Verica joined BIRN Hub in August 2025 as a Fundraising and MEL Manager.
She is engaged with the BIRN Hub Office in Sarajevo, supporting regional operations. Her main responsibilities include strategic fundraising and donor engagement while overseeing the network’s monitoring and evaluation systems.
Verica is a senior programme and fundraising specialist with over 25 years of experience in humanitarian and development work across the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe. She has led initiatives on protection, gender equality, socio-economic inclusion, public advocacy and governance, working with UN agencies, INGOs and donor consortia.
In her recent role in Moldova and Ukraine, Verica guided a strategic shift from emergency response to sustainable protection and economic empowerment, securing institutional funding and advancing localization. She has managed diverse donor portfolios, implemented multi-agency projects with partners, such as UNDP, WHO, UNOPS and IOM and has provided technical assistance to government institutions and civil society.
Her work combines evidence-based programme design with strong fundraising skills, informed by extensive research on migration, housing, livelihoods, disaster risk reduction and resilience. Verica’s strategic vision and regional expertise aim to strengthening BIRN’s ability to deliver impactful and regionally grounded interventions.
She studied at the University of Novi Sad, majoring in English Language and Literature. In addition to her formal education, Verica has taken advanced training in risk and crisis management, humanitarian negotiation and project management, while gaining certifications in gender-based violence response, migration governance, programme design and funding frameworks for multi-sector interventions.
Alongside her native Serbian, she speaks English and French.
Three Montenegrin media outlets and three civil society organizations were trained on how to use the CER (Crowdsourcing Evidence, Engaging Citizens, Reporting Facts) tool in corruption-related investigations.
The online training held on August 7 aimed to equip the participants with practical skills and tools to create impactful, community-driven investigations related to corruption.
Karla Junicic, BIRN’s Hub Coordinator for Engaged Citizen Reporting, led the sessions and guided participants through the core concepts of engagement journalism.
Junicic introduced attendees to crowdsourcing techniques, storytelling approaches, and methods to identify and involve communities in journalistic work.
“Make sure to know the reasons behind your crowdsourcing and explain to your citizens what you’re looking for – their precise input and experiences are what fuels your stories,” she emphasised during the session.
Participants learned how to design and execute audience-engagement strategies, including pre-research, crafting callouts, design questionnaires, data analysis of responses, and produce stories based on community input.
Practical examples were shared from Balkan Insight and other regional outlets, covering topics such as the education system’s shortcomings, digital rights and social abuse cases– all demonstrating how marginalised voices can be amplified through engaged journalism.
The second segment of the training focused on the practical use of the Audience-engaged journalism tool for citizens reporting corruption (CER Tool), which BIRN developed to support secure, anonymous submissions of corruption and abuse reports. The tool is designed to bridge the gap between journalists and the public, enabling safer and more efficient communication and evidence-gathering processes.
In the final part of the training, participants drafted engagement-focused story ideas centred around corruption-related topics.
This training formed part of the project Society against Corruption in Montenegro and the Western Balkans region, which addresses the pervasive issue of corruption in the Western Balkans region, particularly focusing on Montenegro and Kosovo.
By enhancing citizens’ engagement, strengthening media and civil society reporting, and promoting accountability, the initiative aims to empower communities to combat corruption more effectively.
Through targeted subgrants, capacity building, investigative journalism and policy advocacy, the project seeks to raise awareness, foster constructive engagement, and drive tangible reforms in governance and anti-corruption practices across the region.
This year marks BIRN’s 20th anniversary. From exposing corruption to promoting human rights, BIRN’s investigative journalists collaborate across borders to find out the facts and tell people’s stories.
Denis Dzidic joined BIRN in 2008. After working as a journalist, deputy editor and chief editor for BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina’s flagship website Detektor.ba, he was named Executive Director on October 1, 2019.
Before BIRN, Dzidic worked as a journalist for Oslobodjenje daily newspaper and for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, IWPR, both in Sarajevo and The Hague. There, he reported on transitional justice issues and war crimes. It was then, while he was starting an internship in IWPR, that he first heard about BIRN.
“It was about the time when BIRN was first being created by a group of amazing women reporters. I knew of Nerma Jelacic, and her courageous reporting on war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the legacies of the conflict. I was just starting my career after finishing university in Sarajevo. I worked at a daily newspaper for a year and wanted to try something different, so I decided to apply for an IWPR internship – and the work that Jelacic and BIRN were doing was quite inspiring,” he recalls.
Speaking of his expectations when he joined BIRN in August 2008, and whether he has met them, he says: “It’s been a way for me to ensure that transitional justice reporting, focusing on victims’ rights and marginalized groups, are at the heart of my professional life.
“Yes, it has met my expectations and has easily overpassed them. As you start in journalism in Sarajevo, it’s not easy to foresee that one day you will train journalists in warzones on war crimes reporting – that you will get to lead a group of young professionals who are dedicated to the rule of law, human rights, digital and cyber threats, and finally that you will build an archive which will be the only coherent narrative about the 1990s in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Dzidic explains what this means to him personally, to BIRN BiH and the whole network.
“One of the key issues Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country, and the region, face is historical revisionism, denial of war crimes and glorification of war criminals. We have seen rampant, systematic and often internationalized campaigns in the past few years to deny the Srebrenica genocide, which was confirmed by rulings of the World Court, the ICTY and domestic courts,” he recalls.
“The opportunity for BIRN BiH to contribute to this year’s commemoration with the Srebrenica Memorial Center has been the proudest moment of my professional career. It was an opportunity to utilize experience gathered over more than 20 years of work, of telling personal stories of victims, to make sure that the voices of those who survived and were killed in the genocide are precisely those whose voices are heard in Srebrenica, Sarajevo, but also at the UN in New York,” he adds.
“This year, we also opened a permanent Memorial room in Potocari, called Lives Behind Fields of Death. I can tell you how much it means to BIRN BiH only by telling you what it means to my colleagues, to the people I am honoured to work side by side with every day. Everyone who could spare a moment came to Srebrenica that day. I hope that for the network, this was a full circle – going back to what the network primarily reported about, and still does,” Dzidic says.
Many war victims tell their tragic stories to BIRN BiH’s journalists. Reporting on war crimes in Bosnia is difficult for journalists who must approach victims with caution and sensitivity. Yet, BIRN BiH’s journalists don’t hesitate to work on some of the worst stories about war crimes.
