Tag: Hub

“Who Benefits?’ Inside the EU’s Fight over Scanning for Child Sex Content”, a BIRN investigation, is among 13 stories nominated for the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism 2024. The nomination was announced on October 18.

The investigation, by BIRN’S investigative editor Apostolis Fotiadis, journalist Giacomo Zandonini and an associate professor in media and international development at the University of East Anglia, Luděk Stavinoha, was published on Balkan Insight.

It was one of BIRN’s most widely republished investigations, and was cited across Europe, by, among others, Le Monde (France), El Diario (Spain), Solomon (Greece), Die Zeit (Germany), De Groene Amsterdammer (the Netherlands), Netzpolitik (Germany), IrpiMedia (Italy), and Domani (Italy), amongst others. It has also been shortlisted for the European Press Prize 2024.

This investigation uncovers a web of influence in the powerful coalition aligned behind the European Commission’s proposal to scan for child sexual abuse material online, a proposal that experts say puts rights at risk and could introduce new vulnerabilities by undermining encryption.

After BIRN published the investigation, the main political groups of the EU Parliament agreed on the draft law to prevent the dissemination of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

Europol’s in-house research and development centre, the Innovation Hub, has already started working towards an AI-powered tool to classify child sexual abuse images and videos.

The winner of the 2024 Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize will be announced on October 23 in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and will receive a prize of €20,000.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese journalist, blogger and anti-corruption activist who reported extensively on organised crime, money laundering, corruption, sale of citizenship and the Maltese government’s links to the Panama Papers. She was murdered in a car bomb explosion on 16 October 2017.

The annual prize rewards outstanding journalism that defends or promotes the core principles and values of the European Union – human rights, freedom, democracy, human dignity, equality, rule of law.

On October 18, Radio Active Zenica, a youth-focused media outlet from Bosnia and Herzegovina, visited Balkans Investigative Reporting Network’s (BIRN) Sarajevo office as part of their regular mentorship activities within the “Western Balkan Media for Change” project.

This project, led by the British Council in partnership with BIRN, Thomson Media, and Intrac, aims to strengthen independent journalism in the region. Ten young journalists had an opportunity to meet BIRN’s team of journalists and senior editors and experience the work of investigative editorials.

Radio Active Zenica is dedicated to empowering young people through workshops on media literacy, journalism ethics, and practical media skills.

The outlet recently launched a youth programme in Zenica, offering participants training in journalism and multimedia content creation. The programme includes mentoring and workshop experience to help young journalists apply their skills in real-world media work.

As part of the Western Balkans Media for Change they received financial support to educate and empower young journalists, engage the local community and foster media literacy and ethical journalism practices, followed by BIRN’s mentorship support, in realization of their project.

As part of their initiative the young journalists engage in study visits to local media outlets, like the one made to BIRN, to exchange ideas and learn about innovative practices in journalism. This initiative not only enhances the participants’ skills but also fosters quality media production and ethical journalism within the local community, helping to combat misinformation and promote media literacy.

“By visiting BIRN, the team of Radio Active Zenica gained insight into the importance of investigative journalism, the process that journalists go through in creating stories and the obstacles they face. The young members of the Radio Active editorial team were intrigued and inspired by the visit and plan to further explore and apply the advice and knowledge they gained during this visit in their continued education and work in journalism,” Ena Causevic, editor at Radio Active Zenica, said.

“Visits like this provide young people who are just starting out in journalism with a glimpse of how diverse approaches can be when creating media content. It also shows them the level of creativity and freedom they can have, and that through the media, they can influence their local community and drive change within it,”  she added.

“Having a chance to work with a group of young and enthusiastic people is truly a blast for me. Their curiosity driven by youthful energy is inspiring for anyone who has a chance to work with them. On the other hand, they are doing a very important work for young people in Zenica, firstly by educating youngsters to report on topics of true importance for their own generations, and then in creating their radio and written reports,” said Azem Kurtic, Radio Active Zenica’ s mentor and Balkan Insight journalist.

