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Vucic Dismisses BIRN Report on COVID-19 Figures in Serbia

Aleksandar Vucic said BIRN report on the real number of COVID-19 victims in Serbia relies on data that are ‘not authentic’ – and again attacked the outlet over its 2015 investigation into the Tamnava mine clearance.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday criticised the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, over its recent investigation into the number of COVID-19 victims in Serbia, saying the report, published on June 22, used data that was not authentic.

The report said the state COVID-19 database showed that more than twice as many infected patients had died than the authorities announced and that hundreds more people had tested positive for the virus in recent days than was admitted.

But in an interview for Radio Television of Serbia, RTS, on Thursday, Vucic said he was “completely sure that they [the data BIRN published] are not authentic”.

Questioned about the BIRN report, some members of the state Crisis Staff did not deny the information contained in it but said they had not seen the database itself and tried to blame the difference in numbers on methodology.

Vucic on Thursday also again attacked BIRN over an earlier report, from 2015, about clearing flood water from the Tamnava mine, saying it had been made up.

“They made up that story – some of those BIRNs, KRIKs [Crime and Corruption Reporting Network], CINSs [Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia], I do not know exactly which ones – they made up the story that we stole some money from the water extraction in Tamnava,” Vucic said.

The January 2015 investigation showed how the state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije, EPS, awarded a contract to renovate the Tamnava mine, flooded in 2014, to a consortium that had no experience of such work, significantly increasing the cost.

Vucic, who was then Prime Minister, and pro-government-tabloids, attacked BIRN over the report. In another interview, in 2016, Vucic said he stood by his claim that BIRN had written lies in the investigation.

The Serbian President on Thursday became irritated over questions concerning a report carried by various media outlets that an entire family in southwest Serbia had died of COVID-19.

“You ask me quite seriously to comment on someone who said Refat Suljovic from Tutin lost his whole family to the corona [virus]. You ask me about them?” Vucic asked a journalist.

Local media reported that four members of the Suljovic family in Tutin had died in the pandemic. Vucic said the story was fabricated and that Suljovic’s parents had not died from COVID-19.

Kosovo Politician Threatens BIRN Country Director

Kosovo politician Gani Koci has threatened several public figures on Facebook, including BIRN Kosovo director Jeta Xharra, calling them malodorous ‘Serbian septic tanks’ that need to be ‘covered in concrete’.

A former deputy minister from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, Gani Koci, on Friday threatened several politicians and journalists on Facebook, including BIRN Kosovo director Jeta Xharra, saying they should be covered over with concrete because they are “Serbian septic tanks”.

“The time has come not to disinfect but to cover with concrete the Serbian septic tanks still left in Kosovo. They are releasing a lot of odour!” Koci wrote on Facebook, sharing photos of several public figures.

Koci deleted the initial post, only to share another one a couple of hours later containing the same expressions but without the photos. 

In the initial post, Koci shared photos of various politicians and public figures. They included former prime minister and Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti; former deputy prime minister and Vetevendosje member Haki Abazi; parliamentary speaker and former deputy leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, Vjosa Osmani; deputy parliament speaker from Vetevendosje Arberie Nagovci, former Kurti advisor Shkelzen Gashi – sacked by Kurti in April; Vetevendosje MPs Fatmire Kollcaku, Fitore Pacolli and Jusuf Buxhovi; and former MPs Drita Millaku and Ilir Deda.

He also included a photo of the activist Rron Gjinovci and BIRN Kosovo Director Jeta Xharra.

On June 26, Skender Musa, the legal representative of the PDK, announced a lawsuit against Xharra on behalf of the former PDK Minister of European Integration, Dhurata Hoxha. The lawsuit was also against BIRN’s local news outlet, done in collaboration with Internews KALLXO.com, and Prishtina Insight.

The lawsuit concerns BIRN’s investigation that showed a public relations company contracted by the ministry and Kosovo’s ambassador to France, Qendrim Gashi, lobbied for Kosovo and Serbia to swap land as a possible part a final agreement between the two countries.

Xharra said she had contacted the police and the prosecution regarding the threat.

Open Call for Applications for Engaged Citizens Reporting Grants in Serbia

Media for All Project (Supporting Greater Media Independence in the Western Balkans) invites local and regional media in Serbia to apply for Engaged Citizens Reporting grants.

This regional project implemented across Western Balkans is delivered by a consortium led by the British Council in partnership with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), Thomson Foundation and INTRAC (The International NGO Training and Research Centre), and is funded by the UK Government through the British Embassy in Serbia.

Engaged Citizens Reporting Call aims to support local and regional independent media outlets in Serbia to become more audience oriented by strengthening their relationship with their audience using the platform for citizens reporting.

