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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.

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.

From January 26 to May 26, 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.

In almost 25 per cent of all cases, the state itself or state officials were described as the perpetrator of certain guaranteed rights and freedoms violations.

During the reporting period, many governments imposed new rules and regulations to curb the spread of COVID-19, but the nature of this legislation clearly showed these practices were not tailored to achieve their objective, while having the adverse effect of damaging certain guaranteed rights. Of which, the most obvious examples being the endangering of media freedom in Serbia, Hungary and Romania amid the coronavirus pandemic.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the newly established practice of mass arbitrary arrests and fines for disseminating false information on social media quickly became the most common measure for fighting the spread of fake news and panic. In order to stop the spread of the disease, citizen’s personal data were often violated while their digital rights and freedoms were abused on many occasions. Health and personal data breaches were noticed in 18 cases.

Cybercriminals have taken advantage of the current situation created by the COVID-19 epidemic, with 11 occurrences of computer fraud taking place during the reporting period, while the destruction and theft of data and programmes came about in three instances.

In comparison to the cases of online violations reported before the COVID-19 outbreak, our monitoring noted a significant rise in the number of the cases in which the attackers could not be determined; in 45 cases the perpetrators were unknown.

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As the collected data highlights, journalists, free-thinkers, migrants and refugees, women and quarantine citizens were particularly vulnerable groups, who were often exposed to insults, discrimination and threats.

The monitoring database is being updated on a regular basis, covering the state of digital rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. The regional database can be seen here. All cases of violations associated with the COVID19 outbreak can be found on our live updates page on BIRN Investigative Resource Desk (BIRD).

To read the full report “From Cures to Curses, Digital Rights During Pandemic”, click here.

Investigative stories published in Serbia from January 1 to December 31, 2019, and related to freedom of expression, the rule of law, transparency, abuse of power and fundamental rights, corruption and organised crime can be accepted.

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

Individuals or groups of journalists are eligible to apply with work published in all journalistic formats (print, online, radio and TV) in official, minority or international languages.

Articles eligible for submission must have appeared in print, online, radio and TV media outlets in Serbia 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 Investigative Journalism Award comprises media experts, some of them from the project consortia. Others are drawn from the extensive network projects that consortium members have, such as editors and academics.

The awards are presented annually in all six Western Balkan countries and Turkey.

Read about the winners of the last year’s competition and their stories here.

For more information, please get in contact by email at [email protected]. All the details and guidelines for Serbia can be found below this article.

The deadline for applications is June 21, 2020.

To download all necessary documents in Serbian click here.

The Fellowship programme gives mid-career journalists the funding and editorial support to dig into complex issues of regional significance. Here are this year’s fellows, and the topics they intend to cover.

Klodiana Lala, a criminal justice reporter with decades of experience across print and TV outlets in Albania, will examine the evolution of the Albanian underworld.

Genka Shikerova and Boris Mitov, award-winning Bulgarian investigative journalists, will look at the emergence of the country’s so-called “border militias”.

Apostolis Fotiadis, a Greek journalist who has reported extensively on the migrant crisis, will examine the growing tensions around Greece’s migrant camps.

Elvira Krithari, a journalist for Greek media start-up MIIR plans to write about privatised healthcare providers in Greece.

Augustine Zenakos and Mariniki Alevizopoulou, Greek journalists with a track record of freelance initiatives and bylines for the international press, will report on marginalised communities in Greece’s border regions.

Bea Bako, a constitutional lawyer and journalist from Hungary, will report on tensions between the Hungarian government and the European Union.

Dariusz Kalan, an experienced freelance journalist from Poland, will report on the erosion of the rule of law under the current government.

Jakub Janiszewski, an experienced journalist and commentator focusing on politics, culture and gender issues, will examine Poland’s shifting attitudes to homosexuality.

Magdalena Chodowmik, a freelance text and video journalist, will tell the story of the winners and losers in Poland’s transition from communism.

Marija Vucic, a journalist with the Serbian investigative website, KRIK, will look at the spread of propaganda and fake news in the Balkans.

