Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and Civic Alliance (CA) announce a new opportunity for local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and media outlets in Montenegro and Kosovo. Funded by the US State Department, the initiative seeks to combat corruption, a major impediment to establishing the rule of law in Montenegro & Kosovo.
Corruption remains one of the main obstacles to strengthening the rule of law across the Western Balkans, undermining democratic governance, public trust, and fair access to public services. Politicised decision-making, weak oversight, and limited accountability mechanisms continue to create space for abuse of power, particularly where public resources and appointments intersect with narrow political or private interests.
In Montenegro, corruption continues to affect public confidence in institutions and the credibility of reforms. Progress on transparency and accountability remains uneven, and civil society and independent media have repeatedly flagged gaps between formal commitments and practice. For example, reporting has highlighted how the state still lacks key transparency tools in areas like public procurement and access to data that would enable meaningful scrutiny and oversight. Reporting has also underlined the importance of ensuring that anti-corruption bodies have the independence and resources needed to function effectively.
In Kosovo, corruption and clientelism remain persistent challenges, particularly in areas such as public contracting and institutional governance, where accountability mechanisms are often perceived as weak or inconsistently applied. Balkan Insight’s country governance profiling similarly points to ongoing issues linked to corruption risks and the need for stronger transparency and oversight in public decision-making.
Across both contexts, education, healthcare, and the environment remain sectors vulnerable to politicisation, conflicts of interest, and misuse of public funds. Addressing these risks requires stronger cooperation between citizens, civil society, and local media, so that community concerns translate into credible evidence, public scrutiny, and pressure for institutional follow-up.
This initiative in a broader sense aims to contribute to free speech, open debate and free sharing of information, reducing corruption, all forms of organised crime including drug and human trafficking, influence from hostile entities and countries, creating a more favourable democratic and business environment.
Objectives:
Increase capacities of local media, civil society and citizens to identify corruption in their communities, report it to responsible authorities and hold institutions accountable;
Empower civil society and media to report and counter corruption at national and local level and influence changes with special emphasis on environment, education and healthcare;
Improve constructive engagement among civil society, government(s) and/or private sector and policies, laws and/or anti-corruption practices.
Outputs and Activities:
For Media Outlets: Cases of corruption in Montenegro and Kosovo identified and revealed
Developing factual and objective in-depth articles based on the needs of local communities
Increased public awareness in Montenegro and Kosovo regarding the importance of anti-corruption efforts and available mechanisms for citizen engagement and public oversight
Enforcing anti-corruption campaign via mainstream and social media
For CSO’s: Recommendations developed and delivered to improve anti-corruption policies, laws, and practices
Developing anti-corruption policy papers based on the needs of local communities
Increased public awareness in Montenegro and Kosovo regarding the importance of anti-corruption efforts and available mechanisms for citizen engagement and public oversight
Enforcing anti-corruption campaign via mainstream and social media
Eligibility and Grants:
Maximum grant amount: $12,430.00
Number of grants: 16
Total estimated amount: $198,880
No co-financing required from applicants.
Application Process:
Eligible entities: Registered CSOs and media outlets in Montenegro & Kosovo.
Eligible activities: Development of anti-corruption stories/policy papers, implementation of promotional campaigns, participation in capacity-building initiatives.
Evaluation Criteria:
Relevance of proposed story/policy paper
Capacity
Financial proposal
Potential and social impact
Timeline:
Call issued: January 27, 2026
Deadline for submission: February 21, 2026
Information session: The Info sessions will be held on Zoom, on Monday, February 2, 2026, at 11:00 CET.
Meeting link: Click HERE
A regional training on the role of investigative journalism in transitional justice processes was held in Sarajevo from 20 to 23 January, bringing together 23 journalists, students and NGO professionals from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro.
The training focused on strengthening journalists’ capacity to report responsibly and evidence-based on war crimes, accountability, and transitional justice in post-conflict societies. The programme combined theoretical grounding with practical skills and was led by expert trainers from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The training opened with a public panel discussion on the state of the transitional justice process in Bosnia, held at Europe House in Sarajevo. The panel gathered around 60 participants, including victims associations, members of international organisations and embassies, journalists and civil society, and provided a platform to reflect on three decades of transitional justice efforts, ongoing challenges.
