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The annual award is organised by UACES, the world’s largest European studies association. Previous winners include journalists from the BBC, The Economist and the International Herald Tribune.

Stanescu, a TV journalist based in Romania, received the prize at a ceremony in Westminster, central London, on 13 May.

The chair of UACES, Helen Drake, also conducted a short discussion with Stanescu and her editor at the Fellowship, Neil Arun. They spoke about the background to the story and about some of the issues it had raised.

Handing over the award, Dr Martyn Bond, a jury member and deputy chair of the London press club, praised the winning story as “particularly apposite” and “well-written”.

“The whole question of migrant labour in a highly developed economy… is illustrated through this,” he said. “But it doesn’t do it in a preachy didactic manner. It does it through a human story. And that’s the best sort of journalism.”

“It gives us facts behind the fictions… that we hear trotted out daily in the political ding-dong that passes for serious debate here on the immigration issue.”

Stanescu’s story, Cheap and Far from Free, revealed how the UK’s labour restrictions had left Romanian and Bulgarian construction workers underpaid and vulnerable to exploitation. It was published by Balkan Insight, and by the New Statesman magazine.

The report was the result of several months’ research, sponsored by the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence.

The Fellowship’s annual bursary promotes investigative and long-form reporting of complex reform issues in the Balkans.

It was established in 2007 by the Erste Foundation and the Robert Bosch Stiftung, in co-operation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

 

 

The reporters – drawn from seven Balkan countries – will cover issues ranging from corruption to media and the legacy of the conflicts in the region.

They will supplement information gathered in their own countries with material from trips to at least two other European countries.

The seminar kicked off on April 23 with a crash course in cross-border reporting techniques.

Each fellow received instructions from a team of BIRN editors, including Ana Petruseva, Gordana Igric and Neil Arun.

The fellows also spent a morning at the offices of the Fellowship’s media partner, Austrian newspaper Der Standard. Journalists from the newspaper later joined the fellows for a networking dinner at a Viennese restaurant.

The 2013 Fellowship stories are being developed under the umbrella of the this year’s annual topic, integrity.

The fellows were selected through open competition to receive funding and professional support that will help them conduct cross-border research into a topic of regional and EU significance.

The fellowship programme was established in 2007 by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

This positive result comes from an introduction of a new promotional tool, a news widget, which has been placed on media portals across the region. 

Balkan Transitional Justice (BTJ) content on the web sites novatv.mk, offnet.mk, time.mk, tportal.hr and e-novine.rs, has increased the visibility of Balkan Insight and Balkan Transitional Justice by 14 per cent since the beginning of March.

In comparison to previous months hits on BTJ web pages in local languages have increased by 220 per cent in Croatia, by 51 per cent in Macedonia and by 33 per cent in Serbia.

In the course of the last two months the new promotional tool brought 15,000 new visitors to Balkan Insight.

The topic of the show was the importance of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, ICTY.

Hodzic said the key problem that the Tribunal faced was the political context in which the Tribunal operated. Detailed reporting on ICTY trials conducted by the SENSE Agency and, in recent years, by BIRN – Balkan Insight, with support from civil society, was evolving in a political context that was hostile towards the work of Tribunal. Politicians who influenced public opinion, and the media under their control, were continuously working against the facts established by the Tribunal, he said. 

Other guests on the show were Natasa Kandic, founder of the Humanitarian Law Center and Anto Nobilo, the lawyer.

Kontekst is a daily programme aired by the Balkans branch of the international Al Jazeera news network. It was launched in 2011. The April 15 edition can be seen by following this link: http://balkans.aljazeera.net/video/kontekst-znacaj-tribunala-u-hagu.

The article was researched and written as a result of the Fellowship programme and was published by the New Statesman news magazine in Britain and by Balkan Insight.   

The UACES Prize honours excellence in reporting on the European Union in the English-speaking media.

Stanescu’s winning story was about the job restrictions that have left migrant construction workers from Romania and Bulgaria underpaid and vulnerable to exploitation in the UK.

The article came as result of four months’ work with the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence. Stanescu also won the Fellowship programme’s first prize for the same story. 

The prize ceremony will take place on May 13 at 17.30 at the Smith Square Conference Centre in London. Stanescu and the editor of the Balkan Fellowship programme, Neil Arun, will attend the event.

The fellowship programme aims to develop and support Balkan journalists reporting on complex reform issues. It was established by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

The two-day conference opened on April 11 at the crowded BiH Art Gallery with the exhibition ‘Portraying the Change’ which featured the work of professional photographers Dragi Nedelcevski (Macedonia), Jetmir Idrizi (Kosovo), Lazar Pejovic (Montenegro) and Amir Kapetanovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Both the exhibition and the final conference, which was organised to summarise the programme’s projects, was opened by Switzerland’s ambassador to BiH, Andre Schaller, who stressed the importance of cultural cooperation.

