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Initiation of Balkan Culture Watch Strengthening Project

Balkan Investigative Regional Reporting Network has launched its Balkan Culture Watch Strengthening Project, funded by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF). The BCWSP project is a “build-on” project that complements the existing three-year “Balkan’s Initiative for Cultural Cooperation, Exchange and Development Project” (BICCED, funded by the SCP), which aims to support a constant production of analytical reporting on culture-related developments in five countries (Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo) through a monthly newsletter (Culture Watch / CW), and support the media in the region with coverage of culture by offering analytical reports free of charge.

This project aims to involve government officials and decision makers and work to improve the situation in the region by strengthening cultural life and cross-cultural cooperation as an important element of a participatory, open, and dynamic civil society.

The project’s first event will comprise Advisory Board meeting, conference and training “Culture in the Media”, which will be held in Pristina from March 17 to 19 2011. The participants in the conference will include editors, journalists, and experts in culture from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Serbia.

The conference aims to explore the coverage of cultural policy issues by the media, as well as the understanding of cultural policy and the challenges in presenting these issues to the public. Furthermore, the conference will include working sessions which will provide the opportunity for an exchange of opinions between the 15 editors and 15 journalists participating in the gathering, as well as a number of cultural experts. The conference is organised by BIRN and the Centre for Media Activities, CMA, from Macedonia.

Following the conference, the project will continue to provide support to media outlets through the sharing of analyses produced as part of Culture Watch, the collection of feedback from relevant ministries and cultural organisations, and analysis.

Apply Now for 2011 Fellowship

Seize your chance to investigate stories about justice at home and abroad with funded research, travel expenses and career development seminars in Berlin and Vienna.

• About the fellowship

• Application form

• Application guidelines

Experienced journalists across the Balkans are invited to apply for the fifth annual Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence programme.

This year’s topic is justice. Applicants are encouraged to consider the theme in broad terms and submit original story proposals exploring issues surrounding the delivery of and access to justice – in both legal and social contexts.

Click here for more information on the 2011 fellowship topic

Journalists selected – by an independent committee – to take part in the fellowship will receive a €2,000 bursary, up to another €2,000 for travel expenses and will attend career development seminars in Berlin and Vienna.

Completed articles will be published in English and local languages in regional and European online and print media.

In addition, the top three articles, again judged by an independent committee, will attract awards of €4,000, €3,000 and €1,000.

Click here to find out more about how the fellowship works

Remzi Lani, director of the Albanian Media Institute and a member of the programme’s selection committee, described the fellowship as “a success story”.

“The programme offers a unique opportunity for detailed, in-depth reporting in your country and beyond. At the same time, if offers fellows the opportunity to meet colleagues and industry professionals from across Europe.

“Publication of the fellows’ articles in the most important media in the region and internationally is certainly clear proof that this project is a worthy venture – an opportunity that should not be missed,” he said.

The fellowship programme was established in order to develop and support Balkan journalists reporting on complex reform issues that have regional and EU significance.

To encourage regional networking among journalists and support balanced coverage of topics central to the Balkans and the EU, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation established the fellowship in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

Download an application form

Read the application guidelines

Justice: 2011 fellowship topic

The topic for this year’s programme is justice. Applicants are encouraged to consider the theme in broad terms and investigate issues surrounding access to and delivery of justice in both legal and social senses.

Applicants should explore issues surrounding justice in their country – in government, in business, within society, among interest groups, between individuals and within families – and draw parallels to the situation in neighbouring countries and the EU.

As Balkan states adjust to new economic and political realities, are all citizens equal before the law? Are all laws just? What of the impact on social justice issues such as access to education, equal opportunities and employment? Has the road to EU membership provided adequate protection for citizens at home and abroad?

With the establishment of international courts and tribunals, and the existence of myriad extradition agreements, jurisdictions now cross borders. While some may find it more difficult to dodge justice, do all criminals have fewer places to hide? Does the threat of international legal action deter the abuse of human rights by governments?

The transitional economies of the western Balkans have, in the main, developed systems, values and legal frameworks that are broadly in line with those in the EU. However, unequal access to justice, haphazard investigation, weak enforcement and corruption are everyday realities. The task for our 2011 fellows will be to pitch fresh story ideas which shed new light on regional and international justice.

BIRN Macedonia Promotes Fellowship Programme

The promotion of this year’s collection of articles, Taboo: Secrecy and Shame in the Balkans, which wraps up the 2010 edition of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, gathered leading Macedonian journalists and editors on December 21 at the Journalists’ club in Skopje.

This year’s articles present the original research of eight journalists selected from Southeast Europe to participate in the 2010 programme.

Editors and journalists from the most influential media, such as A1 TV, Dnevnik daily, Alsat M TV, Alfa TV, Nova Makedonija daily, Netpress news agency, Vest daily, BBC Macedonian language edition, Fokus weekly, Utrinski Vesnik daily, Radio Free Europe and AFP attended the promotion.

Representatives from the Macedonian Broadcasting Council, the OSCE, the British Embassy and the NGO Centre for Civic Communications also came.

