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The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) said on Thursday that Balkan Insight articles about Yasam Ayavefe will remain online, and described attempts by the convicted fraudster to remove the articles via the Turkish courts as an attempt to silence the truth.

BIRN received an official request on August 7 from the Access Providers Association, a private legal entity that implements court-ordered website access-blocking decisions in Turkey, to remove six about Ayavefe published by Balkan Insight in 2022 and 2023.

The Access Providers Association cited decisions by a court in Nizip in Gaziantep province after a complaint filed by Ayavefe’s lawyers claiming that the articles were not in the public interest.

The articles listed by Ayavefe’s lawyers “do not contribute to the public interest, are not newsworthy, and in this case the requested content should be evaluated within the scope of the right to be forgotten”, the court said on August 7 as it ordered the deletion of the articles within four hours.

Milka Domanovic, BIRN’s regional director, said that the articles will not be deleted and described the attempt by Ayavefe’s lawyers to have them removed via the courts as unacceptable pressure on independent media.

“BIRN stands behind its previous articles about Yasam Ayavefe and refuses to delete them. They are based on facts. Trying to take down our articles in various ways represents an attack on press freedom and attempted online censorship,” said Domanovic.

“Since the publication of an investigation by BIRN’s flagship publication Balkan Insight in 2022, we have been subjected to cyberattacks, fake copyright claims and requests from Ayavefe to delete these articles, and finally we have received a Turkish court order to delete them,” Domanovic added.

She noted that Turkish courts have no jurisdiction over BIRN as a media house based outside Turkey.

“We will not delete those articles for the sake of press freedom and solidarity with our colleagues in Turkey who face online censorship on a daily basis,” she added.

The court also ordered the takedown of a news article published by Free Web Turkey, a platform established by the Media and Law Studies Association, MLSA to monitor online censorship.

The article explained how Ayavefe has used the courts to block online content including official material published by the Turkish police about him. The MLSA article also mentioned BIRN’s case.

Ali Safa Korkut from the MLSA told BIRN that the court decision is a clear example of how the courts are used for censorship.

“This is a tragi-comedy. In Turkey, a person who was subject to an international [Interpol] red notice issued by the Turkish authorities contacted those same Turkish authorities again to block access to posts on official websites and social media accounts,” Korkut explained.

Repeated cyberattacks on BIRN

In September 2022, BIRN’s Balkan Insight website and the website of its Greek partner media outlet Solomon came under DDoS attack after the publication of an investigation into how Ayavefe – despite being convicted by a Turkish court in 2017 of defrauding online gamblers and arrested in Greece in 2019 trying to cross the border into Bulgaria on a false passport – got honorary Greek citizenship.

Ayavefe has managed to get hundreds of pieces of online content in Turkey taken down under three court orders. The content that was removed included news articles, social media posts and even the official Turkish Police website material and social media posts.

Ayavefe’s representative in July 2023 also asked for the removal of BIRN’s articles and offered financial incentives in return for compliance. “My client Dr Yasam Ayavefe has an advertising company, if you help us in this case we can provide advertising services to your organisation, so you can grow to a bigger organisation. We would love to cooperate with you,” the representative wrote.

BIRN rejected the offer and repeated demands to remove the articles about Ayavefe.

Following this, BIRN received dozens of copyright infringement complaints via a hosting company that leases out servers, submitted by different people and websites.

The complaints claimed that they originally published the BIRN articles; however, the alleged authors had merely republished the BIRN articles, by changing the dates. BIRN reported these fake copy rights claims and none of the BIRN’s articles on Ayavefe was removed by hosting companies.

BIRN’s website was hit by another DDoS attack in December 2023 after it published news about the false copyright claims over two of its articles concerning Ayavefe. DDoS attacks aim to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network.

The Border Graves Investigation, a cross-border project that confirmed over 1,000 unmarked graves of migrants over the last ten years across Europe, has been shortlisted for the IJ4EU Impact Award, organised by Investigative Journalism for Europe, a fund that supports cross-border watchdog journalism in and around the European Union.

One of the stories produced as part of the Border Graves was Barbara Matejcic’s investigation ‘Nomen Nescio: Dying En Route to Europe, Buried Without a Name’, which was published on BIRN’s flagship outlet Balkan Insight.

“People are losing their lives in various ways trying to reach the European Union. Our team of eight freelance journalists in the countries on the external borders of the European Union wanted to investigate how these deaths occur, especially when they are the result of the EU border regime – pushbacks and police violence in Croatia, for example,” said Matejcic.

“We investigated what happens to the bodies, what is the identification process, burial and whether the families find out what happened to their loved ones. We worked for six months in Greece, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland and Lithuania,” she added.

During their work on this investigation, the team found out there was little information and a lot of ambiguity about unidentified dead migrants, and they came across a lot of obstacles.

“There is no official data at the national levels let alone a unique EU database of dead and missing persons. That’s why we did a lot of fieldwork visiting cemeteries and collecting data,” explained Matejcic.

“Also, we exposed that identification is often incomplete and information about the deceased is difficult to obtain for relatives, which is why many never find out what happened to their loved ones and where their burial place is,” she added.

