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Together with Sandra Orlovic from the Humanitarian Law Centre, retired Serbian Army military prosecutor Lakic Djorovic, Dragan Popovic from the Policy Centre and publicist Zoran Janjic, Igric discussed the impact of security sector reforms on transitional justice.

All the participants agreed that Serbian society has failed to accept its responsibility for the crimes committed in the 1990s, and considered it unlikely that the Serbian government will raise new indictments for war crimes given that the great number of its members were part of the 1990s war machine. Orlovic said that the security sector reforms appear to be nominal because reform of the security sector’s personnel has failed – a fact that has direct implications on transitional justice processes.

The presence of compromised personnel at the security sector directly contributes to a climate of impunity, she said. Orlovic added that is unlikely that security sector reform will ever achieve its goal of re-establishing citizens’ trust if people who took part in the 1990s conflicts are still part of the sector.

Igric said that all ex-Yugoslav countries have developed their own war narratives which, through the media, have entered their education systems. Each country has declared the conflict to have been defensive and has no will to prosecute the perpetrators, while Serbia acknowledges only the NATO bombing as a genuine war. She added that the opening of secret files should lie at the core of security sector reform.

The Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies, CEAS, is an independent, non-religious, socially-oriented left-liberal think-tank founded in 2007 in Belgrade. With its research work, CEAS generates precise analysis of Serbia’s foreign, security and defense policies.

The publication provides a snapshot of the past year in south-eastern Europe, capturing some important truths behind the news.

Original research by the journalists focused on issues ranging from religious radicalism, the exploitation of migrant workers in the EU, football hooliganism, environmental activism, bad privatisation deals, and the exclusion of youth from a politicised job market. The stories were grouped under the annual theme, Communities.

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

The stories produced under the programme were re-published by prominent outlets in the region,as well as by international media including The Guardian, The New Statesman, The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, Der Standard, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, The Huffington Post and the EU Observer.

The work of the fellowship and of its editor, Neil Arun, has been shortlisted for the 2013 European Press Prize in Amsterdam.

One of the participating journalists, Eldin Hadzovic, has also received an award from UNICEF for his fellowship story which examined the failure of Bosnia’s orphanage system.

“The publication of the fellows’ articles in the most important media in the region and internationally is clear proof that this project is a worthy venture,” said Remzi Lami, the director of the Albanian Media Institute and a member of the programme’s selection committee.

The 10 articles from 2012 were re-published by more than 400 outlets, supporting the fellowship’s ultimate goal – to promote and reward excellence in journalism.

The new cycle of the programme will be launched on January 28, when journalists will be invited to submit applications under the annual topic for 2013, Integrity.

The session was aimed at enhancing techniques for covering transitional justice issues and developing topics for upcoming cross-regional investigations. The investigations are part of BIRN’s Regional Reporting on Transitional Justice Issues programme. Over the next two years, the organisation’s network of journalists will produce four major investigations on transitional justice issues in the region.

The meeting brought together journalists and other team members from six countries, including BIRN’s reporters, translators, television editor and radio producer. The team also discussed project activities for the forthcoming two years and held a development session intended to boost investigative reporting skills and further improve coverage of transitional justice issues.

Journalists examined strategies for employing social media and online content to enhance and promote investigative work, as well as innovative ways of presenting investigations in multimedia formats to deepen readers’ understanding and gain a wider audience.

The Balkan Transitional Justice journalists were joined at the meeting by the Balkan Insight team of correspondents and editors for a series of joint cross-regional editorial discussions.

In order to encourage regional networking among journalists and advance balanced coverage on topics that are central to the region as well as to the European Union, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the ERSTE Foundation, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, have initiated the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence programme in 2007.

Each year, ten Balkan journalists are competitively chosen to receive funding and professional support to conduct their own research project.

Adrian Mogos, a Romanian journalist and Fellowship alumni, has been also nominated in the News Reporting  Award category, for the reporter or specialist expert whose work has made a decisive impact.

Awards will be also made in two further categories – the Editing Award and the Commentator Award.

The idea for the awards was born in 2011 when representatives of seven European media foundations joined forces to launch the European Press Prize in order to reward excellence in journalism across all 47 European countries. They agreed that launching the awards would encourage high-quality, innovative and independent journalism.