Over the following two days, participants engaged in intensive training sessions covering the theoretical foundations of transitional justice, as well as the role of domestic and international criminal justice mechanisms. Particular attention was given to monitoring criminal court proceedings, interviewing war victims in line with safeguarding and ethical guidelines, and reporting on the issue of missing persons.
The second day of training focused on the development of investigative journalism in the Western Balkans in the post-war period. Participants explored methodologies for fact-checking, countering disinformation, and responding to genocide denial, with an emphasis on responsible reporting and the protection of historical truth.
As part of the programme, participants also attended a screening of the BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina documentary Justice and Truth at the Historical Museum of BIH, which explores the themes of peace, transitional justice, and accountability through the experiences of Bosnia and Herzegovina and war-torn Ukraine. The screening provided an opportunity for reflection on the relevance of transitional justice beyond the region and the importance of documenting crimes in ongoing conflicts.
By bringing together journalists from across the region, the training aimed to foster cross-border exchange, strengthen professional networks, and contribute to more accurate, ethical, and impactful reporting on transitional justice issues in the Western Balkans.
As a result of a BIRN training program on the role of investigative journalism in transitional justice, held in January 2026 in Sarajevo and bringing together journalists, civil society actors, and students, a training guide was produced and can be found here.
Workshop Overview and Participant Breakdown
Dates and place: 20 to 23 January 2026, Sarajevo
Number of training participants per country:
Kosovo 14
BiH 15
Serbia 34
Montenegro 11
Croatia 1
Total number of participants: 75
The full findings and activities are available in the EDS Report, which can be accessed here.
A panel discussion in Sarajevo shed light on three decades of transitional justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as panellists reflected on the achievements, shortcomings and steps still needed to ensure justice for the victims of the 1992–95 war.
A panel discussion held in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, on Tuesday focused on the transitional justice efforts that the country went through since the end of the 1992-95 war, which took more than 100,000 lives.
The discussion brought together representatives of victims’ associations, international organisations, legal experts and EU officials, all of whom agreed that while some progress has been made, the burden of seeking justice has largely fallen on victims themselves rather than on the state.
Bakira Hasecic, founder and president of the Association of Women Victims of War, warned that many survivors remain excluded from legal protection and basic rights. She said that civilian victims who survived torture and abuse are not recognised under existing laws if they no longer hold Bosnian citizenship.
“Survivors who went through those ordeals are not recognised under this law and cannot exercise their rights because they are not citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Hasecic said, adding that although authorities have promised to correct this injustice, months have passed without progress. “It is obvious that this is a political issue,” she said.
According to Hasecic, such legal barriers have far-reaching consequences. “In this way, we are losing witnesses, justice and truth,” she said, stressing that survivors are being systematically discriminated against. She urged institutions to recognise the rights of victims who took another citizenship after the war, noting that they endured torture while they were still Bosnian citizens. “We, the victims, are doing the job that the state should be doing,” she said.
Klaudia Kuljuh, head of programmes at TRIAL International BiH, said Bosnia and Herzegovina still lacks a comprehensive state-level law on civilian victims of war, despite repeated attempts and international pressure. While entity-level laws exist both in the Federation and Republika Srpska, their implementation remains incomplete.
“The UN also put pressure on the authorities and nothing was done,” Kuhulj said, explaining that international recommendations allow for the absence of a state law only if entity laws are fully harmonised and implemented, which is not the case.
She noted that while some financial support has been secured, other crucial aspects, such as rehabilitation, access to information and memorialisation, remain unresolved. “Biology does its work, and we have fewer and fewer beneficiaries of this law,” Kuhulj warned. “The state owes a lot to those who remain – support, information about places of disappearance, marking sites of suffering.”
Legal expert Prof. Dr Goran Simic questioned the broader impact of war crimes trials, arguing that the expectations placed on the judiciary were unrealistic. “We naively believed that war crimes trials bring justice – they do not, or they do so only in a very small number of cases,” he said, noting that compensation was awarded in only a handful of cases out of more than 900 adjudicated.