Dzidic unpacks what motivates them to continue their work, and how they cope with all these stories and the victims’ tragic fates.
“From the outset, BIRN BiH was the only news agency monitoring every hearing in every war crime case. It is part of our mission to be an agency that gives voice to those whose voice is so often unheard and degraded, who are victims of the Bosnian War,” he says.
“In terms of coping, it is not always easy. We have set up systems of support, both internally and externally, and this is not something we shy away from; it is an open discussion in our office and one we take seriously. One cannot simply listen to all the worst wartime sufferings and be immune to them. It takes its toll, but the reward of being a media of the people and for the people of this country is what gives us belief,” Dzidic adds.
Besides this, there are other obstacles that BIRN BiH must cope with in its work.
“In the past few years, we have had threats; the Sarajevo court sentenced an individual to three months in prison for threatening our newsroom; we have had SLAPP suits – one, bizarrely, was for following a trial, and we have had institutional pushback, including silence to our FOIA requests. In terms of personal work, we deal with the most complex topics, which sometimes leads to fatigue, burnout, and other related issues,” he says.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina has become a far less free place to work – one part of the country has criminalized defamation and introduced a law on foreign agents, while the other part has sought to give the right to the police to decide what is fake news, and our institutions are more and more corrupt and under political pressure.
“I wouldn’t say we have beaten any of these issues but we address them daily and keep working. We see our role to be the light of the people, to be a free voice, where they can see the truth and where their voices can be heard. That keeps us going,” Dzidic explains.
“Namely, as a result of our 20 years’ work on transitional justice, we are trying to do more in advocacy, especially in relation to education in the country,” he says.
“The [educational] curricula on the Bosnian war are divisive and hateful, and some even contain glorifications of convicted war criminals. We are developing a database of court-determined facts and trying to prepare a handbook on how to use it to teach children about the war in a factual manner. The project is still in the early phases, but nothing is more important than factually teaching children,” Dzidic says.
“We redesigned the website at the start of this year due to our strategic focus on having more multimedia outputs. Basically, we are the only media NGO producing two monthly TV shows. We also have other video materials just for the website and social media, such as explainers and short videos. These significantly increase our reach, especially among younger audiences,” Dzidic says.
He sees BIRN continuing its growth and cementing its role as a leading media watchdog fighting for the everyday rights of the region’s people.
“Without media support for factual reporting and without a voice for the people, the region will remain stuck on its EU and reform path. I think the people in BIRN individually have proven they are passionate, reliable and informed enough to be that voice,” he says.
“BIRN means the promise of a better future. With the amount of corruption and nepotism, abuse of human rights and ignoring suffering we see every day, it would be so easy to join the hundreds of thousands who leave my country with no hope of a better future. This is my place to fight for a better hometown, a better country, a better region. I want that for my son,” he declares.
At the end of each day, Denis likes spending his spare time with his son the most. “My favourite way to spend any moment outside work is time with my four-year-old son, Noa,” he concludes.
More than 50 journalists and editors from across the Western Balkans and Visegrad countries participated in a four-day online training from July 21-24 focused on audience-engaged journalism.
The training was organised as part of the projects Media Innovation Europe and Paper Trail for Better Governance, supporting grantees from calls for Audience-Engaged Journalism Grants.
The interactive sessions were led by a combination of international and regional trainers and provided grantees with tools to deepen audience engagement through crowdsourced journalism, storytelling and community-focused investigations.
The training kicked off with an introduction to engagement journalism by Asia Fields, an engagement reporter at ProPublica. She walked participants through core concepts of crowdsourcing, identifying community needs, and building trust with underrepresented groups. Fields shared her experience in reporting on neglected school infrastructure and homelessness in the US, sparking a discussion among the participants about how to apply similar methods in their own contexts.
“ProPublica engagement reporters crowdsource evidence, anecdotes and input at scale to fuel important accountability-focused journalism,” Fields explained.
Recognising the linguistic diversity of the participants, the training featured multiple parallel sessions conducted in different languages.
Regional trainers Besar Likmeta (BIRN Albania), Katarina Zrinjski (BIRN BiH), Gyula Csak (BIRN) and Milica Stojanović (Balkan Insight) led targeted workshops on callout design, crowdsourcing techniques and community engagement strategies, culminating in a session on use of the specialised audience-engaged journalism tool facilitated by Karla Juničić, ECR tool coordinator.
Participants practiced developing engagement callouts tailored to their audiences, conducted case study analysis and learned how to incorporate community feedback into editorial planning.
The final days of the training focused on practical application – guiding participants on turning audience input into impactful investigative stories. Journalists worked in language-specific groups to develop plans for future stories using real data and community responses.
They also explored how to analyse callout responses, assess editorial potential, and structure community-driven narratives.
The four-day programme was part of the broader Audience-Engaged Journalism Grants scheme of the Media Innovation Europe and Paper Trail for Better Governance projects, which are designed to foster more inclusive, community-oriented journalism across Europe. The grantees will continue to receive mentorship as they implement their projects in the months ahead.
Media Innovation Europe: Independence Through Sustainability, co-financed by the EU Commission, is led by a consortium of media support organisations working to bolster the resilience, innovation and audience reach of independent media in Central and Southeastern Europe. Among them are the International Press Institute, The Fix Foundation and Thompson Foundation.
The Paper Trail for Better Governance initiative, led by BIRN and funded by the Austrian Development Agency, supports media freedom, transparency and accountability across the Western Balkans. Through investigative journalism and audience-engagement practices, the project empowers local media and communities to spotlight corruption and advocate for stronger democratic institutions.
Join us for an insightful webinar on July 17, 2025, to explore the key findings of BIRN’s comprehensive regional report on surveillance and censorship in the Western Balkans.
In an era of rapidly advancing technology and increasing exposure to digital risks, this webinar will delve into the main trends, challenges and implications of surveillance and online censorship highlighted in the report. The event brings together leading researchers, digital rights experts and representatives from BIRN’s local offices, offering diverse country perspectives and discussing future directions and priorities for protecting digital rights across the region.
Date: July 17, 2025 (Thursday)
Time: 12:00 PM (CEST)
The webinar will be conducted in English, with simultaneous interpretation available in Albanian, BCS and Macedonian.
