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Together with our partners, BIRN is launching a series of online and offline events aimed to amplify the voices of strong and credible individuals and organisations in the region that promote the core values of democracy, such as civic engagement, independent institutions, transparency and rule of law.

As a primarily media organisation, we want to open space and provide a platform to discuss and reshape our alliances in light of the challenges facing democracies in South-East and Central Europe.

This effort comes at a critical time when the region is seeing several troubling trends: centralized power, reduced transparency, assaults on media, politicized judiciaries, unchecked corruption, online violations and social polarization – all amidst heightened geopolitical tensions and deep divisions in Europe.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, Platform B event series will be organised in accordance with all relevant health measures. As the situation improves, we hope to be able to host some of the events in BIRN spaces in Sarajevo and Belgrade, and elsewhere in the region.

The Platform B will be an opportunity for individuals and groups to meet monthly on selected topics.

Next event: China in the Balkans – Transparency Locked

Date: December 15, 2021 (Wednesday)

Time: 3pm-4.30pm, CET

In the last decade, the entire SEE region has seen Chinese influence grow, mostly through the Belt and Road Initiative, BRI.  China is a relatively new player in the region, and it has raised some concerns related to the environment, political influence, corruption, and economics. While investments are growing, access to contracts and other data is often difficult, if not impossible to find.

In a bid to bring more information to these discussions and to shed light on the Chinese presence in the Western Balkans and Greece, BIRN is launching its interactive map ‘China in the Balkans.’ A result of BIRN’s research into the different cooperations between Beijing and countries in the region, the map tracks around 130 Chinese-linked projects, including foreign direct investments, but also those focused on infrastructure, culture, technology media and donations sent during the COVID-19 crisis.

Together with our journalists who worked on the project and regional and international experts, we will reflect on the findings of BIRN’s year-and-a-half-long research and discuss the implications of this Chinese presence in a broader geopolitical context.

Panelists inclide:

• Ivana Jeremic, Balkan Insight editor & journalist working on Chinese activities in Serbia
• Bojan Stojkovski, journalist covering Chinese activities in North Macedonia
• Samir Kajosevic, Balkan Insight correspondent for Montenegro & journalist covering Chinese activities in the country
• Irvin Pekmez, BIRN BiH journalist, who covered Chinese activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Plamen Tonchev, MERICS European China Policy Fellow & Head of Asia Unit Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER).
• Ana Krstinovska, a Skopje-based China expert and founder of the research and consultancy services organisation ESTIMA.

Other panelists – regional and international experts – are to be announced in the coming days.

Moderator: Ivan Angelovski, BIRN investigations editor

Registration

This online event is part of BIRN Open House – a series of events hosted by Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Sarajevo that aim to foster debate about key thematic areas we usually follow through our journalism, but now we want to talk with you about media freedom, justice, accountability, memory, digital rights and many other things. The events will take place in the future Reporter’s House, space that will from next year host BIRN’s museum, dedicated to media and journalists, war in former Yugoslavia and challenges to contemporary journalism.

Upcoming events as of January:

Presentation of BIRN’s report into the position of female journalists in the Western Balkans newsrooms, early January.

 

 

Journalists and writers from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are invited to register for a two-day online training course on practicing gender-responsive reporting on human trafficking and violence against women.

The main idea behind the training is to examine and expose worrying and increasing trends in the incidence and prevalence of gender-based violence, both in the offline and online sphere in the Balkan region, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The training will be led by experienced activists from NGO ATINA, an organisation that has been running a direct support programme for trafficking and gender-based survivors in Serbia for 18 years now.

Designed to offer a deep insight into ways to avoid the most common mistakes in reporting on human trafficking and violence against women, the training will also offer participants a chance to practice methods of communication with survivors of violence. They should also encourage journalists and writers to apply the methods and lessons learned in their everyday work, raising the quality of their journalism.

There are two available slots for this online training:

• December 8^th – 9^th
• December 22^nd – 23^rd

Applicants must register for one of these three slots only. The number of participants per training day is limited, so time slots should be booked as soon as possible. Scroll down for registration.

The training will be held in the English language, from 10am to 2pm. Each training day will consist of two 1.5-hour-long sessions that will encompass interactive exercises, facilitated discussions, with an evidence-based approach to group work in practicing gender-responsive reporting on human trafficking and violence against women. At the beginning and at the end of the training course, there will be a questionnaire, and participants will be invited to keep a journalistic diary.