BIRN Macedonia director Ana Petruseva introduced the Fellowship programme and praised the quality of the stories.

This year’s Macedonian fellow, Ruzica Fotinovska, a Skopje-based reporter, said it had been “a wonderful experience, a good chance to see how my colleagues journalists from other countries work on investigative stories”.

“The programme offers enough time and resources for real in-depth research, which it is impossible to get in daily media reporting,” Fotinovska added.

Fotinovska won the second prize this year for her article, “Freed Prisoners Remain Caught Behind Bars”, which investigated the life of former prisoners and the country’s failure to develop effective rehabilitation programmes.
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The first prize this year was awarded to Majlinda Aliu, based in Pristina, for her article “Trapped in Black: Balkan War Widows”.

Another Kosovar journalist, Jeton Musliu, who is also based in Pristina, took third place for his article, “Kosovars Turn Blind Eye to Fake Foreign Marriages”.

Petruseva announced the Fellowship programe for 2011 and invited journalists to apply.   

Initiated by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and Erste Foundation in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, the Fellowship is aimed at supporting high-quality reporting, regional networking among journalists and advancing balanced coverage on complex reform issues that are central to the region as well as to the European Union.

Investigative Journalism Handbook ‘Digging Deeper’ in Serbian Soon

“Digging Deeper”, a guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans, was published in English in 2009.

The book, serves as both an easy reference for journalists interested in investigative reporting and will also serve as the basis of  BIRN’s MA studies programmes which are currently being established with universities around the region. 

The book has just been translated into Serbian and with the aid of funding from the OSCE will shortly be printed and distributed to the journalistic and academic communities. 

Re-print in English is also planned for the near future. The book was written by Sheila S. Coronel from the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism with contributions from some of the most notable Investigative Journalists and educators worldwide, alongside BIRN’s own team of investigative writers.

Participants on BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting

Here is what participants of the first BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting have said about the school:

Frederique Petit, The Netherlands

The lectures have taught us a lot on how you can do your job better. I find the classes a great motivator that has already given me a lot of tools. Now, I am constantly thinking of new stories that I can get into in the Netherlands.

Sebastjan Pikl, Slovenia

Even though I am not a journalist by profession (I run a political foundation), I find tools which are used, or taught here, really useful in my work. All these in depth analysis and examples which were given here will definitively make my job, or make my days easier and I’ll definitively come back next time.

Andrea Caprescu, Romania

It was a little bit hard for me as I am not an investigative reporter, so when I came here I said “God, I’m gonna have trouble because I know nothing about this. What am I gonna do?”. But, when I met so many great people and when I saw how things are working I was very relieved and very glad that I have the opportunity to learn so many things about journalism.

Vladimir Locev, Macedonia

I saw it as a great opportunity to meet the colleagues from other countries, who are doing things I am doing in my country and this is what investigative journalism is. I have been also taking the Computer Assisted Reporting class, and was very surprised that we, journalists, basically, know very little about Internet and ways how to inquire information through internet. So, the class about the hidden web yesterday, was really great… I didn’t have no idea that those things exist on the web.

Vlad Ursulean, Romania

I really did not know what to expect [from the school], but it’s been really great because you don’t really learn these things in regular schools. So, it was very useful!

Vacusta Bogdan, Romania

I am very interested in developing my skills in order to do what Paul Radu said – to follow the money. There are a lot of companies dealing with very strange transactions, the connections with politicians, and so on, and it is quite difficult sometimes to get the right point and to discover the right information between companies, between different individuals, between different persons and extract the final report and analyse or finalise your report.

Helen Darbishire: How to Use FOI Laws

Access to freedom-of-information laws is a key way for investigative journalists to unearth stories, a human rights professional Helen Darbishire has told reporters attending BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting.

With more than 80 countries in the world with access-to-information laws, the right can be used to gather material and write better and more exciting stories, Darbishire, the Executive Director of Access Info Europe, told a group at the school in Novi Sad.
“Human rights mean that you have a right to ask for any government records, in any country,” she said.
“You just write a very simple letter, you mention the name of the law and you ask for the document with information you are looking for,” Helen explains.
There was a case in Britain of the expenses scandal of the members of Parliament. “It was a fantastic news story and it all started with an access of information request,” Darbishire said.
She has also presented a legal leaks toolkit, available online, aimed at helping journalists to file request s for information. 

Mark Lee Hunter: Investigative Story is Dead Without Emotion

Investigative journalists don’t have to cut emotion out of their story as the story is dead without emotions, journalist and trainer Mark Lee Hunter told reporters attending BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting.