In the past five months Azem has provided them with mentorship support as part of the Western Balkan Media for Change project.

The Western Balkan Media for Change project, funded by the UK Government, supports media outlets in the Western Balkans through financial assistance, training, and mentoring.

It focuses on sustainable media practices and amplifies the voices of youth, women, and marginalized groups across the region.

Radio Gorazdevac, a respected local media outlet and current grantee of the “Western Balkans Media for Change” project, celebrated its 25^th anniversary by hosting a media conference.

Gorazdevac may be a small village in southwestern Kosovo but for the past 25 years a local media outlet has been independently putting it on the map of a divided society.

Radio Gorazdevac celebrated its anniversary on October 10 at the local Cultural Centre, transforming the event into a small “media festival,” as its editor-in-chief, Darko Dimitrijevic, humbly but proudly remarked.

The conference drew journalists, NGOs, and speakers from diverse backgrounds, speaking both Albanian and Serbian among others.

BIRN and Radio Gorazdevac are long-term partners in two projects delivered in cooperation with British Council, Intrac and Thomson Media.

The Media 4 All project has significantly improved the station’s reporting quality and internal capacity, particularly by bringing young people onto the team.

Thanks to the Western Balkans Media for Change project, Radio Gorazdevac has expanded into new formats, such as podcasts, and has continued using the Engaged Citizens Reporting tool, provided and developed by BIRN as part of the Media 4 All project, to encourage citizen involvement in reporting. Its “E-reporter” page now invites citizens to report issues in their communities proactively.

Dimitrijevic has been with Radio Gorazdevac since its birth in the aftermath of the Kosovo war in 1999. Since then, he has witnessed the station’s struggle to report in Serbian and bring community stories to light, despite daily challenges.

“I was really surprised by the turnout of more than 80 people in small Gorazdevac, including representatives of the international community. This event is the crowning achievement of our work, and it shows what we’ve accomplished as a small local media outlet in Kosovo,” he said.

Among those who congratulated Radio Gorazdevac was Maja Sever, President of the European Federation of Journalists. In her video message, Sever said: “Only those of us from this region know how successful it is and what it means to survive and work as an independent journalistic radio station for so many years.”

Over time, Radio Gorazdevac has expanded to include a small TV production, and, with the growth of the internet, it has established a strong online presence.

“Many people learn about local events thanks to Radio Gorazdevac. We address the problems citizens face with institutions, and often citizens reach out to us directly to report issues in their daily lives. We’ve earned their trust but the path has not been easy, especially considering the challenging political climate in Kosovo,” Dimitrijevic added.

To celebrate its anniversary, Radio Gorazdevac organised a conference with two panels. The first discussed the role of local media outlets in an era dominated by social media. The second focused on crisis reporting and the safety of journalists, especially given the daily online and physical threats faced by independent journalists in Kosovo.

“What would happen if Radio Gorazdevac didn’t exist, producing news for the local community?” asked one of the panelists, Ardita Zejnullahu, director of the Association of Broadcast Media in Kosovo, AMPEK.

“People would likely turn to social media where misinformation and disinformation are rampant. The average citizen doesn’t fact-check what they see in these spaces. This poses a significant risk, as highly politicised communities form when there are no local media outlets to produce, verify, and deliver credible information,” Zejnullahu noted.

Ana Marija Ivkovic, journalist and editor at Alternativna and a civil activist from Northern Kosovo, highlighted the challenges local media face in reporting crises and obtaining accurate information amidst a sea of misinformation.

“We have a huge responsibility to report on crises, even though we are often not trained for it. We do the best we can,” she said.

The panelists agreed that media outlets are a powerful tool in combating misinformation and disinformation but acknowledged the challenges they face.

“There are only a few media outlets and journalists in Kosovo that can truly be called independent. In my opinion, local media outlets are the bravest when it comes to independent reporting,” said Andjelka Cup, editor-in-chief of Gracanica Online.