Simic also criticised the tendency to reduce responsibility for wartime atrocities solely to convicted individuals. “You cannot transfer responsibility for war crimes onto just 1,000 people,” he said, adding that despite those convictions, genuine reconciliation has not been achieved.
He identified education as a critical missing link, saying that court verdicts rarely find their way into school curricula. “Our problem is not that we do not have verdicts; the problem is where those verdicts are,” Simic said, pointing to ethnically divided narratives that portray one side exclusively as victims and others as perpetrators.
Lejla Gacanica, human rights officer for transitional justice at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNHCR, said most progress so far has been driven by victims’ groups and civil society organisations, a model she described as unsustainable. “It is time for the state to take bigger steps in relation to current needs,” she said.
Representing the EU Delegation, policy officer Fermín Córdoba stressed the importance of institutional cooperation, particularly in the context of EU accession talks. He said transitional justice falls under the first cluster of negotiations and key priority Number Five, but acknowledged persistent resistance from authorities. “We tried to negotiate with the authorities, but we always hit a wall,” Córdoba said.
The panel concluded that without stronger political will, full legal implementation and meaningful engagement with victims, Bosnia risks allowing time to erode both justice and truth, leaving reconciliation an unfulfilled promise, three decades after the war.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the panelist(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or BIRN. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Workshop Overview and Participant Breakdown
Date and place: 20 January 2026
Number of participants per country:
BiH 28
Austria 1
Netherlands 2
Belgium 2
Czech Republic 2
France 2
Spain 1
Germany 2
Sweden 2
Total number of participants: 42
The full findings and activities are available in the EDS Report, which can be accessed here.
BIRN Hub in cooperation with Mnemonic invites students, journalists, researchers, civil society activists and human rights practitioners from the region to apply for a three-day regional workshop on documenting and archiving human rights violations and international crimes, to be held in Sarajevo from 11 to 13 March.
The workshop will focus on practical and ethical approaches to the documentation, preservation and use of information related to international crimes and human rights violations, with particular attention to contemporary challenges in digital archiving. The training will be delivered by the Mnemonic team, an internationally recognised organisation specializing in digital archiving, open-source investigations and the preservation of evidence of human rights abuses.
Through a combination of expert-led sessions, participants will strengthen their capacity to responsibly collect, verify, archive and manage sensitive materials related to human rights violations.
Key Topics Include:
Principles and standards of open source investigations
Digital archiving methodologies and tools
Verification and contextualization of digital content
Ethical, legal, and security considerations when working with sensitive data
Practical case studies and hands-on exercises
The use of AI in open source investigations.
Who Can Apply
The call is open to participants aged 20 to 36 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia who are actively engaged in:
Law studies (including international law and international humanitarian law), political science, transitional justice studies, or related fields.
Human rights documentation and advocacy.
Investigative journalism.
Research and archival work.
Transitional justice, memorialization, or accountability initiatives.
A strong interest in transitional justice, archiving and documenting international crimes and human rights violations is essential.
Practical Information
Dates: 11–13 March
Location: Sarajevo
Working language: English
Costs: Travel, accommodation, and meals will be covered by BIRN for selected participants.
How to Apply
Interested candidates are invited to:
Fill out the application form with a short biography (up to 200 words) and a brief motivation statement explaining your interest in the workshop and how it relates to your current work.
Register for the Info session for all those interested, to be held on January 23 at 16:00 CET. Register here.
Applications should be sent no later than 29 January at 17:00 CET. Only selected participants will be notified, in the first two weeks of February.
By submitting this application, you confirm your availability to participate in the workshop from 11 to 13 March, including travel days on 10 and 14 March. Please note that accommodation and travel arrangements will be organised in advance, and the associated costs will be covered accordingly.
Early applications are strongly encouraged, as they will facilitate timely selection and the organisation of travel and visa arrangements, where applicable.