Don’t miss the opportunity to review the full report, Surveillance and Censorship in the Western Balkans, here.
AGENDA
12:00 – 12:05 Welcome and Opening Remarks
Azra Milić, Digital Rights Programme Coordinator, BIRN
12:05 – 12:25 Presentation of BIRN Regional Report Findings
Megi Reçi, Digital Rights Research Lead, BIRN
12:30 – 13:20 Panel session: Behind the Curtain: Surveillance & Censorship in the Western Balkans
Moderator: Ivana Jeremić, Digital Rights Content Lead
Speakers:
Blerta Thaçi, Executive Director, Open Data Kosovo
Azem Kurtić, BIRN Journalist, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Milica Tosić, Attorney-at-Law, Partners Serbia
Sara Kelmendi, Researcher on Cyber-Civic Space, Institute for Democracy
and Mediation Albania
Ivan Ivanovic, BIRN Journalist, Montenegro
13:20 – 13:50 Panel session: Digital Rights Tomorrow: Lessons, Challenges, and New Directions
Moderator: Azra Milić, BIRN Hub
Speakers:
Aida Mahmutović, Project Manager, Reporting Digital Rights and Freedoms
Besar Likmeta, BIRN Albania
Tanja Maksić, BIRN Serbia
Mirza Halilcevic, BIRN BiH
13:50 – 14:00 Q&A and Closing Remarks
This public event is part of the “Surveillance and Censorship in the Western Balkans” grant supported by the Open Society Foundation Western Balkan and implemented by BIRN.
What is the place of long-form journalism in an age of shrinking newsroom budgets and democratic decline? On the Long Exposure podcast, journalists from central, eastern and south-eastern Europe reveal how they are breathing new life into an old format.
The podcast examines the craft of long-form journalism, and its ability to uncover hidden truths about society and politics in the region. “The Fellowship has been producing revelatory features, analysis and investigations for nearly 20 years,” said the programme manager, Dragana Zarkovic-Obradovic. “The new podcast showcases some of the journalistic talent that has been nurtured by the programme over the years, and offers their insights into the events and processes behind the headlines.”
The first seven episodes are now available online. Follow the links below to hear:
The Fellowship of Journalistic Excellence is an annual bursary for long-form journalism supported by the Erste Foundation and implemented by BIRN. The Fellowship emphasizes strong storytelling and rigorous, on-the-ground reporting – qualities traditionally associated with the best magazine journalism.
But unlike the legacy outlets that dominate the global market in long-form journalism, the Fellowship works exclusively with reporters who belong to the societies they are examining. The programme is open to journalists from a region spanning 14 countries, from Poland and the Czech Republic to Greece and Romania.
On July 7 and 8, a training on AI and journalism was held at Global Village in Berlin led by two professionals from Maldita.es and a digital transformation expert.
It combined expertise in the development and application of AI technologies, as well as the governance, ethics and communication of AI systems within the media sector.
The training for 30 journalists from various European countries was organised with the goal of exploring the possibilities, potential and shortcomings of AI for non-profit media.
On the first day, the trainers from the Maldita.es team, Pablo Pérez Benavente and Patricia Ruiz Guevara, guided participants on the responsible use of AI in newsrooms.
Benavente showcased an overview of predictive models, embedding and large language models (LLMs), showing participants how to extract narratives and trends using AI-generated synthetic data and build and test a document-grounded chatbot.
Guevara discussed the challenges of working with AI-generated content in journalism and how to talk about AI in reporting.
They also addressed the legal implications of AI use in journalism, including the EU AI Act, data protection (GDPR), liability and transparency.
On day two, training continued with Camila Reed, a communications and digital transformation expert.
She guided participants on developing customised AI ethics guidelines for their newsrooms and how to integrate such guidelines into the newsroom workflow and culture.
The training was organised as part of the MOST project.
This year marks BIRN’s 20th anniversary. From exposing corruption to promoting human rights, BIRN’s investigative journalists collaborate across borders to find out the facts and tell people’s stories.
It all started in 2005, when five women from countries recovering from brutal wars defied the odds to establish what would become a major independent media organisation – the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network – in the traditionally patriarchal region of the Western Balkans. They were Gordana Igric, Nerma Jelacic, Ana Petruseva, Dragana Solomon and Jeta Xharra.
Jeta has been Country Director of the BIRN office in Kosovo since then. She says the media landscape in Kosovo and the energy of the country back then were frustrating.
“We had just had the March [2004] riots and the media was seen as complicit, by fueling inter-ethnic violence. People were generally frustrated that Kosovo was not yet being allowed to become a [free] country, even though it was clear that from the rise of [Serbian leader Slobodan] Milosevic that is what the majority of people wanted.
“The 2004 March riots were a particular warning for me, that we urgently needed to provide unbiased, balanced, independent, watchdog and scrutinizing journalism that would broadcast to the masses – and not just in an online portal in English, where only the most sophisticated people who read English would be informed,” Jeta explains.
“I collaborated with Faik Ispahiu, a brilliant theatre director in Kosovo, to produce this programme, for which I spent one year fundraising. When one out of the 20 donors I contacted said ‘yes’ to funding the programme, I pleaded with the director of the public TV for months to give me a TV time slot,” she recalls.
“He gave me a 23:30 time slot, which was so late, a type of grave slot, but I knew we’d address topics nobody else was brave enough to address like the secret services of the different political parties existing at the time, corruption, violence against women etc.,” Jeta says.
After a year, when viewership figures were measured, it was the second most-watched informative programme after the evening news.
“That public TV director who’d first spent so much time avoiding me and gave me such a late schedule called and said: ‘We have to do something about putting your programme on prime time because way too many people are watching it.’ So, we earned our right to a 20:30 TV slot and were the only BIRN product that was weekly on any television in the region, talking to a mainstream audience, which we tried hard to educate and emancipate, not just inform,” she recalls.
“We broadcast on public TV until May 2020, when we were kicked out because of pressure from an oligarch [Blerim Devolli] we were investigating who ordered the then RTK Director to kick us out. Today, that RTK Director, Ngadhnjim Kastrati, works for a television close to that oligarch. Clearly, he was rewarded for throwing us off the public TV, but on the other hand, our investigation saved 17 million euros of Kosovo public funds and won the best EU Investigative story in 2021,” she says.
