Tag: Ltd

BIRN founder and Regional Director Gordana Igrić welcomed partygoers with a speech that recalled Belgrade Insight’s challenges and successes over the last eight years.

“The timing for our own celebration could have been worse, but it does highlight just how remarkable it is to launch a newspaper in today’s chaotic media world and to reach a milestone like 200^th issue we are now celebrating. It’s an achievement that has to be seen in the context of the political landscape in which we publish… Despite all this we have found a core group of devoted readers who are willing to struggle quite literally to find us. Week after week they seek out our newspaper even if it means coming to our office building to grab the latest copy” said Igric while welcoming the guests.

Throughout its history, Belgrade Insight has been an invaluable resource for readers seeking news and information about life in Belgrade.

Guests included diplomatic notables, journalists and prominent local tastemakers.  The Nada Pavlovic Band provided the entertainment.

The bi-weekly newspaper is a publication of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and focuses on news, culture and happenings in Belgrade.  First published in May 2008, then-editor Mark R. Pullen described Belgrade Insight as a “brave new English-language newspaper, destined to become a ‘must-read’… for opinion-makers, expatriates, and everyone else who has a need to know.”

Belgrade Insight is set to publish its 200^th issue on February 18th, a milestone of survival through a landscape of dramatically shifting newspaper economics, volatile political climates and clear intimidation, censorship and assaults on press freedom in Serbia. 

“Since its establishment, Belgrade Insight had endured many challenges – from 2008 financial crisis when we saw businesses cutting off their advertisements, followed by disregard of advertisement agencies that were reluctant to associate with a paper not in favour with the governments to a censorship campaign that has raged against BIRN in the last few years,” says Gordana Andric, Belgrade Insight’s editor.   

Throughout its history, Belgrade Insight has been an invaluable resource for readers seeking news and information about life in Belgrade. 

The bi-weekly newspaper is a publication of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and focuses on news, culture and happenings in Belgrade.  First published in May 2008, then-editor Mark R. Pullen described Belgrade Insight as a “brave new English-language newspaper, destined to become a ‘must-read’… for opinion-makers, expatriates, and everyone else who has a need to know.”

That ambition has threatened Belgrade Insight’s existence more than once.  After BIRN published damaging investigative reports into his administration, Prime Minister Vucic’s government kicked out Belgrade Insight from key distribution points at Tourist Organisation of Belgrade centres, and Nikola Tesla Airport.  Belgrade Insight has moved to a subscription model to make up for the lost circulation.  But no matter how the paper is distributed, Andric has high hoped for Belgrade Insight’s future. 

“In today’s Serbian media scene, where censorship rules almost everyone, we see Belgrade Insight’s role ever more important and we hope to continue to bring our readers relevant and balanced journalism for many more issues to come,” says Andric. 

 

 

As of February, BIRN’s English language newspaper, Belgrade Insight, will no longer be distributed at one of the paper’s biggest distribution points – Tourist Organisation of Belgrade centres.

While distribution of the free newspaper has also halted at Dufry outlets at Nikola Tesla Airport, negotiations with this company remain ongoing.

Dufry, a global travel retailer that operates over 1,700 shops in airports, on cruise liners, at seaports, and other tourist locations in more than 60 countries, pulled Belgrade Insight from its venues on February 6.

Dufry, which has been hosting Belgrade Insight pick-up points since 2008, said the company had no written contract that obliges it to continue distributing the newspaper.

Miodrag Popovic, the acting director of the Tourist Organisation of Belgrade, TOB, told BIRN that Belgrade Insight’s editorial concept was not appropriate for tourist info centres.

“When in comes to distribution of your publication in the tourist-information centers of TOB, the answer lies in the definition of these centres,” he said.

“They are tourist-information [centres] and materials that there can be found there, in addition to souvenirs, of course, are those who have tourist information purposes only. Your newspapers have a different editorial policy,” Popovic said on February 20.

TOB did not inform Belgrade Insight of its intention to end cooperation.Instead, staff at TOB info-centres, visited by Belgrade Insight readers, told them they would no longer be able to pick up their copies in TOB venues. “We just got a call that we should pull the paper,” one employee told BIRN.

The sudden curbs on the distribution of BIRN’s newspaper come after the government of Serbia launched a fierce attack on BIRN in January.

This was in response to BIRN’s publication of an investigation into the tender awarded for dewatering the state-owned Tamnava mine.

The investigation said the power company EPS awarded the contract to a consortium of two companies with no relevant experience, one of whose directors is standing trial for tax evasion.

“Tell those liars that they have lied again. They got the money from [Michael] Davenport [head of the EU delegation in Belgrade] and the EU to speak against the Serbian government,” Aleksandar Vucic, the Prime Minister, said.

Gordana Igric, BIRN regional director, said the latest developments showed that the campaign was ongoing.

“We perceive the fact that Belgrade Insight is being kicked out of venues that have been our partners for years as continuation of the campaign against BIRN in which state institutions and companies – which by the nature of their job have to cooperate with the state – are participating,” she said.

“This is not happening only to us. Mechanisms for ensuring media obedience differ, from conditioning awards of commercial contracts to financial control over media,” she added.

Readers can pick up copies of Belgrade Insight at the hall of BIRN’s Belgrade office at Kolarceva 7, as well as at venues listed bellow.

Readers may order home delivery of the newspaper by visiting http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/page/subscribe-to-belgrade-insight.

For additional information please contact [email protected]