Are you a journalist interested in attending Dataharvest – The European Investigative Journalism Conference in May 2026? Do you want to benefit from advanced training, networking opportunities, and connections with editorial teams from all around Europe? BIRN, in partnership with the conference organisers, Arena for Journalism in Europe, and with the support of ERSTE Foundation, invites interested journalists to apply for a grant that can help make this experience possible.
Eligible countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia.
Number of individual grants: 22
About the Grant
Journalists are invited to apply for a grant to attend Dataharvest 2026 – The European Investigative Journalism Conference, one of Europe’s major annual events dedicated to investigative, data, and collaborative journalism. Over the course of the event, participants will engage in practical training, workshops, expert sessions, and networking, with the aim of enhancing professional skills and fostering collaboration across countries and media organisations.
The grant is designed to support journalists whose participation in international professional events may be limited by financial or logistical constraints. By enabling their attendance at Dataharvest, we want to strengthen professional skills, facilitate international networking, and encourage cross-border collaboration within the European investigative journalism community.
Who Can Apply
The call is open to professional journalists, with particular encouragement for freelance journalists and those working in small or independent media outlets, based in the following countries:
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia.
What the Grant Offers
Each selected journalist will receive a lump-sum grant of €700, which is intended to cover:
Travel costs to and from the conference;
Daily expenses (per diem) during the conference.
In addition, the following will be arranged and covered directly by the conference organisers:
Conference registration;
Accommodation (three nights, 28, 29, and 30 May);
All necessary practical information to participate in the event.
Kindly note that the grant covers the registration for and accommodation during the main programme of the conference (29 – 31 May 2026), and not the full-day masterclasses on 28 May 2026. The ticket for masterclasses needs to be purchased separately if one wishes to attend.
How to apply
All interested journalists are encouraged to apply by completing the online application form.
Applications must be submitted by 2 February 2026, 17:00 CET. Successful candidates will be notified mid-February 2026.
Online presentation
Join us for the presentation, and get a comprehensive overview of Dataharvest, including its professional development and networking opportunities, as well as detailed information on grant-supported participation. Participants will learn what to expect from the 2026 conference, how to strengthen their grant applications, and how to make the most of this opportunity.
The session will be hosted by Jelena Prtorić, Dataharvest Director and Project Coordinator.
A dedicated Q&A session will allow participants to ask questions about the programme, participation, grants, and other practical aspects of the conference.
Selection Process and Criteria
Applications will be reviewed by a selection panel and assessed based on the following criteria:
Years of relevant professional experience and areas of journalistic work;
Motivation to participate, including the clarity and relevance of the applicant’s interest in the conference;
The applicant’s potential contribution to the conference programme, discussions, and peer exchange.
Final selections will be made collectively by the panel, taking into account the overall quality of applications and ensuring a balanced representation of countries of residence among selected participants.
We look forward to receiving your applications!
Should you have any questions about the grant or the application process, please contact us at: [email protected]
In 2025, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) marked its first 20 years – 20 years of investigative journalism and dedication to promoting freedom of speech, human rights and democratic values.
Besar Likmeta has been the editor of BIRN Albania almost from the beginning of BIRN, since 2007, and was also the country correspondent for Balkan Insight.
Having studied philosophy at the University of North Florida, he explains how that shaped his thinking and influenced his path in journalism and investigative work.
“The quest to make sense of the world, to understand its underlying truths, and to engage with the study of ideas, has instilled in me a deep appreciation of the role the media – now increasingly social media – plays in shaping our beliefs as individuals and as a community,” he says.
“I grew up in a country where freedom was constrained by propaganda and where no independent press existed, and I learned at an early age the importance of free speech and the right to be informed – not only as pillars of a democratic society, but also as prerequisites for personal freedom and intellectual inquiry,” he adds.
He has extensive experience in journalism, having worked in print, television and electronic media in both the US and Albania since 2003. Besar started his career reporting for the Florida Times Union in Jacksonville, Florida. He moved back to Albania in 2005 where he worked as a features editor for the Tirana Times, and as world news editor for the 24-hour news channel TV Ora News.
He has contributed stories to various publications, including The Christian Science Monitor, Global Post, Transitions Online, The Diplomatic Courier and World Politics Review.
