growing audience.

Five years since it was established, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, has maintained its focus on issues surrounding war crime trials and facing up to the past.  

 

Justice Report news agency remained the major activity of BIRN BiH, expanding its operations to include a weekly radio magazine and a monthly TV show.  This week we will publish out 200 issue.

 

Our reports publicly raised questions and prompted debates about war crime trials, judicial reform and addressing the past.  

 

The articles on Radovan Karadzic’s trial at The Hague, as well as interviews with some of the witnesses who will appear at his trial, which is due to begin next March, attracted much public attention. Justice Report will continue to report on this trial.  

 

Among our other articles that drew local and international attention over the past year were those on the destruction of the personal documents of the victims of Srebrenica, which had been found in mass graves just after the war ended.

 

Justice Report found out that about 1,000 personal ID papers, photographs and other objects were destroyed in The Hague, because, it was officially announced, they represented “a health risk”.  

 

We continued to give victims of war crimes a chance to speak out and be heard. We shall continue to do so. Judging by the reactions we have received, this service means a great deal to our readers.  

 

“Information and reports on the trials conducted before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina are still of interest to the victims,” Saja Coric, a former detainee in Vojno detention camp, near Mostar, remarked.

“The news and reports I read each morning on the BIRN webpage, knowing they are correct, are important to me. Your reporters raised, followed and elaborated, in a professional manner, on many issues of interest to the victims,” Coric added.

 

The fact that well-known international human rights agencies like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International cited our articles in their reports and research confirms the influence and reach of our reports and articles.  

 

Marek Marczyński, a researcher with Amnesty International for the Balkan region, says he appreciates the work of Justice Report particularly because of the chance it gives to both victims and indictees to speak.  

 

“The work of Justice Report meets the highest standards in journalism,” he said. “The information provided is always impartial and objective and easy to understand, even though many reports cover very specific legal issues.

“I much appreciate that apart from reporting strictly on what happened in the courtroom the voices of the survivors and the accused are also included; therefore the stories are well balanced,” Marczynski said.

Marczyński explained that our articles had also aided his research work, “because Justice Report is probably the most accessible source of information on war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“It’s very helpful for researchers and people working in human rights organizations and even more so for the survivors,” he said.

“In your reports you give a voice to the survivors and therefore acknowledge what happened to them. This is extremely important.”

The fact that our webpage, www.bim.ba, is visited by more and more people each year shows the level of interest the public takes in the issues covered by Justice Report.

This year, the number of visits increased to around 15,000 per month, up from around 10,000 last year which means the web page was visited more than 130,000 times over the year. More than half those hits were made by new readers.

According to our estimates, our audio reports now reach an audience of about 2 million via the 100 or so radio stations that broadcast them. We believe our TV production will enable information on war crime trials to reach even more people.   

BIRN Justice Report could not have achieved this success without the support of numerous media stations that carried our reports daily.  “We carry most of the articles pertaining to war crime trials. We do it almost every day,” Dejan Kozul, editor of the e-Novine web portal, based in Belgrade, confirmed.

“The articles are rather informative… Your analysis and investigative stories are excellent. They are perhaps even too objective considering the issues you write about,” Kozul added.

Zorana Petkovic, of Osvit radio from Zvornik in eastern Bosnia, considers the topics covered by BIRN “extremely important, particularly for our region”, adding that the reporting “directly from courtrooms” is objective, informative and useful.

Over the years we have worked with various media stations, including the daily newspapers Oslobodjenje and Dnevni Avaz, Hayat TV, TNT radio, Studio 88, Fena, Srna and ONASA news agencies, Radio Stari Grad, the public broadcasting service in Bosnia and Herzegovina and many others.

 

BIRN’s Radio Justice continued its activities during 2009. As of August, besides daily reports, it produced a weekly magazine on war crime trials. To date, our archives contain 20 ten-minute reportages.   

 

In late 2009, BIRN Justice Report started broadcasting a monthly TV magazine, which can be watched at our web page, as well as via the network of TV stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

TV Justice will go to the courtrooms of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the local courts in the country, visit the crime locations and speak to the main actors in the entire process.  

 

As in previous years, BIRN continued producing publications. This year we published History Overshadowed by Trivia – Regional Media Reports on Radovan Karadzic’s Arrest, containing analysis of the monitoring of media articles published in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia.

 

As part of the preparation of this publication, BIRN journalists analyzed more than 1,000 articles published in about 20 weekly and daily newspapers.

 

Next year, we plan to produce a publication on the five years both of our work and the work of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Comprehensive archives compiled by BIRN over the period will enable us to work on the publication, which will provide an overview of all the trials conducted before the War Crimes Chamber.  

 

Besides reporting on war crimes, BIRN invested efforts in improving cooperation between the media and the judiciary by taking part in the Association of Court Reporters, AIS.  

 

The most significant achievement in this field occurred early in September 2009, when a three-day conference on “Transparency of Courts and Responsibility of the Media” was organized by BIRN BiH.

 

More than 70 participants and more than 250 representatives of the media, judiciary, governmental and non-governmental organizations and individuals from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region discussed the transparency of the courts and the importance of objective and reliable reporting on crimes committed during the war.

 

Reports carried by the local and regional media confirm the significance and impact of this conference. After it closed, BIRN received numerous positive reactions from the conference participants. Sinisa Vazic, President of the Supreme Court of Serbia, described the conference as “extraordinary and very useful”, for example.

 

“BIRN has made a significant contribution to providing the public with information on the judiciary, as well as informing the public on and explaining complex processes of great moral, political and emotional importance,” Jan Braathu, ambassador of Norway – one of the donors of the conference and of the publication we issued – said after the conference.  

 

Next year, BIRN BiH will start to implement a new project in collaboration with the USAID Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the local judiciary.

As part of “Local Judiciary under the Spotlight”, initiated in 2007, we will publish articles pertaining to war crime trials taking place before local courts. Within the same project, BIRN BiH will hold a number of training sessions for journalists over the next six months. At those training sessions, journalists will receive new skills relevant to court reporting and court processes.  

Through this and other projects that BIRN intends to realize next year we hope to justify the trust that our readers have placed in us over the past period.  

As in previous years, BIRN BiH was able to carry out its work thanks to the generous support from the governments of Norway, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Soros Foundation, NED and USAID.