Agenda

Day I

10:00 – 10:30  Introduction of participants, topic and activities

10:30 – 12:00  Not victimhood reporting, but promotion of the agency of women

• Proactive role of journalists in understanding the context of human trafficking and violence against women (meaning of the phenomenon, why it happens, who are the perpetrators and who are the victims, what are the main trends and statistics, involvement of journalists in the process of identification, referral, assistance and court proceedings)

12:00 – 12:30  Break

12:30 – 14:00  How to avoid the most common mistakes while reporting on human trafficking and violence against women

• Deconstruction of stereotypes and prejudices

Day II

10:00 – 10:30  Warm-up and recapitulation of the previous day

10:30 – 12:00 Why wording matters

• Communication with survivors and practicing preferred terminology for reporting

12:00 – 12:30  Break

12:30 – 14:00  Reporting on specific types of violence against women

• Understanding of violence and abuse in the digital sphere

For more information, contact: Jelena Hrnjak ([email protected]).

Please register here and select a preferred slot. Upon registration, you will receive an email confirmation, and a Zoom link will be sent to all participants a few days before the training course.

The training is being organised with support from the Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade.

Despite that the majority of journalists in the Western Balkans are women, they still face gender-based discrimination and abuse and often do not feel secure in speaking out due to fears of losing their jobs or reputation and not receiving the necessary support, an online panel discussion organised by BIRN was told on Thursday.

Media organisations in the Balkans should have proper codes and procedures to follow in cases of sexual harassment or other kinds of gender-based discrimination, said BIRN’s project coordinator Sofija Todorovic, who moderated the debate entitled ‘#MeToo in Journalism: When Will Balkan Journalists Speak Up?’

This would “enable that every journalist at the media outlet where she works to be aware of the steps she can follow”, said Todorovic.

Dafina Halili, contributing editor at online magazine Kosovo 2.0, spoke of the difficulty of speaking out in a small country such as Kosovo.

“Women journalists are often harassed in the newsroom in front of journalists who then speak in public and on live TV about sexual harassment [as phenomenon] but do not intervene in cases when their colleagues are being harassed [while they are present,” she said.

Halili said that Kosovo has yet to witness a #MeToo movement, as no public figures have yet spoken out about the harassment they have suffered. But she said that it is positive that young people in Kosovo are organising protests and other events for women rights.

Jelena Jovanovic, a journalist at Montenegrin news outlet Vijesti, said that a patriarchal mindset often stops women from speaking out, particularly in rural areas where even domestic violence is kept hidden.

Jovanovic explains the situation is not much different for women journalists who often are faced with gossip that they achieved where they are by sleeping their way up.

“I took the approach saying ‘yes I did it’ to shut people up and at one point it worked but it did not stop, the gossip moved to other colleagues” Jovanovic explains.

Natalija Miletic, a journalist and fixer who works between Serbia and Germany, explained that despite the #MeToo movement, the situation remains difficult.

She said that in Serbia, despite the fact that some media organisations are overwhelmingly staffed by women, “there is no woman editor-in-chief in the mainstream media”.

Zhaklin Lekatari, a journalist, sex blogger and human rights activist in Albania, said that a #MeToo movement does not exist in Albania either, and that there are two main issues women in the country face when considering speaking out about their experiences of abuse and sexual harassment – fear and lack of trust.

“We don’t have a gap in the gender representation of editors-in-chief in Albania, but the [media companies’] policies are not feminist,” Lekatari said.

The panellists agreed that the problem will not be solved by having more female editors-in-chief, but by improving management practices and editorial policies.

Lekatari advised young female journalists to seek support and solidarity – “find support, identify, link groups together and organise them”.

Urging women journalists to come forward and speak to BIRN about their stories, even anonymously, Todorevic said: “The right time to speak up is whenever the women [who have been victims of abuse or sexual harassment] are ready to speak up and if they don’t speak sooner it is everybody’s fault.”

This year’s winning investigations exposed a variety of malpractices in Turkey,  ranging from the mishandling of public funds to the infamous ties between a drug baron and a chief of police.

A total of 53 applicants submitted their stories uncovering wrongdoings and shedding light on issues of importance to the public.

Apart from the three stories that were given awards, two other stories received special recognition from the juries.

At the awards ceremony on June 29, the head of EU Delegation in Turkey, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, highlighted the importance of investigative journalism and of ensuring the safety of reporters.

“In the wake of the attack against an AFP photo-journalist, I state that according to EU values, violence against journalists cannot be tolerated. We are in need of journalism in this age of global disinformation,” Meyer-Landrut told the ceremony in Ankara.

