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In response to the coronavirus pandemic, some governments are enhancing surveillance, increasing censorship, and restricting the free flow of information. As our lives moved from the public to the digital sphere, many freedoms were also suspended, while the burden of responsibility for violations fell on citizens as governments imposed restrictions that, in many cases, flouted normal standards of human rights.

Just in the last two weeks, 80 people have been arrested, some of them jailed, for spreading fake news and disinformation, with the most draconian examples in Turkey, Serbia, Hungary and Montenegro.

Governments in Montenegro and Moldova made public the personal health data of people infected with COVID-19, while official websites and hospital computer systems suffered cyberattacks in Croatia and Romania. Some countries like Slovakia are considering lifting rights enshrined under the EU General Data Protection Regulation, while Serbia imposed surveillance and phone tracking to limit freedom of movement.

Read more and report an incident …

We are currently evaluating your applications. We are also extending the evaluation process this year to account for the impact of the coronavirus pandemic across the region. All applicants to the Fellowship will be notified about their applications over the course of April, and the names of this year’s Fellows will be published at the end of the month.

The programme will then be put on hold until it is safe to travel and report. We are committed to ensuring that the Fellowship continues, and we are continually reviewing our options in light of the changing conditions. Thanks again to all who applied, and we hope you stay safe.

The award was given to Todorovic at BeFem’s Bring the Noize Vol. 4 event in Belgrade.

She was given the award for informing the public about the case of her Albanian neighbour who was targeted by local nationalists, and for publishing an article about a racist rally outside his bakery in Borca in Belgrade.

Afterwards, she organised a solidarity action in order to express support for the baker and his family and to show them they were not alone.

BeFem gives the award to honour significant feminist initiatives, as well as collectives and individuals who show how to make change through collective action and solidarity.

The awards for 2019 were given in several categories and for contributions in areas such as transitional justice, social care, solidarity actions, journalism, environment, health, arts and theatre, agricultural entrepreneurship and philology.

BeFem says that since it was founded in 2009, it has been has been “re-examining and promoting feminist politics, culture and art, as well as empowering, motivating and activating new generations of feminists, and stimulating exchange and cooperation at the local, regional, and international level”.

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 details, deadlines and guidelines please download packages for individual countries below.

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

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

To download all necessary documents for Montenegro click here

Update: The calls have been postponed until fall this year. All applications received so far will be taken into consideration. We will post more details when available. Thank you for your interest and understanding.

After 14 years of supporting journalists across the Balkans, we are now also accepting applications from mid-career journalists in Visegrad Group countries — Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

Each year, 10 journalists are chosen by an independent jury to receive a €3,000 bursary, close editorial supervision and mentoring and the chance to be published in the most influential regional and international media. In addition, the top three articles will receive awards.

The application form, guidelines and further information about the Fellowship are available online at https://balkaninsight.com/fellowship-for-journalistic-excellence/.

To maximise your chances of winning a place on the programme, read these tips from our editors, based on their experience reviewing hundreds of applications. You can also learn about the programme first-hand from last year’s winners.

For more information about the Fellowship and the application process, write to us at [email protected].

Experienced journalists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia are eligible to apply.

Don’t miss the chance to become part of a growing network of journalists across the region committed to excellence in their profession.

Alongside six other jury members who have long been stalwarts of the programme, he will help select 10 journalists to take part in this year’s Fellowship, receiving financial and editorial support for original reporting projects.

Ciesla is a member of the Investigate Europe team and co-founder of Fundacja Reporterów, an NGO that trains and supports journalists from Central and Eastern Europe and publishes VSquare, a cross-border investigative journalism platform. He has held various posts at several major Polish newspapers and is winner of the 2009 Grand Press Award for investigative reporting and Andrzej Woyciechowski’s Prize in 2005.