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

The winners will be announced later this month by the jury which is chaired by veteran British journalist and editor Sir Harold Evans, and the awards will be presented on February 26 at the De Balie Debating Centre in Amsterdam.

At the meeting in Belgrade from January 12-13, the Balkan Transitional Justice team will also develop a series of major cross-regional investigations, discuss project activities for the forthcoming two years and development session aimed at enhancing investigative reporting skills and techniques for covering transitional justice issues.

Those attending will include BIRN’s reporters, translators, television editor and radio producer, and the session will also introduce to the entire team the new English-language editor-in-chief for Balkan Transitional Justice, Matthew Collin.

The Balkan Insight team of correspondents and editors will also be present at the meeting for joint cross-regional editorial discussions.

“This is an important opportunity to get all our journalists together, face to face, and work on strategies and collaborative projects for the future,” said Collin.

“The exchange of ideas should be fascinating and form the basis for some important investigative work,” he said.

The United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office is now the third donor for the Balkan Transitional Justice project, alongside the European Commission and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.

UNICEF Bosnia and Herzegovina marked Human Rights Day on December 10 with the presentation of the results of its ‘Justice for Every Child’ campaign. Officials also awarded several journalists and recognised the ambassador of the campaign- Bosnian singer Dino Merlin.

The organisation honoured journalistic achievements in the fields of child protection, violence prevention and juvenile justice in 2012.

Eldin Hadzovic won award for his BIRN’s Fellowship article ‘Abandoned Twice: Bosnia’s Orphans Left in the Lurch’ in which he explains how Bosnia is unable to monitor its orphanages properly, nor can provide any decent alternatives to the institutions.  

UNICEF Bosnia and Herzegovina presented awards to local journalists for the best online work, best radio work, the best TV news and the best in print media.

In addition to BIRN’s Eldin Hadzovic, four other journalists from various media outlets in the country were also honoured with special tributes for outstanding contributions to journalism.

UNICEF’s partner organisations were present for the awards ceremony, as well as representatives of state institutions, the media and several non-profit groups.

The ‘Justice for Every Child’ campaign is part of UNICEF’s project for protection of children at risk, and is supported by relevant ministries and organisations in Bosnia. The campaign is also supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, SIDA, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, SDC.

Gordana Igric, Valentina Milenkovic

The award organised by Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and SeeCult.org was presented at the regional conference “What is (to be) Done” that took place on November 28 in Dom Omladine in Belgrade.

The jury, consisting of six cultural experts and an internationally awarded journalist, gave the first prize to Valentina Milenkovic, a journalist at “Vranjske” weekly magazine, for her complex investigative piece “How does government entertain people”.

Milenkovic investigated the funding of the cultural event “Cultural-touristic manifestation” in the municipality of Vranje in Serbia over the period of three years.

“For all that time they can only show four or five contracts that prove how the money was spent. Over 50 participants, some of them really famous Serbian singers, took part in the event,” said Milenkovic at the award ceremony.

“This is my first award in 13 years-long journalistic career, and therefore this is very important to me,” she added.

The second prize was awarded to Gordana Popovic from the daily newspaper Politika for her article “Serbia and the EU  – Culture and Candidature” about the reaction from the Serbian officials after the country obtained the EU candidate status.

“I talked to numerous officials and it was really interesting to confront opinions of two different sides in Serbia,” said Popovic.

The third prize went to Pristina to Vullnet Krasniqui, a journalist from the daily newspaper Koha Ditore for the article: “Kosovo authorities risk loosing some clay figures of Kosovar origin”.

Article by Bosnian journalist Irfan Hosic “Departures as a Rule” published in the “Dani” weekly magazine, was given the fourth prize.

“It is an honour for me to receive this award especially for my analysis of art scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the emigration of the artist from the country,” said Hosic.

The Balkan Initiative for Cultural Cooperation Exchange and Development, BICCED, envisages the Culture Watch Award was envisaged as a step towards strengthening the analytical and investigative approach to cultural issues.

The BICCED board decided on Tuesday that the award would become an annual event. This year’s awards were supported by the Swiss Cultural Programme for the Western Balkans (SCP).