Tag: Hub

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, wishes to draw your attention to alarming developments in Serbia, where the Serbian Prime Minister and other high-ranking government officials are conducting unprecedented attacks against critical voices, be it organisations or individuals.

It has been exactly a month since our organization came under attack for publishing an investigation flagging up important issues of public interest. In response, the government branded BIRN journalists EU mercenaries, spies and “liars”, working against Serbian national interests. The attacks from government-allied media have since receded but they have not stopped.

In the meantime, other organizations and independent institutions, like the Humanitarian Law Centre and the Serbian ombudsman have also come under fire, with almost identical ammunition, labeling them traitors, mercenaries, etc, which points to a worrying pattern and sends a clear message to any critical voices about what lies ahead.

Since the campaign against BIRN was launched, over 40 civil society organisations have called on the Serbian authorities to protect the public interest and investigate the concerns raised by BIRN, and many of them have engaged with BIRN to organise a series of events dedicated to freedom of speech.

For a while now the international community’s approach to the region appears to prioritise stability at the expense of democratic freedoms. In Serbia’s case, as long as the country is cooperating with the EU-led dialogue with Kosovo, there is a silence regarding other worrying developments.

BIRN and its partners are deeply concerned that the situation is likely to deteriorate further and we therefore appeal to you to express concern over these issues.

The Sida core support during the period January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019 will provide dedicated, independent backing for a vital ongoing programmes and new initiatives in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Serbia, with additional intervention in Macedonia and Montenegro.

Sustainable media development is still a challenge for the highly troubled Balkan media scene, plagued by lack of transparency of ownership and finances, poor legislation, political interference and weak grassroots organisations. BIRN will strive to empower people to access their rights by providing accurate and relevant information and creating opportunities for them to participate in democratic processes.

“In the year when BIRN is celebrating its 10^th anniversary, the five-year Sida core support will enable us to consolidate our institutional knowhow and strengthen our capacities for improving freedom of expression and the environment for independent media in the region. At the same time, BIRN will remain committed to fulfilling its role of a media watchdog in the public interest,” said Gordana Igric, Executive Network Director.

Dragana Obradovic Zarkovic, Director of BIRN Serbia, added: “This grant will enable the BIRN network to empower the regional aspect of our work and to systematise all the great things that we have been doing over the last ten years in different countries. That can be the initial push for another ten years of development, and I really hope that we will use it.”

Alumni came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Kosovo. The Fellowship alumni network holds a biannual meeting and coordinates cross-border reporting projects by the alumni.

On the second day of the seminar, the alumni split into eight teams and presented proposals for topics they would like to cover.

The story commissioning session was held by BIRN’s regional director Gordana Igric, Macedonia country director Ana Petruseva and Fellowship editor Andrew Gray. It was the first round of a pitching session, after which bursaries for alumni teams will be provided in order to cover important regional issues.

Alumni fellows have already participated in the some of the most prestigious media and political conferences in the region and the EU, receiving regional and international awards for their work.

These awards include the Europe Reporting Prize, awarded by the Academic Association for Contemporary European Studies, the CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism and the Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism, as well as the Daniel Pearl award for international investigative reporting and a TED fellowship for innovation.

The two-day meeting that started on Friday was held as a part of BIRN’s cultural project Culture Watch, under this year’s topic of ‘Invisible Art’.

The focus of the meeting was on the stories that 12 journalists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia will write for an upcoming webpage that will deal with contemporary art projects and artists across the region who are marginalised by the state authorities, the market, the media and other factors.

The meeting began with an introduction from BIRN director Gordana Igric and a short training session about the writing of longer feature stories for the project.

After this, the journalists explored the possibilities of multimedia reporting within the ‘Invisible Art’ webpage, which will be launched in March.

In the second part of the meeting, the journalists proposed stories that could best describe the situation that the project aims to explore.

The commissioned stories will deal with such topics as the spaces in which alternative scenes function, graffiti artists, performance artists, writers and small publishers and others who are excluded from the mainstream because of their ways of thinking and expressing themselves.

On Saturday, the journalists who will report for ‘Invisible Art’ undertook two study visits.

First they visited the photo gallery Opservatorijum for the opining of a new exhibition by photojournalist Saša Čolic, concentrating on social problems in Serbian society, but also the problem of power, its misuse and the visibility of non-mainstream culture.

The second visit was to the Zvezda cinema in Belgrade, which has been taken over and reopened by a group of young people who call themselves The Movement for the Occupation of Cinemas, who are protesting about the Beograd Film network of cinemas that was privatised and then shut down in 2007.

The Zvezda occupation highlights a new type of social resistance by creative people and artists against the underfunding of culture and the fact that all kinds of cultural institutions are currently not functioning at all across the Balkans.

‘Invisible Art’ is a further step towards the same goal: to use the capacity created by the three year BICCED (Balkan Initiative for Cultural Cooperation Exchange and Development) project to create a regional network of cultural journalists who will monitor the cultural scenes in their own countries.

The project is intended to give people a more colourful insight into the troubles facing artists in the Balkans and help to shape future cultural policies.

The project was initiated by Balkan Investigative Reporting Regional Network, BIRN Hub and is being implemented with the financial support of the Prince Claus Fund.