His appointment comes as the Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence (formerly the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence) expands its scope beyond the Balkans to include the Visegrad Group countries of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

Other permanent members of the Selection Committee include high-profile journalists from the programme’s media partners: Adelheid Wölfl, Southeast Europe correspondent for Austrian newspaper Der Standard; Florian Hassell, Central and Eastern Europe correspondent for German daily Süddeutschen Zeitung; and Elena Panagiotidis, editor of the debate and opinion section of Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

Remzi Lani, executive director of the Albanian Media Institute, is also a permanent member, as is Milorad Ivanovic, an editor at the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. Ivanovic, a participant during the first year of the Fellowship in 2007, represents the programme’s alumni network.

The final permanent member of the Selection Committee is Kristof Bender, deputy chairman of the European Stability Initiative, who leads various research projects on EU enlargement and other issues affecting Southeast Europe.

Selection Committee members judge applications and choose fellows based on the quality of their story proposals (relevance, feasibility and originality) and their professional credentials (experience, motivation and approach). For details about the application and selection process, please see our application form and guidelines.

At the end of the programme, the Selection Committee chooses three Fellows to receive awards of 3,000, 2,000 and 1,000 euros based on the quality and originality of their research and reporting.

The deadline for applications for the Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence 2020 is March 10. To maximise your chances of getting a place on the programme, read our editors tips.

If you want to hear firsthand experiences read what other journalists had to say about the Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence.

Aside from the 3,000-euro bursary, one-on-one mentoring and the chance to attend international career development seminars, they cited the chance to become part of a growing network of journalists across the region committed to excellence in their profession.

Then there is the opportunity to do the best journalism of your life and see your work published  by leading regional and international media. And authors of the top three articles chosen by an international jury will receive awards.

Here’s what last year’s winners had to say.

Ani Sandu, a news anchor and editor at Romanian public radio and a reporter-at-large for quarterly magazine DoR, won first prize for her reporting on what Europol has described as one of Europe’s biggest child trafficking rings.

Her investigation Blind Justice for Romania’s Trafficked Roma Children reveals the scale and complexity of an alleged criminal enterprise in the Romanian town of Tandarei, where investigators say local gangsters have trafficked scores of children into a life of forced criminality.

For Ani, the combination of financial support and one-on-one editorial mentoring was just what she needed to get to grips with a complex and sensitive story.

“During this fellowship I had the time and the resources to do it, and then I had editorial help to write and edit it,” she said. “I see it only as a bonus that in the end my story got one of the awards. If those alone aren’t good enough reasons to apply, then also consider that during the fellowship I got to know other great journalists and I had a really nice time.”

Shkumbin Ahmetxhekaj, an editor at Kosovo Public Television, won second prize for Brain Drain: Will the Last Doctor in Kosovo Turn Out the Lights?

He called the Fellowship an “extraordinary experience” that challenges your approach to research and writing and makes you think about new ways to tackle even familiar stories.

“Above all, it incites the reshaping of the manner of doing journalism, as it takes you out of the boxes that we all settle in,” he said. “It provides the best expertise and in the end it is a journey that has all of what a journalist expects: excitement, pressure and joy. I would definitely do it again!”

The jury also singled out Kostas Zafeiropoulos, an investigative reporter for Greek daily Efimerida ton Sintakton, for his investigation “Alexander the Bot: The Twitter War for the Macedonian Soul”.

For Kostas, participation in the Fellowship was about more than traveling, networking and receiving a generous fund for research plus the much-appreciated stipend. Nor was it only about digging deep into his subject, conducting cross-border research and receiving mentoring from an experienced international editor.

What mattered most, he said, was that he felt he had the full backing of BIRN, “a network that after all these years of running the programme is well equipped to provide what an investigative journalist seeks: financial and legal support, editorial freedom, ethical standards, goal-setting, risk assessments, promotion of our work. Great investigative reporting often turns into bad, hard-to-read articles, which leads to a low level of impact. This programme always has the storytelling aspect at the core of its philosophy.”

The application form, guidelines and further information about the Fellowship are available online. For more information about the programme or the application process, write to us at [email protected]

Professional journalists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia are eligible to apply.

The Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence (formerly the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence) is run by BIRN with support from ERSTE Foundation.