“So, there is a price to pay for investigations but there is also a lot of impact. After we were kicked out of public TV, a very vibrant young TV channel, RTV Dukagjini, acquired our programmes and today, BIRN Kosovo, with a local partner organisation, Internews Kosovo, co-produces three programmes a week in primetime in this private TV station.”
Struggles over funding and security
For all this hard and dedicated work, the founders still confront obstacles in working as an independent regional media organisation.
“Our struggle is largely about securing funding for investigations, which are time-consuming and costly. After funding, training people to do the job professionally is also a challenge – we basically train everybody on the job, as our educational system in the Western Balkans does not prepare people to be critical thinkers
“Thirdly, clearly, the security of our staff is a challenge, as they are sometimes intimidated and harassed for the work they do. Protecting our whistleblowers is also a challenge because they have been known to lose their jobs and even risk being arrested for exposing corruption in our investigations. We do our best to support journalists and whistleblowers, and in BIRN Kosovo we do this with a very strong legal office that can assist these people in court.
“Ultimately, our work is worth it because we have some very brave and brilliant journalists working for us. For example, Kreshnik Gashi’s investigation, which started from a tip that a Serbian smuggler gave us from north Kosovo, resulted in the arrest of more than 10 Albanian and Serbian police and customs officers as well as smugglers who were doing contraband trade in the north of Kosovo.
“It gives me peace to know that there is a generation of journalists out there, beyond us, the ‘founding mothers’ of BIRN, that are carrying the flame of brave work in post-war Western Balkans. We are incredibly honoured that these journalists are a part of the BIRN team and I get such great energy working with them every day,” Jeta says.
Speaking of what BIRN represents to her personally, Jeta calls it “a community of fighters for accurate, unbiased and independent journalists who will not bow down to financial and political pressures.
“BIRN also tells the story of media professionals who do not need to be run by internationals to be brave and impartial enough to produce top-class journalism meeting international standards. We are largely run by a mantra that Goca Igric, the main founding mother of BIRN, installed in our brains: ‘Don’t write what you know, write what you can prove’,” she says.
Hope in the younger generation
When she thinks of BIRN today, she thinks of the younger generation of people in Kosovo. They include Albulena Sadiku, Deputy Director of BIRN Kosovo, who is the force behind fundraising for paying salaries of 70 people that work for BIRN in Kosovo, Kreshnik Gashi and Visar Prebreza, “both award-winning investigative journalists who have faced threats for the work they do but have never bowed down to this, and continue to produce work that makes the powerful uncomfortable.
“BIRN represents the watchdog that our countries need to lead them into modernity and closer to EU standards – so I would best call BIRN ‘an organised civil society’ that is fighting ‘organised crime’ in the Western Balkans. Finally, what BIRN represents most is credible information – if you read us, you are most likely to find the most truthful version of the story possible, and accurate information is worth a fortune these days, and it always has been,” Jeta adds.
But, what were her expectations in 2005, and has she met them?
“In terms of what the media is capable of doing, I think we have exceeded expectations because of the impact we have had in the society by ensuring public money is better spent, that culprits are often arrested, and the powerful are more fearful … because of our existence.
‘However, as Kosovo was the least developed part of former Yugoslavia with the least investment, I’m not happy with how slowly my country has developed and that we have not managed to speed up our country’s progress more than we have. I believe the media is very powerful and truly a ‘fourth pillar’, so I feel we need to take some responsibility for our Western Balkan societies, which are still so far away from EU membership in 2025,” Jeta explains.
In her opinion, the network’s totally unexpected growth was one of the most significant changes in the organisation in the first 20 years.
“We were a team of five aficionados that founded BIRN in 2005, never imagining that we would have a team of 300 people working for us throughout the region. The change is obvious. Most people thought we would fizzle out – that we would run out of money and would not have the energy to withhold our journalism that was expensive, fearless and independent. Not only did we not fizzle out and close down but we grew and are still growing. We were five individual journalists who knew what we wanted in 2005 – and today we are unquestionably an institution for credible journalism,” Jeta says.
In addition to all her work as Country Director, she still hosts the award-winning current affairs TV programme Life in Kosovo. Explaining how she manages everything, she explains: “I can host the programme because I work with such a capable team. De facto, Albulena Sadiku [Deputy Director of BIRN Kosovo and Head of Development] runs BIRN while I do the journalism. Because we have so many good journalists who work for us, I have been able to set up a completely new project, a museum of the resistance of the 1990s, called Reporting House. I invite you all to come and see it in central Pristina.”
Huge debt owed to Gordana Igric
Would Jeta have done anything differently in her professional path during the past 20 years?
“If I’d changed that path, probably a lot of things that have happened may not have happened, so this is a tricky ‘what-if’ question,” she says.
“All the good and the bad I did professionally have led to this incredibly vibrant organisation that we have today, which is alive and kicking, feared by all officials in Kosovo, and an address for corruption reporting. This was done with such amazing teamwork that it was simply not possible to be done by one person. I almost have a feeling that even if I’d done something differently, these 50 or so people who work now in BIRN would have made the organisation what it is, with or without me. Society needed BIRN Kosovo to do what it does, and that is why it exists, despite what I may or may not have done.”
But, she would have done one thing differently.
“What I would seriously have liked to have done differently, and maybe there is still time to correct that, is create a retirement fund for our founding mother of BIRN, Goca Igric, who retired early, after setting up BIRN, often sacrificing her own salary to pay journalists in the early days when we were not heavily funded. I feel we owe her a lot…. I want to make this better somehow.”
Speaking of the future, Jeta says: “Hopefully, [we are] even more relevant than today because we are heading into uncharted territories where a lot of what should be journalism is now ‘content production’, social media and AI influenced, short clipped, angled to a short attention span audience. In this kind of bombardment of information, we are facing a blunted audience that is finding it hard to differentiate fake news from truth, and credible from suspicious sourcing of information, so the industry is saturated with just information.
“That is why credibility, accuracy and fact-checking are more important than ever. We have the right, skilled people to tackle this challenge in this era, so I think we are going to be even more relevant in the future than in the past. Also, we are the only true cross-regional outlet in English that has people all over the Western Balkans. You can’t find a medium like Balkan Insight in the region, so it is not going anywhere soon!”
‘Tour guide’ in her spare time
At the end, Jeta discusses what she likes to do during her spare time.