“Art is understandable despite differences in languages – it goes directly to our heart. This is the key to success in Switzerland, that we see each other’s cultures as riches,” he said.

The Swiss Culture Programme is run by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss arts council. Over 15 years, Switzerland has invested 22 million Swiss francs into cultural and artistic initiatives in nine countries with the aim of reviving cultural landscapes and supporting overall democratic processes. Hundreds of organisations and thousands of artists have been involved in over 3,000 cultural initiatives and projects in south-east Europe during this period.

BiH’s deputy minister for civil affairs, Denisa Sarajlic-Maglic, thanked the Swiss government for fostering cross-border cultural cooperation.

“The Swiss Cultural Programme helped forge lasting partnerships between cultural institutions, artists and local communities,” she said.

Sarajlic-Maglic added that culture, “as mean of capturing social realities and reacting to social realities, is a much-needed tool, on our way to create a society that will accept the idea of social diversity”.

The assistant director-general of the Swiss Development Cooperation, Kurt Kunz, said that the main indicator of the programme’s success was that the networks and contacts that were established have laid the groundwork for the future.

“We wanted to support innovative artistic creativity, independent production, respect for minorities and freedom of expression. Bridges have been built with several regional networks and regional cooperation projects,” Kunz concluded.

Besides the presentations and debates, the conference incudes two exhibitions by Balkan artists Alban Muja (Kosovo) and Dragi Nedelcevski (Macedonia), as well as other cultural events such as contemporary dance and film screenings.

Among a series of successful cultural initiatives and art projects, the SCP has supported the three-year Balkan Initiative for Cultural Cooperation Exchange and Development, BICCED, which promotes analytical and investigative journalism in the area of culture and the spreading of information about cultural issues across Balkan borders, organised by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, and SeeCult.org.

On April 11-12, a final event will be staged in collaboration with the Embassy of Switzerland in Bosnia and Herzogovina and the Swiss Development Cooperation Office.

Among a series of successful cultural initiatives and art projects, SCP has supported the three-year Balkan Initiative for Cultural Cooperation Exchange and Development, BICCED, which promotes analytical and investigative journalism in the area of culture and the spreading of information about cultural issues across Balkan borders, organised by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, and SeeCult.org.

The final event, which will bring together more than 100 regional and international cultural practitioners, activists, artists, academics and supporters, will be an opportunity to re-emphasise the importance of culture in social developments.

Over the course of 15 years, Switzerland has invested 22 million Swiss francs in cultural and artistic initiatives in nine countries, with the aim of reviving their cultural landscapes and supporting overall democratic processes.

Hundreds of organisations and thousands of artists have been involved in over 3,000 cultural initiatives and projects in south-east Europe over this period. 

As a result of collaborations between cultural practitioners within local, national, and regional initiatives, creative potential has been boosted and platforms supported across the region.

The two-day final programme commences with the opening of a photography exhibition called ‘Portraying the Change’, which documents the work of the Swiss Cultural Programme through individual portraits and testimonies. The exhibition will be opened on April 11, 2013 by HE André Schaller, Switzerland’s ambassador to Sarajevo.

The presentation of the programme’s achievements will be followed by a promotion for the four organisations which received the SCP Award. These organisations have been awarded for best practice development and excellence in their respective fields.

During the second day, participants will discuss priorities and challenges for the independent cultural sector, as well as future international funding opportunities for the region.

The artistic programme accompanying the final event will reflect a range of SCP contributions to different artistic fields (photography, visual arts, theatre, and contemporary dance) as well as offering the Sarajevo audience premieres of productions from countries across the region.

Dojcinovic won with a series of articles on organised crime and corruption in Serbia and the Balkans region which were published by several newspapers and magazines.

The members of the jury were Antonela Riha, Filip Svarm, Vukasin Obradovic and Velimir Curguz Kazimir.

The awards ceremony will take place on April 5 at the Media Centre in Belgrade.

The annual prize has been awarded for achievements in investigative journalism from 1991 onwards, in memory of journalist Jug Grizelj.

Several journalists set up a fund in the early 1990s to preserve Grizelj’s memory and encourage investigative reporting.

Dojcinovic is took part in the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence programme in 2011 and won third prize for his story on dubious privatisations in Serbia, entitled Serbian Privatisation: Criminals Still Cash In.