Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
Based in Budapest, Edit is reporting about Hungary for the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
She was formerly the Foreign Editor and Berlin Correspondent of the leading daily, Nepszabadsag, and the foreign policy analyst for the business weekly, Figyelo.
Edit holds a PhD from Corvinus University Budapest and has MA from ELTE University Budapest in English and Spanish philology.
She speaks Hungarian, English, German, Spanish.
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network on Tuesday co-hosted the second annual Media Policy Forum event in Chisinau, organised by Freedom House, the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation and Internews.
The aim of the discussions was identifying policy solutions that maintain respect for international standards on free expression with attention to key issues around elections.
“These include defending digital space, fostering fair elections coverage, countering disinformation, and promoting free speech,” said Tatiana Puiu, a representative of Freedom House in Moldova, at the beginning of the conference in Chisinau.
The US ambassador to Chisinau, Dereck J. Hogan, urged independent media and journalists in Moldova to maintain their objectivity and not become intimidated out of doing their job.
“In Moldova and in the world, independent journalists encourage active debates, expose injustices and abuses, help raise more informed citizens, empower leaders, and develop a brighter course for the future,” Hogan said.
Then deputy head of the EU delegation to Moldova, Urszula Pallasz, said there should be more attempts to foster media literacy in Moldova.
Pallasz quoted an OSCE report published after Moldova’s parliamentary elections on February 24 this year, which said access to information around elections was restricted due to the concentration of ownership of media.
Independent reports say that more than 80 per cent of the country’s media is concentrated in the hands of political parties and individuals connected to the authorities.
The event in Chisinau brought together a wide array of experts from civil society, independent media, government, academia, and the international donor community.
BIRN’s correspondent in Moldova, Madalin Necsutu, spoke about the media landscapes both in Romania and Moldova during electoral campaigns on a panel entitled ‘Leveling the Playing Field: Fostering Fair Elections Coverage’.
“Like in Moldova, the Romanian media is confronting the concentration of media in the hands of political parties and restricted access to public information,” he said.
He added that in recent years, media in Romania have focused on becoming more independent, particularly with the help of crowdfunding.
But David Kankiya, a Russian election analyst, said that Russia is adopting more and more restrictive legislation regarding the media and freedom of speech, which also affects the internet.
After BIRN project coordinator Sofija Todorovic live tweeted from a nationalist demonstration in Belgrade against an ethnic Albanian baker, the hate-speech mongers turned their attention to her.
Serbian right-wingers have begun a concerted campaign against BIRN project coordinator Sofija Todorovic since she defended the rights of an ethnic Albanian baker in her hometown of Borca – himself the subject of nationalist attacks – sharing hate speech, insults and threats to her on social media and attempting to hack her account on Twitter.
“I have received lots of threats on my social networks and, sadly, I do not feel comfortable or safe enough in the place where I was born and where I currently live,” Todorovic told BIRN.
“But for me the option was not remain silent while all aspects of a life of an innocent man are threatened with this shameful and dangerous campaign,” Todorovic added – explaining her public advocacy of an Albanian baker who has been subject to nationalist intimidation in Borca.
Todorovic has a long history of work in human rights activism. Before joining BIRN, she worked with the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.
Following everything that has happened to her lately, she has said she will file an official complaint with the Serbian police.
Serbian ultra-nationalists recently started to target the Albanian baker in the Belgrade suburb of Borca, which is also Todorovic’s hometown.
Mon Gjuraj became a target of nationalist fury after right wingers on Facebook re-posted a two-year-old picture of his cousin posing with a hand gesture in the shape of a double-headed eagle – the national symbol of Albanians.
On April 27, nationalists gathered in front of the bakery, shouted nationalistic slogans, played Serbian patriotic songs, put stickers reading “Kosovo is Serbia” on the windows, and threw pig’s heads at the bakery – a reference to his being a Muslim. A similar event was organized again on May 4.
During the April 27 event, Todorovic was live tweeting and posting videos of the incidents.