“I build museums in my spare time. I am digging through archives. Recently, I went down the Trepca mine, almost 1 km underground, walking in the tunnels for hours with our museum curator, Gazmend Ejupi, in order to tell its story and produce this incredible installation with Trepca minerals, which marks the 100-year anniversary of when Trepca ore started to be explored in the industrial age.
“So, I am interested in preserving the collective memory of Kosovo in my spare time and working with artists, not just journalists and researchers in this field. This has been so refreshing, to occupy my brain with periods of history that are not ‘current affairs’ and look at this material with creative and talented artists who think in a completely different way from journalists.”
Jeta says this project her helped “stretch” her brain in different directions.
“That is why I am also thankful to BIRN – it is an organisation that allows you the freedom to develop such projects. It is now in the BIRN mandate to build museums; it is in the statute of our organisation. That’s why I believe we will become even more relevant in the future because so many people from different fields are interested in collaborating with us and contributing their archives to our museum.
“It’s become a community museum. Almost 11,000 people have visited Reporting House since it opened in June 2024, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing. It is becoming part of the city, telling the story of how Kosovo came to be a country, and students, pupils, and lots of tourists are all visiting. So, I have become a museum guide in my free time. What fun!” she concludes.
Investigative journalists, rights campaigners, political analysts, justice experts and representatives of international NGOs explain why the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network plays such an important role in the region.
For our 20th anniversary, we asked some of our leading supporters, international colleagues, journalistic collaborators, donor organisations and project partners to send a few words offering their view of BIRN’s significance in the Balkans. This is what they told us.
Slobodan GeorgievDirector of NewsMax Adria in Serbia, former BIRN journalist
“BIRN was founded to preserve and develop professional journalism in this region, to train journalists to be real journalists – seekers of truth and uncompromising guardians of this important profession. In 20 years, BIRN has not only achieved this but has become a medium without which true journalism in the entire region cannot be imagined and which has become the main source of information about the region for the entire world.
“What was the initiative of a few brave women 20 years ago is now an institution that literally shows every day, especially in Serbia, that it is an indispensable institution for the best possible journalism. I am proud to have been a part of BIRN for 13 years, and for me, those are the most important years in my professional work so far.”
Milka Tadic Mijovic Director, Centre for Investigative journalism of Montenegro
“BIRN is special to me, professionally and emotionally. I was involved in the work of BIRN in various ways from the first days. I occasionally wrote for the network, but my friendship with Gordana Igric [one of BIRN’s founders], with whom I have collaborated since the nineties, tied me in a special way to the organisation, which I experienced as something of my own. I was impressed by Goca’s energy, which she invested in the project, and the professional ethics on which BIRN was based, which grew into a witness to the stormy history of the region in the last two decades.
“I think witnessing and writing about the most difficult topics, an authoritarian culture and a corrupt society, where political elites rule mainly by abusing power, is BIRN’s most significant value. BIRN is especially important because of the transitional justice project, because dealing with a complicated past does not go well for these societies, and the written pages, testimonies, and collected documentation in BIRN’s archive about wars and crimes are also valuable for those who will come after us.”
Stavros MalichudisInvestigative reporter at Greek media outlet Solomon
“It’s been a pleasure working with BIRN; I’ve always admired their fearless reporters and talented editors who are dedicated to public-interest journalism. I trust their integrity and commitment to quality. I see BIRN as an investigative powerhouse for the entire Balkan region, producing work that is vital for all our countries.
“Moreover, BIRN gave me a pivotal opportunity. In 2019, during my fellowship with the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, I realised that a different kind of journalism is possible. It showed me that journalism can take the time and resources to delve deeply into a topic, creating content that truly resonates with readers and benefits society as a whole.”
Vesna Terselic. Photo courtesy of Vesna Terselic.
Vesna TerselicHead of Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past, Zagreb
“BIRN is one of the rare media outlets interested in the fate of victims and survivors. It restores my faith in journalism, which is motivated by concern for people and facing the past to build sustainable peace. Investigative stories by journalists who reflect on the motives of the perpetrators of crimes, as well as those who still support them today, capture the attention of everyone who is concerned about today’s growing dehumanisation and militarisation.
“It is especially important that BIRN fearlessly recalls the judgments of the Hague Tribunal and domestic courts at a time when there are fewer and fewer reports from war crimes trials, and some of the highest officials of the post-Yugoslav countries question the facts established by the courts about the killed, missing and detained.”
Afrim KrasniqiPolitical expert, Albania Institute for Political Studies
“In my personal opinion, BIRN represents a different media model for countries like Albania: it was established, funded, and supported by Western institutions, in contrast to the local media landscape, which is largely created, financed, and controlled through connections between politics and domestic oligarchies. This form of ‘media import’ may not be a permanent solution, but it is necessary as a transitional mechanism until the Western Balkans complete their integration cycle.
“This approach has proven successful because the BIRN model in countries like Albania has not become subject to censorship, has emerged as a credible source of reference, and has sent a clear message: that a professional media outlet based on the principles of journalism can have a positive impact on the image of the media himself and the broader democratic culture. In essence, it represents a model of the kind of media we do not yet have within our own countries.”
“With the closure or downsizing of outlets such as Voice of America, the BBC and Radio Free Europe in the region, the value of BIRN – and the need for such models at the current time – has only increased. This experience also underlines the vital need for an EU-led media reform package in the Western Balkans to help establish more mechanisms and safeguards for free thought, professional reporting, public interest journalism, and news that is free from political or clientelist influence.”
Alexia KalaitziGreek TV journalist
“BIRN supports and promotes the kind of journalism we want to see – and need – in the Balkans: journalism produced by Balkan journalists for both regional and international audiences. At the same time, it is committed to fostering a new generation of investigative reporters.
“As a BIRN [Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence] fellow, I was given the rare opportunity to cover in depth a story that affects Greece and many of its people. Working with the Network’s editors and staff not only made me a better journalist, but also allowed me to build a strong network of Balkan colleagues with whom I share common values and a shared vision for quality reporting across the region.”
Leila Bicakcic. Photo courtesy of Leila Bicakcic.
Leila BicakcicDirector, Centre for Investigative Reporting, Bosnia and Herzegovina
“BIRN brought a new perspective on journalism in the region and showed that journalism can contribute to a better society, a better understanding of complex topics, and the building of a democratic foundation in the countries created by the break-up of Yugoslavia.