Twelve feature articles from all participating countries will be published from March to September 2015 within the Balkan Insight site.

Twelve journalists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo will meet on Friday at the Jump In Hotel in Belgrade for two days of training, discussions and the commissioning of stories about the Balkan contemporary art scene.

They will prepare to start research and about the phenomena that define the Balkan contemporary art scene, such as the marginalisation of alternative artists and groups; political, party or religious control over art; ideological conflicts among artists and groups, and obstacles to artistic freedom of speech and expression.

The journalist will try to explore these phenomena in their countries through individual examples from the various spheres of art – from visual arts and literature to music and film – thus uncovering ways in which the social situation affects artists and how it is reflected in their work.

The selected countries are all non-EU states, characterised by a high tolerance for crime and corruption, conflicts between traditional and liberal values, and strong political and party interference in all spheres of life including art. This, together with the lack of a market for contemporary art and the selective state financing of contemporary art projects, serves to marginalise those with alternative approaches to cultural work.

With this project, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Regional Network, BIRN Hub, continues the mission it started with the Balkan Initiative for Cultural Cooperation Exchange and Development, BICCED project (2010-2012), whose main aim was to train journalists in writing analytical and investigative articles dealing with culture policies in ex-Yugoslav countries.

‘Invisible Art’ is a further step towards the same goal: to use the capacity created with BICCED to provide a detailed and colourful insight into the forces that affect art in the Balkans.

The project was initiated by Balkan Investigative Reporting Regional Network, BIRN Hub and is being implemented with the kind support of the Prince Claus Fund.

Twelve feature articles enriched with videos, photos and audio from the alternative culture of the Balkans, each authored by one of the participating journalists, will be published on the Invisible Art focus page within the Balkan Insight website from March to September 2015.

The two-day conference will bring together more than 70 journalists and CSO activists who will share their experiences of joint investigative activities and analysing alternative perspectives on current events. The conference will be held at the Holiday Inn hotel in Belgrade on November 26th and 27th.

Participants and speakers from seven countries in the region will discuss subjects including:
–    The government’s attitude towards media and journalists in the region and ways to improve the relationship.
–    Overcoming the illusion of transparency – establishing priorities for opening data sets that should serve as a source of information for investigative journalism and advocacy campaigns, and indirectly as an advocacy tool in order to encourage states in the region to make their data open.
–    “The response to the floods” – investigating the floods in Serbia. Monitoring organisations and investigative journalists look at an alternative picture of the disaster as opposed to the official one.
–    If you follow the money, will the money follow? – Funding the partnership projects between investigative journalists and non-governmental organisations. Is it an opportunity or a trap?
–    The story behind exposing the inner workings of a bizarre dictatorship – Ukrainian journalists’ and activists’ efforts to document a corrupt regime – a story on activism as a symbol of the Ukrainian revolution.
–    The art of investigating public procurements in the completely closed institutions of Macedonian political system.
–    Ethical boundaries between journalism and activism.
–    Experiences in investigating new coal power plants and pollution.
–    New methodologies in the monitoring of public finances and the establishment of a transparent and accountable system resistant to corruption, based on integrity and participation.

This year’s topic is ‘Generations’, and the 10 reporters who were selected to take part have been working hard for the past few months to complete their cross-border investigations.

The best three works will be chosen by a selection committee and awarded a cash prize of 4,000 euros for first place, 3,000 euros for second place and 1,000 euros for third place.

The while award winners will be announced at the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence closing event and award ceremony in Belgrade on November 28.

This year’s final event will also be attended by more than 60 Fellowship alumni from nine countries in the region.
They will gather at the BFJE Alumni meeting, organised every second year with the aim of enabling networking and providing a platform for the sharing of experiences as well as providing funds for joint regional journalistic projects.  
At a time when media across the region are under strong political and economic pressures, the Fellowship programme enables journalists to work on projects of their own choice with editorial and professional support, serving as an example which the media industry could emulate.  

The screening of the film, which follows six young people from the Balkans as they travel around the region to survey the legacy of the 1990s conflicts, was facilitated by Myron Belkind, the National Press Club’s president and Molly McCluskey, chair of the National Press Club’s International Correspondents’ Committee.

The event was also attended by Srdjan Darmanovic of the Embassy of Montenegro, Ivana Mangov of the Embassy of Serbia, Adnan Hadrovic of the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Janer Rabin Satter of the National Endowment for Democracy, as well as US journalists who have formerly worked in the Balkans.

After the screening, Molly McCluskey was joined by Petar Subotin, BIRN Regional Development Officer, for a discussion.

Questions were raised about current transitional justice processes in the region in light of shared narratives which, judging by the documentary, are clearly missing.

Participants in the debate wanted to know whether is it possible to put current government officials at the same table to come up with joint history books that would bring together younger generations in the Balkans, and whether these shared narratives might be able to bridge the gaps created by the individual histories that each country has shaped in accordance with its political agenda.

The audience was also eager to hear what the film’s young protagonists are doing now, and whether they got along during the documentary shooting despite their different backgrounds.

The overall audience impression was that the documentary was optimistic and offered hope, suggesting that younger generations are key players in the ongoing reconciliation processes and that it is only they who can overcome the legacies of the wars.