Since then, she has received online threats. Right-wingers have made videos about her, calling her insulting names, mentioning her family and re-posting old pictures that are no longer public.
Her Twitter account has been placed under “temporarily restriction” since April 28 and she cannot access it.
Andrej Petrovski, from the Serbian SHARE Foundation, an NGO dedicated to protecting people’s digital rights, told BIRN that Todorovic’s account had been subjected to attack.
“Someone tried to hack her and her account was then temporarily blocked. Then she unlocked it with a new login. The attacker eventually managed to access her account, but Twitter locked the account again because it recognized unusual activity,” Petrovski explained.
He added that, when Twitter asked for verification by the number of her phone, the hacker used Todorovic’s old number, because of which the account has stayed locked.
“We are trying to communicate with Twitter on this case so it can provide her with the possibility to add her current phone number,” Petrovski said.
BIRN has also sent questions to Twitter about this matter but received no answer by the time of publication.
BIRN Hub in partnership with SHARE Foundation, supported by Civitates, have launched a project called ‘Mapping Digital Freedom Violations’ which will run from June 2019 until November 2020 and monitor digital threats and trends in their occurrence, raise awareness about violations of digital freedom, and issue policy recommendations.
The main goal of the project is to determine who are the main players involved in disinformation and propaganda in the south-east and central Europe (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia) through establishment of the Digital Monitoring database, continuous monitoring of digital threats, and reporting on digital freedom violations.
The project entails training for digital monitors, the design and launch of the Digital Monitoring database using the already existing experience of SHARE Foundation, the publishing of a cross-regional report and five regional investigations, plus stakeholder meetings and a final conference to promote the cross-regional report.
The project will set guidelines for carrying out the monitoring of digital rights and freedoms.
These standardised rules for categorising cases of violations of digital rights and freedoms can be adapted and applied to any country and used to emphasise the importance of the use of technology to highlight social issues, especially in countries and regions without good human rights records.
Previous monitoring has shown that the primary problems are technical attacks on online content, disabling access to content and the endangerment of information security.
BIRN calls on all relevant institutions, especially the Serbian Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor’s Office, to react urgently to the latest attacks on our editor Slobodan Georgiev.
A day after BIRN published photographs pointing to a connection between Andrej Vucic, the brother of the Serbian President, and Zvonko Veselinovic, a notorious businessman from Kosovo, a campaign started on social networks, attacking and threatening both Georgiev and the investigative portals BIRN, CINS and KRIK.
A video recording, available on Twitter from last night, describes Georgiev as a “foreign mercenary”, a “traitor” and as an associate of Albanian and Kosovo politicians.
The footage uses cover pages of the pro-government tabloid Informer, which refer to the “lucrative jobs” BIRN has done for foreign donors. Such slurs have been disproven in court. The same clip also targets CINS and KRIK media outlets.
The background tone of the recording is the alarm siren used during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999.
The release of the video has attracted numerous comments that contained insults and threats, some of which have been removed in the meantime.
As has happened before, instead of the dealing with the results and evidence presented by investigative media centres, raising awareness about threats to the rule of law, the fight against the corruption and the work of institutions, attention is being directed to editors and journalists who then become targets of attacks.
This spread of lies and misinformation is creating additional pressure on all journalists who want to work independently and professionally and critically report on the activities of the authorities. It is making them targets.
BIRN would remind the public and the relevant institutions that its editorial team has been almost constantly targeted by pro-regime media and ruling party bots on social networks since 2014.
We point out also that the attacks on Georgiev and BIRN have been reported to the authorities many times – without any concrete action being taken.
Selected Resonant Voices Fellows attended a workshop in Berlin on March 25-29, 2019, marking the official start of this year’s Fellowship program. The fellows will produce compelling content that pushes back against a polarising, inflammatory, and radicalising discourse.
In Berlin, the fellows received comprehensive training in reporting, writing and structuring skills and worked with BIRN editors on developing their story ideas. The workshop lasted four days and, besides work with editors, included visits to a number of organisations and meetings with relevant stakeholders in the area of migration, integration and radicalisation. The fellows were introduced to the work of local organisations such as Disruption Network Lab and Mediendienst Integration, which deal with issues relevant to the their reporting projects.
