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“I am excited to be joining an organisation with a great reputation and excellent journalists, and look forward to expanding the network’s activities in Albania,” Voko said.

Voko has years of experience in organisational development and program cycle management in the IGO and NGO sectors.

Through the new office in Albania, BIRN plans to apply its signature media development and journalism training programmes in a country where freedom of expression and information, quality of journalism and a general lack of funding and support for the media remain important issues.

“BIRN’s presence in Albania answers a demand from local journalists who have been involved in its regional projects and appreciate the hands-on approach to training, publishing and media freedom,” said BIRN editor Besar Likmeta.

The nomination, in the category of Investigative Reporting, was made for stories produced by the Fellowship, an annual bursary for analytical and investigative journalism. The stories covered themes ranging from corruption to the legacy of conflict and communism.

Ten journalists are selected for the Fellowship every year to receive funding and professional guidance to help them report on topics that are central to the region and to the European Union. Applications for the 2014 round of the Fellowship are currently being sought.

The programme is managed by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, with the support of ERSTE Stiftung and the Open Society Foundations.

Arun was also shortlisted for the 2012 edition of the European Press Prize. Having completed two years with the Fellowship, he is now leaving the programme to pursue new opportunities.

He will remain involved with the Fellowship as a member of its selection committee, and with BIRN as a special projects editor.

“The credit for this nomination must be shared,” he says. “This is recognition for those who have reported for the Fellowship, and for those whose hard work and generosity have supported it.”

The awards were created by the representatives of seven European media foundations in order to reward excellence in journalism across 47 European countries.

Each award carries a prize of 10,000 euros, to be spent on a project that may enrich the practice of journalism.

The winners will be decided by a panel of judges, chaired by Sir Harold Evans. The prize giving ceremony takes place in London on March 17, 2014.

For more information, please visit our Balkan Job Finder page.

On December 12, the ten fellows took part in a critique of their work during a final editorial evaluation session. They reflected on what they had learned over the year, and debated the strengths and weaknesses of their stories.

They also gave their suggestions for improving the format of the fellowship.

Earlier that day, the fellows attended a discussion about Croatia’s path following its admittance into the EU earlier this year.

The panel described how the country’s politics had lurched towards the right after its entry into the bloc. The speakers were Sandra Bencic, programme director of the Centre for Peace Studies; Vedran Horvat, director of the Croatian office of the Heinrich Boll Foundation; Davor Gjenero, a political analyst; and Irena Frlan, a journalist at Novi List.

The fellows also attended a discussion about the problems facing the Croatian media, which is struggling to survive in an overcrowded landscape. The speakers were Boris Postnikov, a senior adviser at the Ministry of Culture; Ivana Dragicevic, an editor at the foreign policy desk of Croatian National TV; Tena Perisin, a professor at Zagreb University’s journalism faculty; and Danela Zagar, from the NGO, GONG.

Later that afternoon, the fellows went on a sightseeing tour of Zagreb.

On December 13, the fellows spent the morning and early afternoon presenting their research to the independent selection committee.

The winners of this year’s fellowship were announced on Friday evening at a ceremony at the Croatian Journalists’ Association.

On the final night, an independent team of judges selected the three top stories from the year’s output.

The first prize in the 2013 fellowship, worth €4,000, was won by Vlad Odobescu, a Romanian reporter who described how his country’s politicians have bounced back from corruption investigations.

The second prize, worth €3,000, was won by Dino Jahic, a Bosnian reporter who investigated bribery in the education system. The third prize, worth €1,000, was won by Elena Stancu, a Romanian reporter who examined corruption in the job market for doctors.

The theme for this year’s competition was “integrity”. Journalists on the programme covered topics spanning the legacy of war, bad government and the politicisation of civil society.

The call for applications for next year’s fellowship will be announced in January.

Initiated by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation in 2007, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, the annual fellowship provides financial and professional support to foster quality reporting in the Balkan region.

The programme also seeks to encourage regional networking among journalists and to provide balanced coverage of complex reform issues that are central to the region and the European Union.

This year’s ten fellows were selected from more than 120 applicants from nine Balkan countries.

The second prize was won by Dino Jahic, a Bosnian reporter who investigated bribery within the education system.

The third prize was won by Elena Stancu, a Romanian reporter who examined corruption in the job market for doctors.

The top prize is accompanied by an award of €4,000. The second prize is worth €3,000 and the third prize is worth €1,000.

The winning articles were selected by an independent panel of judges, comprised of Florian Hassel, Balkans correspondent for German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung; Remzi Lani, the executive director of the Albanian Media Institute; Gerald Knaus, founding chairman of the European Stability Initiative; Milorad Ivanovic, executive editor of the Serbian weekly, Novi Magazin; Markus Spielman, editor of the Swiss newspaper, Neue Zurcher Zeitung; and Adelheid Wölfl, an editor at the Austrian daily, Der Standard.

The jury members praised Odobescu’s report for its use of a strong storyline with a colourful central character to illustrate a region-wide problem.

Odobescu says the fellowship helped him “prioritise and structure information, especially when huge amounts of data are gathered”.

The winners were announced on the evening of Friday, 13 December, at a ceremony at the Croatian Journalists’ Association in Zagreb.

The theme for this year’s competition was “integrity”. Journalists on the programme spanning the legacy of war, bad government and the politicisation of civil society.

Initiated by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation in 2007, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, the annual fellowship provides financial and professional support to foster quality reporting in the Balkan region.

The programme also seeks to encourage regional networking among journalists and to provide balanced coverage of complex reform issues that are central to the region and the European Union.

This year’s ten fellows were selected from more than 120 applicants from nine Balkan countries.

Next year’s programme will be open for applications from January 2014.