“Transitional justice, corruption, social transition and other areas would still remain abstract topics for citizens today if BIRN journalists did not contribute to their understanding by slowly introducing them as mainstream topics and clarifying unfamiliar concepts.
“In Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN is the only newsroom that continuously reports on war crimes, monitoring war crimes trials, and transitional justice. Children in schools will learn about these issues, among other things, based on materials collected by BIRN. It is an immeasurable contribution to reconciliation and dealing with the past, which would not have been possible without BIRN. On the other hand, without reconciliation and facing the events of the 1990s, democratic societies in the Balkans are not possible.”
Nora AhmetajTransitional justice expert, Kosovo
“I wanted to take a moment to express my admiration for the exceptional work that BIRN has been doing in the region for decades now. As someone who has closely followed your coverage of transitional justice issues and contributed, I believe that BIRN is truly unique in its approach. Your commitment to tackling these complex and sensitive topics in a professional and nuanced manner is unparalleled.
“What I appreciate most about BIRN is its ability to serve as a valuable resource for both locals and foreigners interested in transitional justice in the region. Your website is an indispensable guide for those seeking to navigate this complex field, and your work provides a vital foundation for further exploration and research.”
Christoph PlateDirector of Media Programme South East Europe, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
“Throughout the years we at the KAS Media Programme Southeast Europe have seen BIRN’s dedication to empower journalists to work independently, even in challenging environments where media freedom is sometimes under pressure. For us as a regional programme, BIRN’s cross-border collaboration between journalists from different countries is highly valued. Furthermore, the English-language website Balkan Inside is a source for trustworthy news from the whole region.
Jakub Gornicki. Photo courtesy of Jakub Gornicki.
Jakub GórnickiCEO of visual storytelling platform Outriders, Poland
“BIRN has become an essential voice for accountability, transparency, and truth in Southeast Europe. Over the past 20 years, its courageous journalism and commitment to public interest reporting have built a trusted platform that not only informs but empowers citizens and challenges those in power. BIRN’s work is a cornerstone of democratic resilience in the region – and more important than ever in today’s complex information landscape.”
Maribel KönigerDirector for journalism and media, ERSTE Foundation
“In regions where media freedom is often under threat, BIRN provides an important platform for independent journalism. For almost 20 years, BIRN has been a trusted partner of ERSTE Foundation, supporting countless journalists who conduct cross-border research and quality journalism. It is the network that all journalists are looking for, a rock in the storm and a victorious champion in pointless SLAPP lawsuits, a hub for knowledge and further training with the best editors. BIRN is not just important. It is a benchmark in the sector. It reveals the facts.”
Gurkan Ozturan Media freedom monitoring officer, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom
“While democratic backsliding, media capture, and disinformation remain a challenge in the Balkans, BIRN plays a crucial role in advancing the understanding of transparency and accountability. Both news readers and civil society organisations that follow BIRN’s committed cross-border investigative journalism and regional news coverage as well as inclusive storytelling, feel the encouragement to hold power to account and demand transparency, justice and respect for democratic principles.”
Ryan Powell. Photo courtesy of Ryan Powell.
Ryan PowellHead of innovation and media business, International Press Institute
“BIRN is a critical voice, network, and publisher moving the dial on journalism in the Balkans. BIRN brings a critical source of solidarity for investigative journalists across the region doing the time intensive and challenging work of data collection, research and verification that goes into long form, accountability reporting. More than that, BIRN regularly rethinks and reviews their strategy – seeking to answer how to best nurture the space for quality and independent investigative reporting. They are also a great partner of the International Press Institute and a close connection as we monitor press freedom and support independent journalism in South East Europe.”
Renate SchroederDirector, European Federation of Journalists
“In the Balkan region and in South Eastern Europe, the people’s right to accurate and reliable information is even more under pressure with media capture, weakened business models and autocratic leaders using smear campaigns against journalists and a shrinking public sphere. BIRN is a precious pearl of independent investigative local journalism providing accurate information and thereby serving as a great antidote to disinformation and propaganda.”
Kurt BassuenerPolitical expert, Democratisation Policy Council, Berlin
“Over the past two decades, BIRN correspondents have delivered readers both broad and deep, informed coverage of what now is called ‘the Western Balkans.’ Its investigative reporting has often broken new ground – and presented ‘the international community’ with realities about ‘partners’ in the political realm which they would prefer to ignore.
“In addition, BIRN has remained a pillar in a media landscape which has changed and fragmented radically since its foundation, with ever greater traction of disinformation in the social media space (including emanating from ‘the West’). Therefore, fact-based reporting and analysis is more important than ever. Furthermore, the region has diminished in the Western public policy consciousness over the past 20 years, making BIRN’s role all the more vital.”
Michael Montgomery. Photo courtesy of Michael Montgomery.
Michael MontgomeryInvestigative journalist, Centre for Investigative Reporting, San Francisco
“In a region still dealing with the legacy of war, corruption and constant attacks on civil society, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network provides in-depth, fact-based journalism that holds the powerful accountable, whether governments, corporations or other actors and institutions.
“Its reporting on war crimes, misuse of public funds, political abuses, the environment and other issues helps empower citizens with the information they need to demand justice and good governance. By filling the severe gaps left by state-controlled media, BIRN serves as a key watchdog and a voice for the public interest. To accomplish all this over two decades, BIRN’s journalists have displayed unflinching courage and resilience.”
Kenneth MorrisonProfessor of history and the director of the Institute of Humanities and Political Studies at De Montfort University, UK
“For two decades, BIRN has been an important pillar of quality journalism. With a focus not just on daily news, but on human rights, geopolitics, and transitional, social, gender and environmental justice, it has become the most reliable source of information and analysis in the region. This makes it more than merely a news website – it is a vital source of information for those that want to look beyond the headlines and to access high quality, objective investigative journalism, and sharp, well-informed analysis. It is impossible to imagine the regional media landscape without BIRN, and 20 years on from its creation – and in a time of widespread misinformation, denial of war crimes, and unrelenting pressures on media freedom – its work and ethos is more important than ever.”
Fred AbrahamsAuthor and human rights researcher
“BIRN’s most enduring contribution has been its commitment to independence. In a region where media outlets are often influenced by political or financial interests, if not controlled by them, the pursuit of fact-based journalism remains essential – especially on sensitive issues like corruption and war crimes trials, where public perception and political sensitivities complicate efforts to report with balance.”
