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Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) successfully concluded a dynamic four-day online training in audience-engaged journalism on December 8.

The training, which started in October and spanned several sessions, brought together 30 journalists from Balkan and Visegrad countries. Facilitated by Ariana Tobin, ProPublica’s engagement editor, in collaboration with Balkan Insight journalists and mentors, the program was designed to enhance engagement journalism skills for participants representing ten selected media outlets.

These media outlets, recipients of BIRN’s Audience Engaged Journalism Grants, were: Mjedisi.al (Albania), Elbasanion (Albania), Samizdat (Czech Republic), Koha (North Macedonia), Zoomer (Serbia), Radio Zos (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Radio Kiss (Serbia), Enigma Newspaper (Kosovo), Fokus (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Zenit (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The training aimed to bring innovation into newsrooms, foster community engagement and facilitate the development of investigative stories using BIRN’s audience-engaged tool. This digital platform, purpose-built for audience engagement, formed a core part of the program. Crucially, the audience-engaged tool serves as a guide for journalists to receive valuable information offered by their audiences, allowing them to include the public in their reporting and crowdsource data for investigative stories.

Throughout the course, Tobin posed fundamental questions for journalists who want to create engagement stories, emphasising considerations such as community impact, stakeholder identification, outreach strategies, potential collaborators, content planning, and sustaining audience engagement. The participants, guided by experienced Balkan Insight trainers, acquired practical skills in creating audience callouts and interpreting results using the audience-engaged tool.

The training emphasised the importance of audience research, effective callout design and promotion, data verification, and the creation of compelling final products. More than a technical skill, engagement journalism revolves around building trust and fostering two-way communication between journalists and the communities they serve.

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 the course of a two-year programme, BIRN has organised two training sessions for journalists as part of the Audience-Engaged Grants programme.

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.

Members of the Southeast Europe Digital Rights Network [SEE Digital Rights Network] met in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on December 6 to discuss critical issues related to digital rights in Southeast Europe. The discussion followed the BIRN annual report on digital rights on December 5, 2023.

The report found an increase in the number of cases registered in the BIRN database compared to the last reporting period. The total number of documented digital violations rose from 782 to 1,427, underscoring how challenges in the digital sphere have also increased.

According to BIRN’s report, hate speech and discrimination, digital manipulation, and computer fraud were the most common categories of digital rights violations.

Domestic political developments, regional and international tensions significantly contributed to the increase in rights violations in the digital sphere. Elections and intense societal polarization shaped the digital landscape in Bosnia, Montenegro, Turkey and Hungary, which underwent turbulent elections throughout the year.

Regional and international crises, such as the tensions between Kosovo and Serbia and Russia’s war against Ukraine, fueled digital rights violations in the region, which is susceptible to malign influences. Such an environment allowed online hate speech and discriminatory rhetoric to flourish across the region, especially against vulnerable groups, including the LGBT community, women and ethnic minorities. Monitoring detected a worrying number of cases of gender-based violence in the digital space – from the illegal distribution of pornographic material to the streaming of femicide in Bosnia.

In Serbia, cases of mass shootings also provoked numerous violations, such as the publication of private information, violations of minors’ rights and dissemination of fake news.

A new trend that emerged this year was the use of artificial intelligence to create deep fakes and generate fake news.

The BIRN report further highlighted that governments in Albania, Hungary, Serbia and Turkey continued to abuse digital rights, using various tactics and methods, including takeovers of independent outlets by pro-government businesspeople, paid online propagandists, intervention by government agencies and court actions.

Such governments often used legislation to increase their control over the internet and impose censorship, causing concern among rights groups. Worryingly, these governments’ actions carry the risk of being a role model for other governments in the region. BIRN’s monitoring efforts showed that almost all the countries monitored are preparing new legislation to counter digital threats, particularly disinformation campaigns.

Journalists and online media continue to be the major victims of digital rights violations in the countries monitored, where existing legislation offers little or no protection for journalists who face digital violence. Critical infrastructure in most countries that BIRN monitors remains weak and has proved an inadequate defense against cyberattacks. In seven of the monitored countries, government agencies and services were repeatedly targeted by cyber attackers throughout the reporting period. In seven countries, citizens’ private data was reportedly leaked due to cyberattacks, scams, and phishing activities, mismanagement by the relevant authorities.

Under these circumstances, technological advancements such as the rapid development of artificial intelligence, which carry significant security and digital rights abuse risks, present serious challenges in the coming years.