The conference also provided an opportunity for Radio Gorazdevac to reflect on its future direction.

“Media 4 All and Western Balkans Media for Change are programmes that have helped us grow and I can already see the direction we’ll evolve in the coming years. This progress is a result of the project funding, training and mentorship we’ve received from BIRN over the years,” Dimitrijevic concluded.

Visar Prebreza, BIRN investigative journalist and a mentor to Radio Goraždevac as part of the Western Balkans Media for Change project, praised the station’s commitment to journalism.

“They have also been proactive in finding media partners to produce regional stories, recognising that many issues in the Balkans are shared and require the collective efforts of all countries to be addressed,” she said.

“I believe the project has contributed to enhancing the radio’s professional and technical capacities, bringing it closer to the public while also enabling it to evolve in line with modern times and competitive media,” Prebreza remarked.

A major cross-border journalism project that identified hundreds of unmarked graves of migrants has won the Impact Award at the annual Investigative Journalism Award for Europe (IJ4EU). 

The Border Graves Investigation, a cross-border project that confirmed over 1,000 unmarked graves of migrants across Europe over the last ten years, included a story by journalist Barbara Matejcic for BIRN about state-linked refugee deaths in Croatia.

The ceremony was held on September 26th at IJ4EU’s annual UNCOVERED Conference, hosted at the iMEdD International Journalism Forum in Athens.

Barbara Matejcic’s investigation, ‘Nomen Nescio: Dying En Route to Europe, Buried Without a Name,’ was published on BIRN’s flagship outlet, Balkan Insight. She worked on it with seven freelance journalists in countries along the European Union’s borders. The team wanted to investigate how these deaths occur, especially when they are the result of the EU border regime.

“For me, it’s important that the research for which we were awarded raises the question of the causes of death at the borders of the European Union,” Matejcic said BIRN.

“People die not because of impassable rivers or mountains, but because of border regimes. If your life is threatened in Afghanistan or Pakistan, you have no other way to claim protection in the European Union than to go on a deadly journey.

“It is also important to me that it is known that the violent behaviour of the police at the borders is directly responsible for some of these deaths, as I showed in my part of the investigation that concerned Croatia and the Croatian police. Professionally, this award is a confirmation that even small research teams of freelancers can win this kind of award in competition with large media houses and significant funds invested in their research.”

An independent jury consisted of Maltese investigative journalist Paul Caruana Galizia, pioneering documentary maker Christopher Hird, deputy director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network Gabriela Manuli, award-winning Kosovo journalist Saranda Ramaj, and media freedom advocate Nik Williams, who co-chairs the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition.

“This project is a perfect example of how to do investigative journalism with boots on the ground, while shining a light on individual stories and humanising victims,” Manuli said.

“What makes it more exemplary, is that it was conducted by a very small cross-border team. Out of the eight reporters, six of them are full-time freelancers, and the other two are affiliated with small newsrooms. And all this significant reporting was done with very little resources, in a period of over six months.”

The jury was unanimous in its decision. The winning teams received cash prizes of €5,000 each.

The award is organised by Investigative Journalism for Europe, a fund that supports cross-border watchdog journalism in and around the European Union.

A group of 38 journalists from six countries across the Balkans have been trained in data analysis and visualisation by BIRN.

Between September 23-30, the journalists, from Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, took part in three online training sessions.

Run by BIRN as part of the Western Balkans Media for Change project, the training focused on sessions to enhance journalists skills in data analysis and visualisation – key skills required in today’s evolving newsrooms.

Training sessions on data analysis were led by Besar Likmeta, editor-in-chief of BIRN Albania, in the Albanian language, and by Milica Stojanovic, an investigative journalist with Balkan Insight, in Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian.