Eric Gordy. Photo courtesy of Eric Gordy.
Eric GordyProfessor of political and cultural sociology, University College London
“BIRN is the most comprehensive and regularly updated site for news and analysis on Southeast Europe, and the quality is consistently high: it is reliable, rigorously independent, and frequently, in its research-based feature articles, deep. For students studying the region I maintain a list of media sites in the region, and the BIRN site Balkan Insight is, especially for the students using English-language sources, the one they depend on the most. BIRN is providing a real service, and it has continued providing it regularly regardless of whether the region is getting a lot of international attention or not.”
Blake MorrisonInvestigative journalist at Reuters, BIRN Summer School lead trainer
“For 20 years, BIRN has played a critical role in seeking the truth, delivering the facts and bringing hope for better tomorrows to its ever-growing audience. Its journalists have gone to extraordinary lengths to hold power to account, regardless of risk or challenge. ”
Maria GeorgievaSwedish investigative journalist and documentary maker
“In my view, BIRN is vitally important because it stands as a beacon of independent, high-quality investigative journalism in a region where media often face political and economic pressures. By empowering journalists through training, mentorship, and resources, BIRN strengthens the capacity of the media to hold power to account, promote transparency, and foster public debate on critical issues such as democracy, human rights, and European integration. Its regional network approach uniquely combines local expertise with cross-border cooperation, helping to build a more informed and engaged citizenry while supporting media freedom and integrity.”
“BIRN’s commitment to rigorous, fact-checked reporting and its role in nurturing a new generation of journalists make it an indispensable actor for democratic development and social justice in Eastern and Southeast Europe. It is not just a media organisation but a catalyst for positive change and accountability in societies that continue to face complex post-conflict and transitional challenges.”
Lena Klopcic. Photo courtesy of Lena Klopcic.
Alenka Lena KlopcicEnergy and climate consultant
“BIRN is important as a corruption watchdog, as a guardian of the truth, which is the highest power, and hence as a great defender of social balance.”
Aljosa Ajanovic AndelicPolicy adviser, European Digital Rights
“At European Digital Rights (EDRi), we deeply admire the incommensurable work BIRN does in shedding light on digital rights abuses, corruption, surveillance, and broader human rights violations across the Balkans, at its borders, and beyond. As an investigative journalism network, BIRN plays a crucial role in holding power – whether corporate or governmental – to account and in giving voice to those too often silenced.
“We share important spaces, such as the Civic Journalism Coalition, and your reporting has proven essential for advocacy-focused organisations like EDRi. In some cases, your investigations are the only available evidence of otherwise hidden human rights violations.”
Ali FeganInvestigative reporter at SVT
“When crime and corruption flourishes BIRN is not only the most important watchdog, it also guarantees the growth of new talented investigative reporters in the Balkans.”
Nicolas GrossmanGlobal Center on AI Governance
“BIRN is an important reference for research and analysis in the region, providing highly valuable insights into the governance and implementation of new technologies to ensure they protect and promote human rights. We have had the privilege of working with them through the Global Index on Responsible AI and have seen first-hand the excellence of their team and their extensive network, which reaches across the entire Balkans.”
Ahmet Erdi OzturkExpert on Turkey, the Balkans and religion at London Metropolitan University
“Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network is not merely about marking the longevity of a media outlet – it is about acknowledging the essential role BIRN plays as a semi-academic platform and a unique network of experts working across one of the most complex and historically rich regions in the world: the Balkans.
“A region that continues to shape both peace and conflict in Europe, the Balkans demand nuanced, deeply informed analysis. BIRN offers just that – bringing together local insight and regional expertise to uncover what often escapes the headlines and presenting it with clarity, integrity and depth.”
Davor Gjenero. Photo courtesy of Davor Gjenero.
Davor GjeneroCroatian political analyst
“At the beginning of the democratic transition, in ‘A Letter to a Polish Friend’, [political scientist] Ralf Dahrendorf taught us that a democratic constitutional model and a system of economic freedoms based on a free market will be relatively easy to build in the new democracies but that the most problems will be with the construction of civil society and that it will take the most time.
“When BIRN and the Balkan Insight platform were founded, the democratic deficit of the Balkan states and economic problems were discussed. Nevertheless, the key issue that Dahrendorf warned us about – about the construction of civil society institutions – was on the back-burner for many. That is why the fact that BIRN created a network of non-governmental organisations in the Balkans aimed at the development of media freedom, with a focus not only on democratic institutions and economic processes but also on building civil society, was extremely important.”
Shqipe GjocajBalkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence alumnus, gender specialist, Kosovo
“One of BIRN’s core roles is empowering journalists through development programs. With the support of experienced editors and practical, hands-on editorial sessions, these programmes make the journalistic process more effective, safer, and higher in quality, for both emerging and experienced journalists. Beyond enabling the production of independent and impactful stories, the skills gained through BIRN’s programmes are long-lasting and essential for a strong and resilient career in journalism.”
Milorad PupovacHead of the Serbian National Council in Croatia
“On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of your hard work, above all, on the reporting of war crimes trials, I want to emphasise how important and valuable that mission is in the current global difficulties.
“As I have emphasised on numerous occasions commemorating the victims of war crimes, one should be ashamed of the crime committed by someone in the name of the people to which I belong and never incite hatred towards others just because someone committed a crime against your people. Building peace and trust has no alternative. I think your role is invaluable in that regard; persevere on that path; it is important for all people who have experienced the weight and tragedy of war in this area of ours.”
Fatos LubonjaAuthor and former political prisoner under the communist regime in Albania
“BIRN has become important, a point of reference in Albania as it stands outside our media system, which is almost entirely part of the triangle of political power, financial power and media power that rules Albania. In a kingdom of lies, BIRN still keeps the voice of truth and the courage of reason somewhat alive.”
When BIRN was founded in 2005 to promote a strong, independent and free media in the Balkans, media freedom reports on the region’s aspiring democracies painted a grim picture.
Political and economic pressures on the free press, illicit state subsidies, often disguised as government advertising, poor working conditions for journalists, lawsuits and verbal and physical attacks filled reports compiled by media watchdogs.
Yet, hopes were also high – that the internet era would bring more pluralism in to the media space, and that as the region was trod its path towards the EU, European funds and policies to strengthen and protect free media would bear fruit.