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.
He recalls when and how he found out about BIRN.
“I first heard about BIRN in 2006, as one of the handful of media development organisations in the region supporting coverage of current affairs in English through its newsletter, Balkan Insight. At the time, there was little local reporting in English, and the region’s narrative abroad was largely shaped by major Western media outlets, often relying on parachute journalism and reproducing clichés and stereotypes,” he explains.
One thing was significant for him when it comes to our organisation.
“What drew my attention to BIRN was the consistently high quality of its in-depth reporting, along with the professional editing of news analysis, investigations, and features,” he says.
When he started working for BIRN, he expected it to sharpen his skills as a reporter.
“Over the years, BIRN has proven to be both a challenging and rewarding professional experience – not only for me, but also for many of my colleagues and for hundreds of other journalists across the region,” he says.
Having worked with BIRN for nearly 19 years, Besar saw firsthand how BIRN Hub and BIRN Albania complemented and built on each other within the network over the time.
“BIRN Albania was established in 2014 by a group of journalists who had participated in BIRN Hub’s regional projects, such as the Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence. The aim was to introduce to the Albanian-language media landscape a professional publication where local reporters could benefit from strong editorial support and mentorship, enabling them to produce in-depth, hard-hitting investigative journalism. Through the dedication and hard work of its staff and contributors, BIRN’s local outlet, Reporter.al, has become a media source of record in Albania,” he explains.
In the current Albanian media landscape, BIRN Albania has a specific role.
“BIRN is the leading media development and investigative journalism organisation in Albania. It plays a crucial role as a bridge between journalists, media outlets, and civil society, helping to strengthen their collective impact as agents of change in the fight against corruption and organised crime, and in the defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms. In the years ahead, we aim not only to uphold but also to expand this role, particularly in the face of the profound generational technological transformation brought about by artificial intelligence,” Besar says.
Looking back over BIRN’s first 20 years, he has seen big changes and challenges within the network and in Albania.
“Its size has certainly expanded, from a handful of ambitious and passionate journalists and editors into a powerhouse of hundreds of media and development professionals, programme managers, and researchers. The organisation’s impact and influence have grown accordingly. Today, BIRN is a household name in the Western Balkans and in Brussels. It has taken 20 years and a great deal of hard work to get here. Along the way, we have overcome many challenges – from funding crises to SLAPP lawsuits, while also benefiting from significant support,” he says.
Since BIRN Albania’s establishment, it has produced many award-winning investigations, he notes.
“The most influential investigations over the years have been those that succeeded in shaping the public narrative on specific issues, generating sustained public debate and prompting authorities to act, including by launching investigations and issuing indictments.
“In this regard, the series of investigations into the waste management scandal – linked to the construction of three waste-to-energy plants through public-private partnerships – has had the greatest impact.
However, investigations aren’t the only BIRN Albania work that deserve attention, he says.
“BIRN Albania is widely known for its investigative reporting, but this represents only the tip of the iceberg. The organisation has also come to play an important role in monitoring the use of traditional and social media during elections, producing research on propaganda and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), monitoring the justice reform in Albania, advocating for freedom of expression and media freedom, and assessing the country’s overall progress toward European Union integration,” Besar outlines.
Speaking of BIRN’s next 20 years, he has his “dream scenario”.
“My ideal scenario is that, 20 years from now, we will have passed on our skills and ethical standards to a new generation of journalists and editors, and that the organisation will be more sustainable and resilient,” he explains.
Besar stresses what BIRN represents for him personally, and who is he outside BIRN.
“BIRN represents my life’s work – so far – with all its joys and tribulations, and outside of it, in the little time that remains, I enjoy spending it with friends and family,” he concludes.
On December 12, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network launched SPEAK, a new platform designed to report abuses of surveillance and censorship in the Western Balkans.
The region faces a surge in surveillance and censorship practices that have profound implications for freedom of speech, human rights and democracy. BIRN’s report from April 2025, “Surveillance and Censorship in the Western Balkans”, highlighted the urgent need for a safe and accessible reporting mechanism. SPEAK was created to meet this need – a secure space where individuals can report abuses of surveillance and censorship.