The first prize went to journalist Murat Ağırel, whose series of stories featured how public funds are being misspent in a variety of areas such as health and education. Articles unearthed unlawful purchases and expenses as well as possible money-laundering.

Journalists Hale Gönültaş and Volkan Nakiboğlu got second prize for their stories Iranian Border: Between Bullets and Wolves, which exposed the inhumane conditions that immigrants face on the Iranian border as well as the cruelty of human traffickers.

Third prize was awarded to Fevzi Kızılkoyun for the story Prestigious Baron: Official Car Issued to Turkish Escobar,  which explained how a drug trafficker violated the curfew during the pandemic with the help of a chief of police.

“Today we are here to honour our colleagues who practise this profession by doing it justice. Journalism requires dedication, first and foremost to the public, then to the truth, knowledge, and objectivity,” said Yusuf Kanli, vice-president of the Association of Journalists.

Special recognition jury prizes went to the Hazal Ocak for the story Leak in the Bosphorus – Garden Rented for Only 258 Liras a Month, which showed how public spaces are being taken by top government officials. Ocak’s stories have been banned on the grounds that she has been “interfering with the fight against coronavirus” and she is facing 14 years in prison at an ongoing trial.

Another special recognition prize was awarded to İsa Örken for the story 14 Days as a Seasonal Worker, about the hardship faced by seasonal workers, their poor working conditions and how they try to get by on low salaries. Örken went undercover and worked alongside seasonal workers, documenting their working conditions.

The EU Award for Investigative Journalism is presented annually in six Western Balkan countries and Turkey for exceptional investigations published in the previous year.

The Summer School of Investigative Reporting, which will be held this year in Croatia’s picturesque coastal village of Mlini from August 23-30, will again put together top journalists and editors for a week-long training programme.

Due to the global pandemic, BIRN has changed its usual programme in order to ensure that health and safety measures are respected. This year’s hybrid programme will include both online and offline sessions.

This year, BIRN is teaming up with journalists and trainers from Lighthouse Reports, an award-winning non-profit organisation based in the Netherlands which leads complex transnational investigations blending traditional journalistic methods with emerging techniques like open source intelligence and specialisms like data science.

For the first time this summer, applicants will have the chance to choose one of four course themes: Arms, Surveillance, Agriculture and Waste. Part of the training programme will be focused on the three themes that attract most interest from the participants.

In the mornings, participants will have joint sessions in hands-on investigative journalism skills, such as open source techniques, financial forensics and data journalism.

In the afternoon sessions, participants will be divided into three groups, depending on the theme they are following. Each group will have its lead trainers and will work with them on specific investigations, covering their group’s topic, applying the skills and techniques acquired during the morning sessions. Specific ideas and story angles, as well as the materials needed, will be prepared prior to the Summer School and participants will receive them during a briefing on the first day.

Work on the investigations is expected to be finalised during the Summer School, with only minor final work to be left for afterwards. Journalists from other media outlets are encouraged to co-publish the investigations originate at the Summer School.

The agenda and a detailed list of trainers will be published in the coming weeks.

We are providing 30 full scholarships for selected participants. This will cover accommodation, meals, as well as transportation expenses of up to 150 euros. Apart from the training, editorial support and mentorship, BIRN will, through our Investigative Initiative Fund, provide participants with fees.

Eligible participants include journalists who have experience in investigative reporting and who have covered the course theme they have chosen. Journalists from the following countries are eligible to apply: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Turkey.

Journalists who had previously participated in our Summer Schools are again eligible to apply.

Since the first Summer School in 2010, BIRN has trained more than 300 journalists from the Balkans and beyond, providing them with financial, editorial, mentorship and publication support. The participants, who are usually a mixture of experienced investigative journalists and those who have only a few years of experience in the field, are also provided with excellent opportunities for networking.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, there is a possibility that some trainers will not be able to come to Croatia, so they will join us online via Zoom. BIRN also aims to undertake all the necessary preventive and protection measures and will inform the participants of COVID-19 related rules and procedures. In case the offline setting is not possible, school will most likely take place online.

The application procedure includes sending a completed application form and CV as well as a sample of your work.

Applications close on July 7.

Click here to apply.

DATA PROTECTION INFO: Privacy notice

 

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN on June 3 launched the first comprehensive, interactive database of mass graves from the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia, giving an unprecedented insight into the largest operations to cover up war crimes in Europe since World War II.

The Bitter Land database provides information in three languages (English, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Albanian) on the location of mass graves from the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo, including the number of victims identified after exhumations, archive reports and images, plus details of related court cases, witness testimonies and other resources.