Two decades later, the types of pressures listed in media freedom reports may be different, but most of the core challenges that plagued the media landscape back then persist.
The internet brought more media outlets; it did not bring true pluralism. And while laws and strategies intended to safeguard media independence are now usually in place, they have largely hit a brick wall when it comes to implementation.
In a sea of fake news, AI and copy-paste journalism, handfuls of investigative teams still hold the torch for proper journalism that serves the public interest and has an impact.
But, as funds for these outlets dwindle, the question of their sustainability and survival is more pressing than ever.
“Technology has changed and the people who want to influence the media have just adapted to the new technology, that’s all,” observes Tim Judah of The Economist, who has been covering the Balkans for decades and is also president of the BIRN Assembly
“A lot of the issues we have today are pretty much the same as before,” Judah says.
More media, not more pluralism
In the early 2000s, when big and established electronic and printed outlets dominated the Balkan media landscape, and when their websites drew by far the most traffic, BIRN’s Balkan Insight was launched as one of the first primarily online media in the region.
The shift towards online was already visible, but many traditional outlets failed to see the writing on the wall.
“They ignored the fact that their websites were the most visited and were afraid that if they invested more in online production, their circulation or viewership would decrease,” explains Goran Rizaov, journalist and project manager at Metamorphosis, a non-profit from North Macedonia focused on democracy and digital media.
Many of these once prominent outlets are now history, and with them vanished their biggest potential value – their “big newsrooms, with many professionals and editorial teams that are unimaginable today”, Rizaov says.
In their place, Balkan readers and viewers now have a slew of new, smaller online outlets that lack the capacity of big newsrooms to produce original content and hold those in power accountable.
“Now we have hundreds if not thousands of online media but pluralism remains only a mirage. In fact, we only have a few narratives that everyone obeys because journalism has been reduced to copy-paste,” Rizaov comments.
These outlets are “struggling to survive, their sustainability is shaky and the salaries of journalists, workers’ rights and job safety are exceptionally low”, he adds, so “they make themselves available and subservient to anyone who sends them a ready-made text, a finished product”.
These ready-made products often come from state institutions and politicians, as well as private firms, who now hire more journalists, photographers and cameramen than media outlets, to maintain their PR image on social networks, Rizaov argues. This slew of small media simply amplify their patrons’ narratives without critical filtering.
“That’s where we come to a paradox – where media workers are hired to create PR for them and real newsrooms don’t have the resources to put this PR under scrutiny. In other words, it’s unfair competition,” he continues.
Competing with algorithms
Over the past two decades, the advent of largely unfiltered social media and of algorithms picking and ranking news based on their shock factor and potential for clicks and profits have diminished the role and capacity of media desks and of editorial teams. These are now playing catch-up with these faster and flashier competitors.
Media outlets struggle to compete, be more “likable” to the algorithms and publish news based on unchecked social media posts at high speed, media experts say.
Croatian journalist and editor Maja Sever, also president of the European Federation of Journalists, told BIRN that she still believes that people are interested in quality reporting.
But quality news has become harder to produce and promote, as “it is hard to penetrate the algorithms that impose profits”, she says.
She laments a chronic lack of political will in Balkan countries to educate audiences on. how to recognise original content.
“Unfortunately, readers have learned that they can get anything they want online for free – and most of them are not asking who the journalists who made that content are, what their working conditions are, and so on,” she says.
Sever adds that, by working in smaller and weaker newsrooms, over time, “workers have lost the power to unite and organise themselves to advocate for all they need”.
Another big problem, she says, is that employers increasingly hire freelancers whose rights are completely unprotected, “and so we are weakening the position and strength of the profession”.
Fears that ‘Hungarian model’ could spread
Photo: BIRN
The remaining relatively big and well-staffed newsrooms are mainly concentrated within prominent private TV stations and national broadcasters.
Things have not changed there much over the past decades in Balkan countries, experts and journalists say.
Political control over electronic media remains a pervasive and deeply entrenched issue, they note.
Despite formal legal frameworks often aligning with EU standards, their implementation is consistently undermined by political influence and “media capture”.
Control exerted through financial leverage, by pouring state money into advertisements remains a well-practised way to exert pressure. National advertisement markets are small and TV stations are expensive to operate. Starved for money, they are susceptible to the lure of state funds.
Weak and sometimes politically appointed regulatory bodies as well as obscure ownership structures exacerbate the problem, experts and media freedom reports indicate.
When it comes to state-funded public broadcasters, Judah says, they “have always to an extent been under government or political control” in Balkan states.
But, unlike the situation some 20 years ago, Judah is less optimistic now about positive change in them, and in the Balkan media sphere in general.
Developments even within the EU, as in Hungary, where Viktor Orban’s regime has obtained a tight grip on the media, he notes, “provide a model for the Western Balkans that many Balkan political leaders try to emulate”.
Reporters Without Borders’ latest media Freedom Index confirms those concerns.
Maja Sever says that with their secure funding, public broadcasters are in theory in best position to be “the focal point of public-interest-based journalism – a hub and a backbone of the media system when it comes to journalism”.
But that is if only they turn to true, professional journalism, while keeping people’s interest with their good reporting, she adds.
Dwindling funds threaten free media’s survival
It is not all doom and gloom, though, Rizaov from Metamorphosis points out, as each country has at least a few persistent outlets that act as hubs for real investigative journalism, which can strike the nerves of politicians or power groups and have a societal impact.
However, the question for their survival is finding sustainable funds. “So far, they have mainly survived thanks to project funding from abroad – but with dwindling funds, this is no longer an option,” he warns.
“The sustainability model of these investigative media no longer works. They cannot go fully commercial either,” he adds.
“We must explore the crowdfunding model, or form some national public fund, as finding a way for these serious media to be financed and continue their work is imperative, because the public interest lies there,” Rizaov says.
Sever agrees that “lack of thought about the sustainable financing of public-interest journalism is one of the key problems”, adding that while the European Commission has allocated funds in the last two or three cycles, “that is not enough”.
In the end, Sever says, if media freedom and professional journalism continue on their downward spiral, “the greatest damage will be suffered by citizens – because journalists will find other jobs, as they are often resourceful people.
“Citizens are finding it increasingly difficult to navigate the flood of disinformation, AI and what not,” she concludes.