What is SPEAK?
SPEAK allows users to safely and anonymously report abuses of surveillance and censorship across the Western Balkans, in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. As BIRN also monitors digital rights violations in Romania, Hungary, Turkey, and Croatia, submissions from these countries are welcome as well.
The platform empowers users to speak out against illegal surveillance and censorship. All submissions are reviewed by BIRN, which may further investigate relevant information and include them in in-depth stories or ongoing research projects. This approach ensures that critical issues are brought to light and further examined.
How to report?
Reporting through SPEAK is simple and fully anonymous, using BIRN’s Engaged Citizen Tool (ECR) a dedicated questionnaire consisting of basic questions in required fields, where the user is asked to provide information describing the incident they are reporting. The ECR tool does not collect or store IP addresses or any personally identifiable information, ensuring full anonymity and data protection. Users are not required to provide any personal details, guaranteeing complete identity protection.
By using SPEAK, journalists, human rights defenders, civil society organisations and the general public can report violations without fear of retaliation. Highlighting and reporting these abuses helps to increase transparency, raise awareness, and strengthen human rights in the region.
Visit our new platform and learn how to report, what can be reported, and how the whole process works here.
This website was produced with the support of the Open Society Foundations – Western Balkans, as a part of Surveillance and Censorship in the Western Balkans project. The thoughts and opinions expressed herein belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
Ada is a reporter with more than a decade of experience covering breaking news and writing long-form stories for outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, and Gazeta Wyborcza. In 2021, she was selected as the IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow out of over a hundred applicants worldwide. During the fellowship, she reported for The New York Times and The Boston Globe, and carried out independent research on media freedom at MIT. Before that, she worked as a freelance foreign correspondent based in New Delhi and was part of the editorial teams at NewsMavens and Wysokie Obcasy.
Ada, who is based in Warsaw, has wide experience in a variety of journalistic forms, including investigations, analysis, features, documentary photography, and narrative podcast.
“This is a fascinating time to be reporting on Poland, and I’m thrilled to do it with BIRN. What excites me most is the chance to work alongside journalists across the region and dive into the kind of cross-border stories that are uncomfortable in all the right ways”, she said about her new role.
Ada will be part of the Reporting Democracy team. In this position, she succeeds Claudia Ciobanu, BIRN’s longtime correspondent and Fellowship for journalistic excellence alumna, who established our presence in Poland six years ago.
Reporting Democracy is a cross-border journalistic platform dedicated to supporting independent journalism to scrutinise the issues, trends and events shaping the future of democracy in Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe.
From November 24 to 26, 2025, BIRN welcomed some 120 participants – journalists, civil society activists, tech experts, academia, relevant institutions’ representatives and citizens at large – in Prishtina (Kosovo) for a regional annual conference and the Internet Freedom Meet event on digital rights and freedoms.
What unfolded was more than a presentation of cold statistical data. We witnessed a collective reckoning with how rapidly emerging technologies are advancing, and with how weak oversight and shrinking civic spaces are reshaping – and often endangering – people’s everyday lives across the Western Balkans and beyond.
From Project Roots to Regional Reality
The third and final annual conference is built on BIRN’s three-years project, Reporting Digital Rights and Freedoms, funded by the European Union and implemented by BIRN Kosovo and its regional partners BIRN Hub, BIRN Albania, BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN Macedonia, BIRN Montenegro and BIRN Serbia in the Western Balkans region and Turkey. The project aimed at strengthening media and civil society capacity to document and report digital rights and freedoms violations. Through training, capacity building online and offline events, fellowships, subgranting as well as editorial and other technical support, the project equipped newsrooms and individuals, journalists and activists with tools to first and foremost understand and then monitor and report about issues such as online abuse, to challenge disinformation, and bring somewhat hidden digital violations into public debate and for institutional reaction.
BIRN Kosovo director Jeta Xharra opened the conference and noted that there was very little knowledge about digital rights and that the project has contributed to educating both journalists to report on and the public to understand digital rights.