He explained this by saying that world is garbage and that is on journalists to clear it up, a little bit at least. 
“We are not going to do that if nobody cares. If we want it to care, we have to give them some emotion. This is the way it makes me want to do the job,” Hunter explains. 
It is believed that investigative reporting takes too long and is too expensive. Hunter, however, believes it is true but it doesn’t always have to be true. “One of the reasons for that belief is because we work in inefficient ways… Our processes are terrible, we do not have professional processes for the most part but personal ones. So it is very hard to go faster,” he said.
Pointing at some methods the journalists should develop in order to do their job faster, Hunter added: “I promise that if you develop personal method and you are conscious about reproving it, you will also go faster. 
He has also talked about using hypothesis and chronologies to frame and advance a project.
“Journalists make chronologies all the time and every time you get a piece of information, you add it to the chronology,” he said.
According to him, the chronology can help journalists in two ways:
1. It keeps track of all journalist’s information, it keeps all the stuff together.
2. It suggests relationships between the facts, what to look for next.

Nick Thorne’s Art of Interview at BIRN Summer School

Addressing participants of the BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting, BBC journalist Nick Thorpe has explained the techniques for making people talk and how to work with anonymous sources.

Under the name The Art of the Interview, Thorpe has played a TV documentary he had done entitled Kosovo Civilians Abuses Revealed and then discussed it with the participants.
“We talked how I went investigation and evidence I was able to get for that as well as about the two follow-ups I made afterwards,” Nick explains.
“The more emphasis on good quality reporting and the more emphasis on good investigative journalism, the better, as far as I can tell,” he pointed out.
Screening of the documentary has raised various questions among participants with some claiming that the story did not bring anything that wasn’t already known in public. Thorpe on the other side has insisted on saying that sometimes stories are much bigger than a journalist can tell and that some things cannot be proved. The journalist can only get to the stadium to believe that it was true, he added. 
Final version of his story has been reviewed and confirmed by BBC’s lawyer team.

Media Experts Discuss Attacks on Journalists in Balkans

Journalists in the Balkans are coming under increasing pressure from politicians and business people, media experts have told participants of the BIRN Summer School of Investigative Reporting.

Speaking at a panel discussion named Journalists Under Attack that was organised as part of the BIRN summer school, Dragana Nikolic Solomon, OSCE Head of Media Department, said that according to the research of the OSCE for 2009, the number of physical attacks on journalists has dropped down but what is also worrying is the increasing influence which comes from the fields of politics and business.
According to her, after attack on a journalist of the Serbian weekly newspaper Teofil Pancic, police stance towards journalists has changed in the country.
“It’s certainly a good sign, but what is worrying is that the attackers on Pancic were young, 18-20 year old guys,” she added. 
Teofil Pancic of the weekly magazine Vreme, was attacked while travelling on a public bus in the Zemun district of Belgrade July 24.
As for Montenegro, Ivanovic said that there is a strong government’s influence on the media and that solidarity exists only among non-regime media houses in the country. 
According to Jeta Xharra from BIRN Kosovo, solidarity in Kosovo exists while drinking in cafe but in public… there is very little.
“The government goes so far as to exercise influence on journalists’ organisations so that they are politicised,” Jeta explained. 
“They [journalists’ organisations] react only when it comes to a journalist they like while some do not react at all or turn them to a lot of time, as was the case with us [BIRN Kosovo], continues Jeta. 
According to Jeta, there are no attacks on journalists in Kosovo so the biggest problem of Kosovo journalists is the fact that the ccountry’s government is
discrediting journalists in every possible way by publishing lies about them and so on. 
Case of Ivo Pukanic, who was publisher of the Croatian weekly Nacional that was murdered in 2008, has also been at the table of the discussion.
   
Hrvoje Appelt said that the Croatian police had reacted but it was necessary for Pukanic to be killed in order for that to happen. 
“I have to say that, not only in Croatia but also throughout the region… for which I’ve been working on statistics of attacks on journalists…three years ago attacks on journalists on daily basis were happening. In 99 per cent of these cases, the attackers have not been found yet,” Appelt said. 
Cvorovic from the Serbian media outlet B92 has been talking about the case of
Brankica Stankovic, who is author of the show Insider that had received death threats posted on Internet websites after airing of the show on the Serbian hooligans last December. 
Since then, Stankovic is under 24/7 police protection. However, according to Cvorovic, B92 has found a solution and a new concept so that the airing of the programmes could continue.

Paul Radu Explains How to Track Offshore Companies

As part of BIRN’s Summer School of Investigative Reporting, Paul Radu has tried to explain, by going through personal experience, how to track organised crime over borders and offshore.

“What we’ve been trying to do these days is to explain that offshore doesn’t necessarily needs to be an island but an offshore type of company can be established in countries like Austria, Delaware in the US or in some other country in the world. 

Radu went on to explain that there are still ways of getting information on offshore heavens.

Therefore, he has presented his new project named the Investigative Dashboard as useful tool for getting the information.

“The Investigative Dashboard is service which provides information to journalists but also provides access to experts,” he said. 

The experts hired by the Investigative Dashboard would, according to him, provide information on what journalists can and cannot do when it comes to obtaining information from offshore heavens. 

As owners of the companies are usually hidden being replaced by proxies, Radu has suggested some tricks on how to get name of the real owner. One of the ways is to ask a proxie how to spell his/her name correctly in order not to make in mistake since the name would be published in a story. In such situations, the proxie would usually point to real owner of the offshore company.