This year’s participants were competitively selected from about 80 applications spanning 14 countries of CEE region. An independent committee comprising seven senior European media figures evaluated proposals based on relevance, feasibility and originality, as well as the candidates’ professional qualifications and motivation.

The Fellows’ stories will be published by BIRN’s Balkan Insight and Reporting Democracy platforms and disseminated widely through our network of media partners in all local languages, as well as in English and German.

We look forward to starting work on these projects. We would also like to thank all journalists who applied for the Fellowship and to announce that the next call will be open in early 2021.

Millions of people around the world are looking for reliable, fact-based journalism that can help them navigate the biggest shared challenge of our lifetime.

But at this crucial moment, independent media are facing an unprecedented existential challenge. With the perfect storm of disinformation and misinformation, repression of critical voices in many countries, and disruption caused by the COVID-19 crisis, the situation facing journalism and news media is dire. Revenues for these institutions are collapsing, and funding is decreasing just when we need it most.

The consequences will be felt globally, but the information crisis and the health crisis is certain to be most acute in resource-poor communities.

In response to these huge challenges we – the press freedom, media development, and journalism support communities, including BIRN – launch this ‘Emergency Appeal for Journalism and Media Support’ calling for bold and robust action from six groups: governments; journalism and media development donors and funders; journalism and media organisations; technology, telecommunication companies, and Internet intermediaries; advertisers; and audiences.

– Governments are asked to respect the rights of press freedom, rule of law, digital rights, access to information, and freedom of expression. States are asked to work with journalism and media associations to assess the damage that COVID-19 is inflicting on critical public-interest reporting and the sustainability of news organisations. They are asked to devise appropriate mechanisms to urgently provide financial support to public-interest journalism through a variety of means while ensuring that any interventions are just and transparent and do not undermine editorial independence or distort the market place. Governments are also asked to, where appropriate, designate journalists and media workers as ‘key’ or ‘essential workers’, and be responsive to the demands of the press freedom community, including calls to release imprisoned journalists.

– Journalism and media development donors and funders are asked to immediately expedite, increase, and scale-up journalism support; coordinate and pool emergency resources; establish an emergency fund to help public-interest media survive; as well as allocate substantial resources to address journalism’s longer-term sustainability problems.

– Journalism and media organisations are asked to find innovative ways to serve their audiences and fight disinformation and misinformation; protect jobs; show a duty of care to those they employ, both physically in terms of equipment and training, and in terms of their working conditions and mental health. Media are asked to pool resources and collaborate whenever possible, as well as ensure that they serve all sections of their communities.

– Technology, telecommunication companies, and Internet intermediaries are asked to create free and safe digital spaces for journalists and professional media to operate online; ensure algorithms recognise, promote, and reward credible, independent, trustworthy journalism; responsibly manage the use of blacklist technology, and prevent automated takedowns of journalistic content related to COVID-19; increase and expedite funding of independent public-interest journalism, fact-checking, and other measures to counter disinformation and misinformation; take stronger action against malicious actors; lower the cost of Internet connectivity, especially in emerging and developing markets to aid access to information; and finally, step up efforts to respect fundamental human rights online.

– Advertisers are asked to stop blacklisting journalistic content related to COVID-19 pandemic and other critical health and social issues online; review how they measure engagement and impact; and use existing mechanisms to advertise through trusted media to build long-term reputations.

– Audiences: And finally, to people everywhere who read, watch, and listen to trusted news services – large and small, local and international, print, digital, or broadcast: journalism is with you during these troubling times. If you have the means, please find ways to support the journalism that you and your community relies on.

GFMD’s Executive Director, Mira Milosevic, says:

“We call on supporters of free and pluralistic media to join our appeal so we can help journalism survive this crisis and continue to play its vital role in communities the world over. The solidarity, innovation and collaboration that we are seeing during this crisis must outlive this emergency and help us address the long-term sustainability and press freedom issues facing journalism around the world.”

For the full list of signatories visit the full statement on the GFMD website.

To request interviews please contact: [email protected]

Sign the Emergency Appeal for Journalism and Media Support