These sessions focused on showcasing ways to analyse crowdsourced data collected via BIRN’s Engaged Citizens Reporting (ECR) tool using spreadsheets. The ECR tool, developed by BIRN through the Media for All project, allows citizens to contribute with their testimonies, forming a valuable data source for journalistic stories.

Additionally, Azem Kurtic, also an investigative journalist with Balkan Insight, provided insights into data visualisation techniques. Kurtic introduced participants to various data visualisation tools, including Knight Lab, Flourish, and Datawrapper, which help enhance storytelling through interactive and visually engaging elements.

This training complements a previous session held in June by Jonathan Stoneman, a data journalist and trainer with extensive career in BBC.

The Western Balkan Media for Change project is funded by the UK government and implemented by the British Council in partnership with BIRN, the Thomson Foundation, and INTRAC. The project supports the work of media outlets and individual journalists across the Western Balkans.

Stories on water pollution, banned pesticides and the mass shooting in Cetinje were some of the subjects for which six journalists have received awards for outstanding investigative journalism in Montenegro.

Tatjana Asanin, Nikola Milosavic Aleksic, Svetlana Djokic, Milica Babic, Djurdja Radulovic and Andrea Perisic were announced as winners at the 2024 annual EU Investigative Journalism Awards at Europe House in Podgorica on September 30th.

First prize was shared between Tatjana Asanin and Nikola Milosavic Aleksic from TV Vijesti for their series about sewage, “In Murky Waters, and Svetlana & Milica from TV E for their series, “Massacre of Responsibilities’, which revealed new details about the Cetinje massacre in which 10 people were killed.

The second prize went to Djurdja Radulovic from Balkan Insight for the investigation titled “Nobody Checks: Bying Banned Pesticides in Montenegro,” a compelling piece that reveals the dangerous consequences of unregulated sales of banned pesticides in Montenegro, posing serious risks to health and the environment. The story has been developed as part of the BIRN’s Summer School.

The third prize was awarded to Andrea Perisic from the Center for Investigative Journalism for her powerful exposé, “Smuggling of Montenegro archaeological treasures: They blow up, sell and destroy heritage without punishment”.

The jury consisted of Branko Cecen, an experienced journalist who led the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) to international acclaim; Olivera Nikolic who now heads the Montenegro Media Institute; and Mileva Malesic a founder of the Women’s Forum Prijepolje and the TV Forum. More about the jury members can be found here.

European Union ambassador to Montenegro, Mr. Johann Sattler, handed out the awards certificates.

E-government is becoming the norm around the world, but people in the Balkans are not benefitting in full because of a lack of political will in some cases and a shortfall in institutional capacity in general, a new report on open data and digitalisation published by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network shows.

The ceremony took place in Europe House in Prishtina, Kosovo on September 25.

The jury consisted of Imer Mushkolaj,a  veteran journalist, columnist and opinionist who has led the Kosovo Journalists Association (KJA) and now heads the Press Council of Kosovo; Amra Zejneli Loxha, director of RFE/RL’s Kosovo Service; and Darko Dimitrijević, Editor-in-Chief at Radio Goraždevac since 2005 and a founding member of the Kosovo Media Association (KOSMA). More about the jury members here.

First prize went to Behar Mustafa and Kreshnik Gashi from Kallxo.com for their series of investigations into corruption with building permits in Brezovica.

Second prize went to Alberta Hashani from Betimi për Drejtësi for her story revealing judicial misconduct involving a bribed prosecutor.

Third place went to two stories from the same media outlet, Kosovo 2.0. The first, by Dardan Hoti and Aulonë Kadriu, focused on the consequences of online harassment and the victims of image-based sexual abuse.

The second, by Dafina Halili, was for her investigation of sexual harassment at the University of Pristina.

Hoti and Kadriu produced their awarded story as part of their project included in the Media Innovation Europe project – Audience engaged grants. This was their third award.

The Head of the EU Office in Kosovo/EU Special Representative, Ambassador Aivo Orav, handed the awards to the winners, highlighting the key importance of journalistic work in every society.