Going forward, the fellows will be mentored by designated editors and visual communications mentors in order to benefit from their practical experience and produce stories of the highest quality.
Click on the links below for videos where you can find out more about the in-depth stories the RVI fellows are working on:
Learn more about the Resonant Voices Initiative and follow the work of the RVI Fellows.
DONOR
Civitates is a philanthropic initiative for democracy and solidarity in Europe.
It provides funding for civil society actors to come together, revitalise public discourse, and ensure that all voices are heard.
Herceg Novi and its stunning coastline will be the setting for the BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting in 2019.
The school brings together some of the world’s best journalists and trainers for six-days in the Bay of Kotor, known as the southern-most fjord in Europe.
Between August 18 and 25, reporters will have the opportunities to learn cutting-edge investigation skills while enjoying the delights of Adriatic Sea.
Successful applicants will be provided with excellent possibilities for networking – and the possibility of getting a grant for a story idea.
The lead trainer on the course in Montenegro is one of the best investigative editors in the US, Reuters’ Blake Morrison, a three-times finalist for the Pulitzer investigative award.
As part of the school, you will learn how to dig for data, convince difficult sources to talk, transform your research into sparking prose and harness the power of videos.
Who the Summer School is for:
The training course is suitable for both investigative journalists with a few years’ experience as well as those who are more skilled.
We encourage application from experienced journalists that want to learn new trends and work with a new generation of reporters, as well as editors interested in encouraging investigative reporting in their media outlets.
Investigative Story Fund:
The 30 reporters selected to take part, of which 20 will hail from the Balkans, will work together in groups throughout the week to develop an idea for a hard-hitting investigation, which will be presented to a panel of judges on the final day.
The three best story ideas will be awarded with funds and editorial support.
Montenegrin coast:
Known as the southern-most fjord in Europe, the Bay of Kotor boasts a landscape that you won’t easily forget. The Iberostar Herceg Novi hotel is at the entrance to the bay, surrounded by forested mountains and a crystal blue sea, to which you have direct access.
On the opposite side of the bay you can admire Herceg Novi, the city that gives its name to the hotel and that has a history dating back over six centuries.
In a secluded location away from the hustle and bustle but well connected with the airports of Dubrovnik (26km) and Tivat (30km), the hotel is just a few kilometres from the popular tourist spots such as Kotor, Perast and Herceg Novi.
Participants will have the chance to enjoy the idyllic surroundings while honing their investigative journalism skills.
Ten journalists from across southeast Europe have been chosen for this year’s Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence. Over coming months, they will tackle in-depth features and investigations on the topic of FREEDOM.
Now in its 13th year, the BFJE programme gives mid-career journalists the funding and editorial support to dig into complex issues of local and international significance.
This year’s participants were competitively selected from more than 80 applications. An independent committee comprising seven senior European media figures evaluated proposals based on relevance, feasibility and originality, as well as candidates’ professional qualifications and motivation.
The journalists come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia.
The fellowship programme will kick off with an introductory seminar in Belgrade in late April. In addition to receiving funds for research, the journalists will get mentoring from seasoned international editors as they conduct reporting trips to countries in the region and the European Union. The programme will conclude in December with an award ceremony.
Here are the fellows for 2019:
BIRN published an e-book entitled ‘Radovan Karadzic: Wartime Leader’s Years on Trial’, ahead of the former Bosnian Serb wartime president’s final trial verdict on March 20, 2019.
The e-book, which is downloadable free of charge, contains all BIRN’s reports on the case, from the period when Karadzic was on the run to when he was caught and extradited, and throughout the whole of the trial that followed.
Published in English and in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, it includes over 570 articles and runs to more than 1,100 pages.
This is the third e-book published by BIRN. The first was an in-depth e-book containing reports and analyses about the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, while the second one was a compilation of reports on Ratko Mladic’s trial.
To download the e-book, click here.