The project’s cross-border team confirmed 1,015 unmarked graves of migrants in 65 cemeteries buried over the last ten years across Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta, Poland, Lithuania, France, and Croatia.

The IJ4EU Impact Award award honours excellence in collaborative journalism in Europe. An independent jury chaired by Maltese journalist Paul Caruana Galizia will choose three winning teams.

Winners will be announced on September 26, at the end of IJ4EU’s UNCOVERED Conference, hosted this year by the iMEdD International Journalism Forum in Athens, Greece. Each winner will receive 5,000 euros.

In 2009, Besar received the CEI/SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism and in 2010 he was runner-up for the Global Shining Light Award, presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva. Besar studied philosophy at the University of North Florida.

He has been editor of BIRN Albania since 2007 and is the country correspondent for Balkan Insight. He’s also a mentor in the Western Balkans Media for Change project. Find out more about this important role in strengthening Albania’s media landscape.

1. What type of support do you offer media outlets?

The support we offer to partner local media outlets includes all the stages of designing and implementing an Engaged Community Reporting (ECR) program. This ranges from the design and planning of activities to the selection of reporting topics, technical and editorial expertise for the drafting of effective questionnaires, call outs for distribution planning, data analysis and visualization, storytelling and editing.

2. What does the mentorship process look like?

Our mentorship process is designed to provide knowledge-sharing and know-how between BIRN editors and mentors and Western Balkans Media for Change implementing partners, working closely with journalists and editors in local newsrooms. The mentoring process is based on BIRN’s built experience in supporting newsrooms in implementing ECR programs and is also continuously updated with the data – the responses and the experiences we crowdsource from each partner newsroom every month. Mentorship involves continuous in-person and online communication with journalists and editors, lessons learned analysis on thematic call-outs and published stories, videos, reels and podcasts.

3. What were the biggest successes achieved through this type of mentorship?

As mentors, we collect data on what works and what does not work in Citizens Engagement Reporting and share it with our partners. This in turn arms them with the practical ability to engage diverse communities – from cancer patients to beach dwellers – in their reporting in order to produce rich, data-driven and compelling storytelling for their media. Our biggest success through this mentorship program has been the engagement generated from some of the implementing partners, which has exceeded expectations – and the excitement of journalists and editors to use the ECR tool.

4. What reactions did you receive from the media outlets supported through this process?

Most media outlets are surprised how well the ECR tool works and are glowing from the response in reaching diverse communities and the possibility of engaging them in their reporting, which builds up trust between the media outlets and its readers.

The Western Balkans Media for Change project is funded by the UK government and implemented by the British Council in partnership with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Thomson Foundation and The International NGO Training and Research Centre, INTRAC.

Marija brought to BIRN more than 15 years of working experience in the NGO sector, nationally, regionally and internationally. Her extensive working experience includes coordination and projection of actions in media, education and human rights. She is passionate about developing projects and programmes that involve innovative approaches, different stakeholders and digitalization, focused on ensuring a long-term impact on society. Marija is also highly experienced in monitoring and evaluation and in quality assurance in higher education.

She holds a Master’s in finance and financial Law and a Bachelor’s degree in law obtained from Justinian Primus – Skopje. Currently, she is a PhD student at the University of American College – Skopje, focusing her research on the quality of education in relation to macroeconomic development. Let’s meet her!

1. You had more than 15 years of experience in the NGO sector when you joined the BIRN team in September 2022 as a Project Manager for Business Development. What did you expect from BIRN, and what did you get from the organisation?

My first contact with BIRN was at BIRN`s Summer School in 2012. Back then, I was a radio host and journalist involved in producing TV stories for marginalized and vulnerable groups of citizens in North Macedonia. After the Summer School, I continued cooperating with BIRN Macedonia in different capacities.

Ten years later, in 2022, I applied to become an official part of the BIRN team. I expected to work with people who would motivate me always to strive for excellence, a place of mutual learning with an amazing team, and an opportunity to contribute to a greater cause through my hard work.

Being part of BIRN is a significant and serious commitment for me. It requires high-quality work and a lot of dedication, as BIRN maintains much higher standards than most other organisations.

To be honest, I received much more than I expected. Today, I can honestly say that BIRN has given me a dream team, friends and colleagues with whom I enjoy working hard. I have received support to realize my ideas, a place where I can make meaningful changes, and the opportunity to continuously grow professionally, so that I can contribute even more to the organisation.

2. Recently, you were appointed Programme Manager for Capacity Building and Strengthening of Independent Media. Tell us more about this position.

BIRN’s field of work is focused on the following topics:

1) Investigative journalism;

2) Transitional justice;

3) Capacity building and Strengthening of Independent Media;

4) Digital rights (specifically in relation to human rights).

The Capacity Building and Strengthening of Independent Media programme aims to build capacities for journalists, media outlets and CSOs from Southeast Europe. Through the projects integrated in this programme BIRN supports media and journalists in the production of quality and citizens-engaged content. Through this programme, the Network leverages its extensive experience in investigative and cross-border journalism to share valuable insights with other media outlets and journalists. The final aim is to build a robust system that supports a sustainable and independent media sector. The programme has been quite successful so far. I have “big shoes to fill”, but I promise to give it my best effort.