Grant recipients will be provided with a tool developed by the Project to engage with their audiences and enable citizens to suggest topics, provide testimonials, documents and evidence with the aim to help media outlets involve their audience in story production, long before it is published.

Grant recipients will be trained on how to use the platform and will be provided with editorial support and mentoring during project implementation on content production and promotion.

Grant funds for content production requested under this Call must fall between 7,500 GBP and 15,000 GBP.

Duration of the project is set to nine months in total, including the implementation of the ECR tool to the grantees’ websites and training on ECR.

The application forms and documents for the Engaged Citizen Reporting Call are available for download at the bottom of this page.

Eligibility: Only media outlets registered in Serbian Business Registers Agency (SBRA) are eligible to apply. Media outlet, or legal entity owning the media outlet, must be registered in Serbia before 1 January 2018.

Selection: In addition to quality of proposal and capacity of applicant to implement it, the selection process will take into consideration demonstrated commitment of the media outlet to adhere to the Law and uphold journalistic standards. Decisions of Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) Council and Press Council’s Complaints Commission, as well as adjudicated court cases – particularly in regard of hate speech, discrimination, rights of minors and minorities, invasion of privacy, and presumption of innocence – will be considered.

The Project encourages media operating in remote geographic areas, coming from underserved communities, and/or established or managed by underrepresented groups (minority, youth and other) to apply.

The project is also announcing another call for the Business Development (BD) Grants. Media outlets may apply to one or both of the Calls depending on their needs and level of capacity to implement the activities simultaneously.

Important information:

Applications must be completed in English language.
Deadline for applications is 19 July 2020 at 24.00.
Time and date of the online information sessions will be announced in due time.

UPDATE: Online information session is scheduled for Thursday, 9 July at 14:00. More information.

ECR Application Form

ECR Call for Applications

ECR Budget Form

Open Call for Applications for EU Investigative Journalism Award in North Macedonia

Investigative stories published from January 1 to December 31, 2019, and related to freedom of expression, rule of law, transparency, abuse of power and fundamental rights, corruption and organised crime are welcome to apply.

The award fund in each country in 2020 (for achievements in 2019) is 10,000 EUR. The first prize will be 5,000 EUR, the second 3,000 EUR, and the third will be 2,000 EUR.

Individuals or groups of journalists are eligible to apply in all journalism forms (print, online, radio and TV) published or broadcast in the media in each country in official, minority or international languages.

Articles eligible for submission must appear in print, online, radio and TV media outlets during the 2019 calendar year.

EU Investigative Journalism Awards in the Western Balkans and Turkey aim to celebrate and promote the outstanding achievements of investigative journalists as well as improve the visibility of quality journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey.

The awards are a continuation of the ongoing regional EU Investigative Journalism Award in the Western Balkans and Turkey and part of the ongoing project ‘Strengthening Quality News and Independent Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey’, funded by the European Union.

The project partners involved all have extensive expertise in the field of media freedom and have been recognised locally and internationally as strong independent media organisations.

The jury for the EU Award comprises media experts, some of them from the project consortia. Others are drawn from the extensive network projects that the consortium members have, such as editors, members of academia and journalists with merits.

The awards will be given annually in all six Western Balkan countries and Turkey.

For more information, please get in contact by email at [email protected] or +389 2 2671 201. All the details and guidelines for North Macedonia can be found below this article.

The deadline for the applications is July 27, 2020.

To download all necessary documents for North Macedonia in Macedonian click here

To download all necessary documents for North Macedonia in Albanian click here

Democracy after Coronavirus

Reporting Democracy’s first annual trends report shows that democracies in Central and Southeast Europe need intensive care to survive an unprecedented time of crisis.

Across Central Europe and the Balkans, democracy is deteriorating. Even before coronavirus, the patient had underlying conditions, including allergies to good governance and a weakened immunity to populist excesses. Now, in some countries at least, the pandemic has turned chronic malaise into a democratic emergency.

To read the full report, click here.

Report: From Cures to Curses, Digital Rights During Pandemic

From January 26 to May 26, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic in Central and Southeastern Europe, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, and SHARE Foundation uncovered 163 cases of digital rights breaches in Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and North Macedonia, of which 68 were linked to manipulations in the digital environment, while 25 were related to publishing falsehoods and unverified information with the intention to damage the victims’ reputation.

According to these monitoring findings, more than half of the digital rights violations were related to propaganda, disinformation, falsehoods and the publication of unverified information, while citizens were the affected parties in almost 80 per cent of the cases.

To read the full report, click here.