It is being launched ahead of the final verdict on June 8 in the trial of former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, who stands accused of bearing responsibility for some of the crimes that led to mass graves being dug during the Bosnian conflict.

BIRN’s aim is to present factual data in order to help counter the continuing selective denial of crimes and historical revisionism about the 1990s wars.

“One of the main focuses was to create a source of fact-based information and data on one of the biggest systematic cover-ups of war crimes in recent history,” said Nejra Mulaomerovic, who created the project with BIRN’s regional director, Marija Ristic.

“The database also represents an effort to foster the memorialisation process by providing a significant number of resources and using new technologies to capture current state of these sites,” she added.

The database highlights the lack of strategic memorialisation efforts by providing drone videos and photographs of the current condition of the locations, and in some cases 3D models of the sites, many of which are neglected an unmarked, with no signs indicating that they were wartime crime scenes.

The database is designed for use by journalists, researchers, students, civil society organisations and, most importantly, for the families of war victims with limited resources to access court records, archives and information related to clandestine graves in the region.

At the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, BIRN visited and documented more than 60 mass grave locations.

Most of the gravesites in the database are in unmarked fields, illegal garbage pits, next to public roads or on the property of private companies. In some cases, the sites were hidden as new housing was built around them.

Initial research for the launch of the database was based on the 42 largest mass graves in the former Yugoslavia that yielded more than 100 bodies. In the second phase of research, BIRN will map graves that contained between 50 and 100 bodies, while the third phase will map the remaining sites.

The biggest mass grave in the region was in Serbia, at a police training centre in the Belgrade neighbourhood of Batajnica, where 744 bodies of Kosovo Albanians were found.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the biggest gravesites were discovered around the towns of Zvornik, Srebrenica and Prijedor, where the bodies of Bosniak civilians were buried. One of the biggest gravesites in Croatia was discovered near Ovcara farm, near the town of Vukovar, where 200 bodies were found.

More than 130,000 people lost their lives as a consequence of the wars in the former Yugoslavia and 40,000 went missing. So far remains of around 28,000 people have been found in more than 1,500 clandestine gravesites, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina alone, around 1,000 gravesites have been uncovered.

As sources for the database, BIRN used forensic reports from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, court testimony statements and archive satellite footage, as well as documents, research papers, testimonies and news archive footage from different sources.

BIRN also cross-referenced data from the ICTY, the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the International Commission on Missing Persons, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other organisations that were involved in the process of exhuming and identifying the victims.

The database provides a wide-ranging insight into the killings and subsequent cover-up operations – many of which remain unpunished, more than two decades later.

For more information, see the Bitter Land site.

Trends Report highlights how symptoms of “Long COVID” in Central and Southeast Europe include assaults on transparency and media freedom, infectious disregard for the rule of law, and ideological entrenchment and polarisation.

Governments in Central and Southeast are taking advantage of the pandemic to continue their assault on democratic values and the still-fragile system of checks and balances, Reporting Democracy, a cross-border journalistic platform run by BIRN, warns in its annual Trends Report published on Wednesday.

“While Long COVID symptoms in people include extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, chest pain, and problems with memory; symptoms for countries in this region include assaults on transparency and media freedom, infectious disregard for the rule of law, ideological entrenchment and polarisation, and problems with memory,” the report, COVID’s Lingering Effects, says.

Marking the second year of the Reporting Democracy initiative, the report highlights the key “signals to watch” and “what to expect in 2021” as the political, economic and social consequences of the coronavirus crisis continue to unfold.

The report seeks to examine the political and social implications of the pandemic that has exacerbated some pre-existing trends, like assaults on media freedom and eroding of the rule of law, that were also covered in the inaugural edition of the Trends Report. It also identifies some new ones, including the vaccine dimension to disinformation, misinformation and propaganda; the return of rising poverty in the region, and the destruction of the cultural economy by COVID-19 and government partiality over the financial aid provided to it.

“The European Commission called the pandemic a ‘real-life stress test’ for our legal and constitutional systems – and in many regards they are failing. The Trends Report is part of our effort to unleash the power of independent journalism to explore the issues, trends and events that are shaping the future of democracy in Central and Southeast Europe,” Reporting Democracy Editor Nicholas Watson said.

The Trends Report streams from the regular coverage of the most important developments in the Visegrad region, provided by the Reporting Democracy correspondents, grants for in-depth features and investigations available to local journalists and the expert commentary from leaders in policy, civil society and academia.