3. What is the most challenging thing in your work?

My colleagues struggle to understand the Macedonian version of the BHS language. 🙂 Sometimes we struggle with my version of the BHS language, but I am learning the language fast, just like they are. In addition to this, a real struggle is to provide a wider and unified approach for all Western Balkan countries, since every country is unique and the context in each of them is changing daily. Because of this, we seek to establish a standard that can be adapted to the specific needs of each country but seen through the perspective of cross-border work for higher impact.

4. What is the most satisfying part of your job?

The most satisfying part of my job is being in a dynamic learning environment where I am continuously acquiring new skills that enhance my professional growth. What makes this journey even more inspiring is working alongside a group of strong, motivated women who are focused, supportive and solution oriented. Their unwavering support makes me feel like an integral part of not just a team but a family.

5. What are the Capacity Building and Strengthening of Independent Media programme’s plans for the future?

I see BIRN as a knowledge-sharing organisation based on the experience that the whole Network has. Sometimes I think we are not even fully aware of all the capacities that are circling around the Network. We must contribute towards a higher level of independence in the media sector in the targeted region with our work. Ensuring continuous opportunities for capacity building for as many as possible journalists, media workers and media outlets is something for which we are aiming.

In the upcoming period, I will strive to steer the programme towards innovative and certified capacity-building approaches for media professionals and journalists. My goal is to foster the development of an ecosystem that supports an independent media sector. To achieve this, I plan to create a comprehensive catalogue of capacity-building activities tailored to the evolving needs of journalists. Additionally, I aim to establish new partnerships across various sectors, including academia and the IT start-up community.

6. What are you proudest of regarding your work in BIRN?

The team of project management staff and editors/mentors with whom I cooperate on a daily level. Our team of editors/mentors and their professional approaches are shaping media sectors in all Western Balkan countries. They are leading the media sector towards ethical and quality reporting. Last year, randomly, I was part of a Summer School at which a young journalist approached me and told me that the mentorship of one of our editors/mentors had been more effective than his professional education. So, yes, I am most proud of the editors/mentors with whom I am working, and I enjoy seeing the seeds of their work growing in impactful and change-making stories.

She has expertise in project management in the media sector and high analytical skills.

Katarina is also a mentor in the Western Balkans Media for Change project. Find out more about this important role in strengthening Bosnia and Herzegovina’s media landscape.

1. What support do you offer media outlets?

Over the years, I was tasked to help journalists in the use and implementation of the ECR tool (training, assistance) as well as in story production. My main goal is to educate and empower journalists to use the ECR tool in their work, to help them understand all the benefits it can offer and to guide them on how to reflect received information from their readers in their stories.

2. What does the mentorship process look like?

At the beginning of each cycle, the first task is to introduce and explain the ECR tool to each media. Beside training, I like to give them simple examples from everyday life, so they can understand the tool, its parts, as well as convenient tricks they can use to make their life easier.

The next phase is the so-called preparation phase, working on detecting topics that are of interest to their community and readership. It usually means that we are focusing on burning issues and problems in their local environment and trying to foresee what they could do to change the current situation with information received through ECR.

Next, a questionnaire is developed, making sure that the potential answers can be used for further development of the story. One more important step is helping the media to process the received data; sometimes they receive just a few answers but once we faced over 1,500 received answers, which was quite a challenge to operate with.

After organising the received data, the next phase is what I call the “digging phase,” where journalists proceed with obtaining information from institutions, archives and literature, but also from experts and, if needed, more details from the people who shared their stories through ECR, reaching for more details. After receiving a draft of a story, my task is to read it and give possible guidelines on how to improve it, check if anything is missing, if there is equal representation of both genders, etc.

3. What have been the biggest successes achieved through this type of mentorship?

Besides the concrete results that several media managed to achieve with their stories, it is very important to emphasize that this project has managed to empower journalist to strive for more and to show them that their job can change communities and resolve problems. I recall that many smaller, locally based newsrooms, with just a few people involved in production, were quite skeptical at the beginning that they could change anything. But over time and practice, we saw the impact of their stories, the positive reactions from the people and local-based authorities who actually heard them, and, more importantly, the heard people who raised their voices using their platforms i.e. the media. There are many newsrooms that continue to use the ECR after finalizing the grant. I think this is the best indicator of how one tool, which has been developed to serve journalists, can completely change their perceptions and approach to work.

4. What reactions did you receive from the media outlets supported through this process?

Reactions were different through different phases – there was frustration with challenges in receiving information from official institutions, there was happiness to see the impact, and excitement when readers shared their stories with the potential to grow into something bigger. It is never boring, since each phase of this journey comes with its challenges but also with lots of satisfaction, after seeing the final result.

The Western Balkans Media for Change project is funded by the UK government and implemented by the British Council in partnership with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Thomson Foundation and The International NGO Training and Research Centre, INTRAC.