BIRN and Partners Hold Environmental Reporting Course in Montenegro

A training course in investigative journalism for environmental topics was held on June 11-12 in Petrovac in Montenegro, aiming to strengthen the in-depth reporting of Montenegrin journalists on envronmental issues.

The event was also held to select journalists to receive research grants, supervision and mentoring from an editorial team from Montenegro and the wider region.

On the course’s agenda were topics such as online storytelling, work with sources and fact-checking, along with explanations of the Chapter 27 in the EU acquis, which covers environment policy. The course also addressed sustainable development and the challenges it poses for Montenegro.

On the second day, stories that were pitched through a call for proposals were presented and evaluated.

The training was organised by BIRN,CIN-CG and Monitor, as part of a project entitled ’Investigative Journalism on EnvironMEntal Issues, with Citizens’ Engagement’ supported by the EU Delegation in Montenegro.

After the investigations are complete, all stories will be published on the CIN-CG and BIRN websites, as well as in a special bilingual publication and e-book.

Sasa Dragojlo

Sasa joined BIRN in 2020 as a correspondent for Balkan Insight. Previously, he has worked for Balkan Insight from 2015 to 2016.

He has also worked for Insajder, the Serbian investigative media portal and a television show in Belgrade. As a part of Insajder team, he worked on documentaries involving political corruption, financial crime and social and workers’ rights. He is the co-author of the investigational documentary entitled, “State against the Workers”, about financial crime in Gosa, Serbia’s railway line factory, author of the documentary, “Bristolska straza” (Bristol guard), about homeless war veterans, and of the documentary “In a Vicious Circle”, which dealt real estate fraud in the country.

During his journalism career, Sasa has published articles in Serbian and regional media, such as the investigative portal KRIK, weeklies NIN and Vreme, daily Danas, the fact-check portal Istinomer, Vice Serbia, Kosovo 2.0 and others.

Sasa has a bachelor degree in journalism from the Faculty of Political Science in Belgrade and speaks Serbian and English.

Reporting Democracy Report Warns of ‘Democratic Emergency’ in Region

Report says democracy in Central and Southeast Europe was being eroded even before COVID-19 erupted, and cautions that the coronavirus pandemic has made a bad situation worse.

Democracy is deteriorating across Central Europe and the Balkans says “Democracy after Coronavirus”, the first annual trends report published on Thursday by Reporting Democracy, a cross-border journalistic platform run by BIRN, a leading regional non-profit media network.

“Even before coronavirus, the patient had underlying conditions, including allergies to good governance and a weakened immunity to populist excesses. Now, in some countries at least, the pandemic has turned chronic malaise into a democratic emergency,” the report says.

Marking the first year of the Reporting Democracy initiative, BIRN’s “Democracy After Coronavirus” report highlights the key “signals to watch” as the political and social consequences of the coronavirus crisis come into view.

They include increasingly autocratic regimes, assaults on transparency and media freedoms, disregard for the rule of law, profound demographic and social changes in the region as well as heightened geopolitical tensions in an increasingly divided Europe.

The report seeks to examine the political implications of the pandemic, but also proposes some key remedies, such as greater support to free media, more parliamentary oversight, judicial independence and respect for the rule of law.

“While democracy’s sickness has an air of inevitability in the midst of the pandemic, it is too early to say if the prognosis is terminal. Many analysts believe the patient can be saved if given the proper intensive care,” the report concludes.

Three BIRN Journalists Nominated for Serbian Investigative Awards

Investigative articles by BIRN journalists Ana Curic, Jelena Veljkovic, and Aleksandar Djordjevic have been shortlisted for the Dejan Anastasijevic Investigative Journalism Award in the online media category.

Dragan Gmizic’s documentary ‘Predators’ about fish theft, co-produced by Greenfield Production from Novi Sad and BIRN, was also nominated in the broadcast media category.

BIRN journalists Ana Curic and Aleksandar Djordjevic worked with Hungarian colleague Blanka Zöldi on the cross-border investigation Illumination of Serbia, Hungarian Style.

The investigation dealt with companies connected to ruling political parties and their engagement in suspicious public procurements to install new public lighting systems in Serbia and Hungary.

Aleksadnar Djordjevic and Jelena Veljkovic’s series of articles entitled  Firm Linked to Minister’s Father Paid Less for Arms exposed how the Serbian Interior Minister’s father bought weapons at preferential prices from the weapons manufacturer Krusik.

The Independent Association of Journalists in Serbia with the support of the US embassy in Belgrade announced the nominations for the awards on Wednesday.

The awards are named after the late Dejan Anastasijevic, a highly respected Serbian journalist who was also a BIRN contributor.

This year, 38 investigative journalists were entered for the awards.

The winners will be announced on June 11.