In a high-level speech, Kosovo’s President, Vjosa Osmani, sent a strong message of support towards the internet as a free space, and on the importance of exposing tech-facilitated abuse, be it online manipulation, promotion of hatred, violence against women or harassment of children.
The Deputy Head of the EU Office in Kosovo, Eva Palatova, emphasised the EU’s commitment to a human-centric digital environment, noting recent key policy instruments, the Digital Services Act, the AI Act and the European Democracy Shield, aimed at protecting users.
The work done throughout the project pointed to the importance of addressing internet governance-related topics systematically. The latest BIRN regional report, launched at the opening of the conference, documented 1,440 violations from September 2024 to August 2025. Over the three years of the project, based on BIRN’s monitoring methodology, we captured over 4,000 cases of digital rights and violations mapped.
From September 2024 to August 2025, the most frequent types of trending violations include misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate sexual, gender-based violence and fraud, threats to the freedom and pluralism of information, attacks on digital assets and economic rights and harmful and threatening online behaviour.
The conference was attended by around 120 participants including 30 Internet Freedom Meet fellows from the Western Balkans region selected following a public call for participation.
Throughout the three-day event, the fellows played a dual role. They followed conference panels on the main stage, bringing sharp questions and contextual knowledge; and in parallel, they immersed themselves in dedicated workshops with international trainers, diving deeper into some of the most urgent challenges shaping the digital landscape.
In these workshops, fellows confronted real-world dilemmas: how to investigate online harassment while keeping victims safe; how to trace disinformation networks across borders; how AI-generated deepfakes and algorithmic bias threaten vulnerable groups; and how online/street surveillance erodes civic freedom. Fellows additionally enriched the discussion with local knowledge and lived experiences.
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
Humans Behind the Numbers
The conference focused heavily on the human impact behind the numbers – giving a platform to stories of and about real people – journalists, activists, citizens’ – whose lives were impacted and shaken by digital abuse, such as threats, surveillance or disinformation.
Participants heard worrying testimonies: journalists recounting smear online campaigns after exposing corruption, activists exposed to harassment and doxxing following their online advocacy, and citizens becoming victims of AI-driven scams, identity theft or deepface-based abuse.
Speakers emphasized a critical truth: digital rights violations are rarely isolated incidents. They are more often than not entwined with inequalities – especially in terms of gender, LGBTIQ+ persons, minorities, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. As Albanian technology policy expert Alba Brojka noted on the panel about gender-based violence, “It is a mirror of what is happening in the society and is amplified online.”
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
New Technologies, Same and Worse Dangers
Emerging technologies, such as generative Artificial Intelligence, are accelerating threats, while legislation and institutional oversight – and to a valuable extent also the media and civil society pace of understanding technological changes – lag dangerously behind.
Experts on the panels warned of AI-facilitated fraud, voice-cloning scams, deepfakes and more – noting that they are all increasingly used to exploit individuals’ vulnerabilities, especially women, young people and children. We heard how deepfakes have become so realistic that more and more people, especially with the information overload, cannot differentiate between real news, manipulated content or disinformation – which directly leads to undermining public trust and discourse influencing democratic and public informed participation.
Panelists looked into [weak] legal frameworks and selective enforcement, which make digital space a fertile ground for censorship, repression, threats and surveillance. We heard from several speakers sharing stories from Serbia or Turkey of unlawful surveillance, spyware deployment and non-transparent use of digital technologies and tools to intimidate critical voices of activists, journalists or even whistleblowers. While on one side, we see an “implementation gap” of those appropriate laws that exist, on the other side, in many places, we encounter outdated institutional settings, limited resources or political pressure, which stays unbothered while critical voices under attack stay unprotected and often with severe online or offline consequences.
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
Digital Rights are Human Rights – Not Optional Extras
One underlying message seconded by all participants – and participation was truly multistakeholder – is that digital rights are human rights, and are not marginal issues for tech-savvy urbanities but fundamental rights, deeply tied to dignity, security and democratic participation. Beyond the number of captured digital rights violations, those numbers represent people. At least one person per case. At least one more friend or family member was affected by it. And often entire communities.