In light of these alarming findings, the undersigned SEE Digital Rights Network members urge decision makers in the SEE countries to step up their efforts in protecting and advancing digital rights as per the following recommendations:

1. Enhance the cybersecurity infrastructure of public institutions by implementing strict cybersecurity regulations and increasing investment in robust cybersecurity technologies and developing institutional capacity for effective response and prevention of digital rights violations, including phishing, scamming and data breaches.
2. Strengthen personal data protection measures in public institutions to safeguard individual privacy and sensitive information and implement strict regulations and guidelines for the handling and storage of personal data by both private and public entities.
3. Enter into dialogue with relevant stakeholders such as civil society, the media, digital rights and disinformation experts, academia and the private sector, to create a unified regional approach to effective transposition of the regulatory, co-regulatory and self-regulatory mechanisms developed at the EU level to ensure accountability of very large online platforms (DSA, DMA, MFA, CoP) in the region – as well as facilitate a unified and simultaneous entry of the region into the EU digital single market.
4. Promote and protect media freedom and freedom of expression and invest in and promote media and information literacy, including educational activities, media and information strategies and public awareness campaigns. Support independent and professional media and ensure transparency of media ownership and media financing from public budgets.
5. Pay close attention that any solutions aimed to ensure online safety, security and information integrity do not go against, or are implemented at the expense of, media freedoms and freedom of expression.
6. Introduce, safeguard and promote democratic standards in the creation and execution of tech legislation. This involves ensuring open, participatory legislative processes, along with consistent monitoring and evaluation. Guarantee non-selective implementation of tech laws, ensuring transparency and accountability.
7. Improve law enforcement’s ability to address digital rights issues by enhancing infrastructure, resources and capabilities. Implement training programs and protocols for registering, investigating and reporting digital rights violations. Establish efficient mechanisms to safeguard citizens’ digital rights and ensure a safe online environment.
8. Address digital surveillance – refrain from introducing institutional practices and policies violating human rights and freedom of speech.
9. Develop strategic, long-term policies and ensure adequate investments in education across all levels, focusing on equipping future generations with essential knowledge and skills in these critical areas. Embed and integrate comprehensive digital literacy, media, and information literacy, alongside cybersecurity and digital rights education, into national curricula across all educational levels.
10. A data-driven approach to inform evidence-based response and policymaking – invest in building comprehensive data collection systems regarding digital rights violations and targeted groups, providing disaggregation based on age, gender, belonging to a minority group and other relevant characteristics of the data subjects, as well as information on motives of the attacks, to allow for research, and analysis.
11. Strengthen legislation and its implementation to rigorously protect vulnerable groups from online discrimination, hate speech, cyber violence, privacy breaches and disinformation. Foster an inclusive digital environment by actively promoting policies and practices safeguarding these groups and ensuring equitable access to digital infrastructure, resources, and protections.

SEE Digital Rights Network is a coalition of more than 30 civil society and media organisations. Following undersigned members of the network issued the joint statement:

BIRN Network

NGO Atina

YIHR KS

YIHR Serbia

Committee for human rights Nis

Center for Youth KVART

Danes je nov dan, Inštitut za druga vprašanja

Institute for Democracy and Mediation

Homo Digitalis

IPKO Foundation

Metamorphosis

Foundation for Internet and Society

Sarajevo Open Centre

Media Development Centre Skopje

Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS)

Da se zna!

IMPETUS

For almost 30 years, she’s been working as a foreign affairs journalist. Edit would probably be working as a researcher, doing foreign policy analysis, or a diplomat if she wasn’t working as a journalist. Find out what’s reporting about Hungarian politics like and what manual skills would Edit like to know.

Let’s meet her!

1. Why did you become a journalist and decide to work for an investigative media like Balkan Insight?

I have been working as a foreign affairs journalist all my adult life which is almost 30 years now. I think this is the most fascinating profession because you can ask all the questions you ever wanted, and a highly versatile one as you can cover a variety of issues and end up meeting very different people. In 2020, I was approached by BIRN editor Timothy Large who was setting up a Central European (Reporting Democracy) branch of Balkan Insight. Working for Balkan Insight gives me  a unique  opportunity to do more in-depth analysis and research, rather than simple news reporting. I also enjoy working in a team with excellent colleagues with whom we can do some cross-border stories – perhaps even more in the future.

2. What characterizes a responsible journalist today? How far on a global level has journalism gone from its principles?

Being a responsible journalist means doing your homework: researching, investigating, talking and listening to people from different social, cultural or political backgrounds. Get out of your bubble or echo chamber, maintain genuine curiosity, don’t fall for conspiracy theories, talk to people without prejudice and avoid labelling. I’m afraid that in today’s fast-paced media environment, when clickbait stories infect even serious media, many journalists simply don’t have the time and patience for this, and I see a worrying tendency for many journalists to have a political agenda. We certainly have our political beliefs, but don’t let them interfere with your profession.