Numbers cannot tell the whole story. Data reveals patterns to which the BIRN team, together with our partners, fellows, subgrantees, gave context. Living in the online space is not abstract – it shapes people’s safety, identity and freedom. Every violation is a life interrupted, a voice shaken, a right diminished. By documenting abuses, amplifying testimonies and exposing the systems that allow them to keep happening, the project brought human stories back to the centre.
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
From Talk to Action: What Needs to Happen Now
By the end of the conference, participants agreed on several urgent and concrete steps for the region:
Update and enforce legislation regionally, looking into good practice, to keep pace with technological change: laws should address AI-driven abuse, data protection, online harassment and digital surveillance
Support for victims/survivors, ensuring accessible reporting mechanisms, provide legal, psychological and social support, including protecting anonymity whenever needed
Empower independent media and civil society, including sustained grants, training and mentorship, so that civil society and journalists (media) can continue documenting abuses safely and effectively
Promote digital literacy and public awareness, as a necessary continued effort to educate citizens at large about ever-evolving online risks and understanding their rights
Fostering regional cooperation, as digital threats do not respect borders – cooperation among media, civil society, institutions, technical community and academia across countries is essential.
Why This Matters and Appreciation Words
For many years we have lived in a world where technology evolves fast – outpacing our social, legal and institutional capacity to adapt. As the closing conference in Prishtina underscored, these are not abstract policy questions. They are about people’s lives, freedom, trust, safety and dignity. They are about our future.
By bringing together journalists, experts from different fields and policymakers, over the three-year project we jointly took responsibility for protecting digital rights not as a niche project but as a core human-rights obligation that shapes people’s realities in the digital age. The Reporting Digital Rights and Freedoms initiative proved that when knowledge, evidence and human stories are brought together, digital rights can no longer be dismissed as technical issues “in the cloud”. They become what they truly are – essential rights that protect the very fabric of democratic society.
BIRN Kosovo wishes to extend its gratitude to project partners, coordinators, editors, monitors, journalists, researchers and authors, subgrantees, fellows, participants of physical and online training and community meetings, and the colleagues and individuals who contributed to the project’s delivery and success.
The Annual conference and Internet Freedom Meet were organised within the framework of the Reporting Digital Rights and Freedoms project, implemented by BIRN Kosovo and supported by the European Union.
More than 20 young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia gathered for a three day regional workshop dedicated to media, art and dealing with the past, organised by BIRN and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.
Between 2 to 5 December participants explored how journalism, creative practices and digital media can contribute to dialogue and understanding in post-conflict contexts. Through interactive sessions, they gained hands-on experience in intercultural reporting, storytelling and artistic activism (known as ‘artivism’). They learned how creative tools can support processes of remembrance and reconciliation.
As part of the programme, participants worked in small groups to develop their own video installations, addressing themes of memory, dealing with the past and the role of memorials in divided communities. The artworks reflected their perspectives on shared histories and the possibilities for building bridges through creativity.
The workshop concluded with the public opening of an exhibition in the Historical Museum of BiH showcasing participants’ video installations. The event was followed by a panel discussion featuring visual artist Anita Karabašić, who presented her work on artistic commemoration practices, including memorial projects dedicated to children killed in Prijedor and the victims of the Srebrenica genocide.
The initiative aimed to empower young people to engage critically and creatively with the region’s past, while fostering dialogue across borders and communities.
Photo: BIRN
The project REPORTING CULTURE – Connecting Communities for Change is implemented by Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN Hub and Youth Initiative for Human Rights, in cooperation with the Regional office of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in Tirana. It is run within the framework of “Culture and Creativity for the Western Balkans”, a project funded by the European Union that aims to foster dialogue in the Western Balkans by enhancing the cultural and creative sectors for increased socio-economic impact.
Workshop Overview and Participant Breakdown
Dates and place: 2-5 December 2025, Sarajevo
Number of participants per country:
BiH 12
Serbia 16
Netherlands 1
Total number of participants: 29
The full findings and activities are available in the EDS Report, which can be accessed here.