3. Do you have a story you worked on for Balkan Insight that you feel especially proud of?

I have done a lot of stories for Balkan Insight, perhaps the best ones are the more analytical pieces like the one about how the Orban- government tries to revive the heritage of Hungary’s autocrat Miklos Horthy, or a more recent one how Fidesz is trying to take over universities, which I believe was the first coverage in international media.

4. What was the most challenging thing in your career so far?

The most challenging thing is working in Hungary, reporting about Hungarian politics (which I  always wanted to avoid) in an environment when you usually do not receive any answers from policy makers and are ignored by the government.

5. What are your impressions of the recent Budapest forum, where you participated last month as a moderator?

Budapest Forum is great conference bringing together world-class thinkers and practitioners from all around  the world discussing mostly democracy-related questions. The best part of this year’s conference was probably the keynote address of Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, who talked about the erosion of the middle classes and how this leads to the surge of populism. She also warned that authoritarian political regimes always try to control what can be said but literature and other forms of art usually find a way to express themselves.

6. What would you be working on instead of journalism and media?

I would probably be a researcher, doing foreign policy analysis or a diplomat. It would be great to have some manual skills like painting, interior deco or cooking but it seems – much to my family’s regret – I am not blessed with these talents.

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) is organising online training sessions on digital security, aiming to equip journalists and journalism/communication students with practical tips and tools on: how to stay safe online; how to protect a computer; how to create strong passwords; ethical considerations of the digital sphere; how to avoid surveillance; how to counter malware attacks, etc.

Four one-hour training sessions will take place in the weeks of December 11-15 and December 18-22 for up to 30 participants from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Eligible participants are journalists from local media and journalism students from both public and private universities in the Balkans.

BIRN has been training journalists across Southeast Europe on these topics for several years to raise awareness about the importance of staying safe in an online sphere, about the concepts of secure internal communications and safe searching and browsing the internet. BIRN also has daily coverage of cyber security across SEE countries.

Training sessions will be conducted by Milica Stojanovic, an award-winning BIRN journalist and digital security expert. She has also been running digital security sessions at BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting since 2022.

To take part in the workshop, fill out the following form no later than Monday, December 4, 2023.

For additional information, reach out to us at [email protected] with the subject: Applications for Digital Security Training.

All sessions will take place on Zoom. The working language is English.

This workshop is part of BIRN’s project “Paper Trail to Better Governance”, funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the operational unit of the Austrian Development Cooperation since 2013. Among other things, this project aims to increase the capacities of journalists, media outlets and journalism and communication students in the six countries of the region.

On November 16-17 in Budapest, Hungary, a team of academic staff, experts, and practitioners from the media sector from Western Balkans and Europe settled the foundation for the development of a masters program in investigative journalism and discussed its structure and target audiences.

This collaborative effort aimed to shape the curriculum of the program and underscored the significance of such an initiative as an investment in the field of journalism. Valuable insights were gleaned from lessons learned through the examination of existing programs across Europe. Currently, only one Faculty from the Western Balkan region has initiated such programme, and its practices and experience were taken into consideration during the workshop.

Discussions encompassed crucial aspects, including identifying the intended audiences for the program, determining the relevant topics to be included in the curriculum, addressing its cross-border dimensions, formulating its structural framework and identifying suitable accreditation avenues.

These discussions served as a comprehensive exploration of the fundamental elements necessary for the successful establishment and implementation of a master’s program.

“Through the project Strengthening Quality News and Independent Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey, BIRN aims to improve quality and professionalism in journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey through the development of a sustainable system for support of the current journalists and the future generations of journalists. Developing an academic masters program in investigative journalism is long-term investment in future journalists,” Marija Vasilevska, the Project Coordinator, said.

After the Budapest meeting, extensive consultations with academic institutions in the region are to take place. These will play a pivotal role in the development and implementation of a pilot program for academic training in investigative journalism. Simultaneously, a roadmap will be crafted to guide the formal accreditation process for the Master of Arts, MA, program in the future.

To facilitate progress, an advisory board has been established by the Central European University. This comprises a dedicated team of academic staff and practitioners who are committed to collaboratively shaping the curriculum for the program. Their collective expertise will be instrumental in ensuring the program’s robust foundation and alignment with the evolving needs of the journalistic landscape.

Anticipation surrounds the forthcoming stages of this initiative, with the expectation that the master’s program will not only address the current challenges faced by the industry but also foster a new generation of skilled journalists equipped to navigate the complexities of the media landscape.

As this collaborative effort unfolds, it is poised to make a lasting impact on the field of investigative journalism, nurturing a community of professionals dedicated to upholding the principles of truth, transparency, and ethical reporting.