Macedonia Archives

BIRN Macedonia Wraps up Year-long Investigative Journalism Programme in Ohrid

Four-day Summer School in Ohrid concludes programme aimed at training young journalists in key aspects of investigative journalism, which started last September.

From June 12 to 15, 2025, BIRN Macedonia organised a Summer School in Ohrid, marking the final stage of its year-long investigative journalism training programme. The intensive four-day training gathered young journalists who have been part of the programme, offering them an opportunity to deepen the skills they have developed throughout the year.

The Summer School provided a diverse set of trainings, combining lectures, group discussions, and hands-on exercises aimed at enhancing participants’ practical knowledge. The participants explored key aspects of investigative journalism, such as planning and conducting resilient investigations, handling complex interviews and verifying information under challenging conditions. Special attention was given to developing technical skills in mobile journalism, allowing participants to practice producing content using only mobile devices, as well as to the growing role of artificial intelligence, AI, in journalism, discussing both its potential and its risks.

The training also included open discussions on ethical dilemmas, protection of sources, and the realities journalists face when working on sensitive investigations. Through practical exercises and real-life case studies, participants could apply the knowledge they had gained during the programme and reflect on their individual approaches to investigative work.

The Summer School concluded with the selection of one investigative story proposal, which will be developed under the mentorship of BIRN Macedonia’s team in the coming months.

The Ohrid Summer School was the fifth stage of a year-long programme which started in September 2024. Over the past four training sessions, held in four different locations, the participants learned about the basics of investigative journalism, data and public databases, writing investigative stories and advanced investigative techniques.

With this final event, BIRN successfully completed another cycle of its investigative journalism programme, continuing its mission to support young journalists and strengthen investigative reporting in North Macedonia.

BIRN Launches Database on Religious Communities’ Assets in North Macedonia

A new BIRN database puts a spotlight on the property portfolios of North Macedonia’s two main faith institutions.

From forests and meadows to lakeside hotels and mountain slopes, the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid (MPC-AO) owns roughly 100 square kilometres of property in North Macedonia, according to a new BIRN database that sheds fresh light on the Church’s assets.

In “Religious Properties Uncovered”, BIRN identified a total of 14,757 individual pieces of property in cadastral records over which the Macedonian Orthodox Church, its dioceses and individual churches owns, or has other rights to.

The Islamic Religious Community (IRC), its muftis’ offices and mosques, are listed as having ownership or other rights over 5,363 properties, covering 13 square kilometres.

The Religious Properties Uncovered database allows readers to view several parameters, such as the number and land area of the properties of the two religious communities.

They can also search the properties by purpose, the municipality in which they are located, or the diocese or mufti whose jurisdiction they fall under.

Other key findings from the database:

MOC-AO controls about one-third of the Galicica mountain and large parts of the Macedonian side of the Jablanica mountain range. The IRC’s largest land parcel is located on the southern slopes of Vodno mountain, near the capital.
Over 80 per cent of the MOC-AO’s property consists of forests, meadows and pastures, covering around 8,100 hectares, while the IRC holds 3,200 hectares of forest.
MOC-AO owns 1,300 hectares of agricultural land, while the IRC controls 1,700 hectares.
MOC-AO has about 140,000 m² of residential space, and the IRC holds over 37,000 m², including new residential buildings in Skopje, Bitola, Tetovo, and other cities.
The Church owns commercial properties in the old bazaars of Skopje, Bitola, Ohrid and Prilep, while the IRC manages Debar’s market, a shopping complex in Gostivar, and properties in Struga, Tetovo and Bitola.
MOC-AO is the registered owner of the Izgrev and Biser hotels on Lake Ohrid, while the IRC owns an apartment in the Park Lakeside hotel in Ohrid.

The “Religious Property Uncovered” database was prepared over one year, is publicly accessible and aims to promote transparency and raise awareness about the scale and structure of religious institutions’ property holdings in the country.

BIRN Macedonia Holds Fourth Training Session for Young Journalists

Eleven young journalists took part in BIRN Macedonia’s latest investigative journalism training session in April.

The three days of training, the fourth session in BIRN’s year-long investigative journalism programme, were held between April 25 and 27 in Mavrovo, North Macedonia.

Journalists participated in building on the skills they have developed over the past several months, with teaching focused on strengthening their investigative and research skills and helping them pitch new, original investigative story ideas.

The training began with sessions on how to assess the scope of a story and identify strong starting points for investigation. This helped them map out the first steps in investigating a topic, how to ask the right questions, and identify the resources they would need.

On the second day, participants pitched their story ideas and received feedback from BIRN mentors and peers. The training then moved into exploring how to research different subject areas: such people, companies, and foreign entities. These sessions provided specific tools for gathering and verifying information from public records, open-source platforms, and social media, as well as ethical considerations when dealing with sensitive sources.

The final day was dedicated to learning how to use geolocation tools and online techniques to verify the exact location of an object. Through practical exercises, they worked on verifying locations with limited information, strengthening their observational skills and ability to analyse visual clues in the context of investigative reporting. The training concluded with a discussion on communication with sources, where the group exchanged methods and ethical best practices for approaching, interviewing, and protecting sources.

In the next month the young journalists will have the opportunity to pitch ideas for an investigative story. The best proposal will be developed with mentorship support from BIRN Macedonia journalist team. The summer training session, expected in June, will be the final event of the investigative journalism program.

BIRN Macedonia Launches Call for External Evaluator/s

BIRN Macedonia is inviting external evaluators or evaluation teams to submit a proposal for assessment of the implementation and impact of the ongoing project ‘Credible journalism for real changes’.

Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) Macedonia has an ongoing agreement with Sida within Sweden´s strategy for reform cooperation with the Western Balkans and Turkey for the period 2021–2027. BIRN Macedonia together with its three partner organizations implements the project from October 2022 to March 2026. The objectives of the project are:

provide the public with access to credible information that enables them to make informed decisions and participate in democratic processes and hold authorities accountable
contribute to strengthening capacities of media, strengthen professional reporting standards and ethics that leads to higher quality reporting and restore interest in the profession

About the Assignment

The evaluation will be conducted remotely and/or a field mission to Skopje if the evaluator considers necessary. The available budget for the assignment is up to SEK 120 000 (including travel and accommodation).

The deadline for applications is May 2, 2025.

The evaluation process will involve a review of program documentation, interviews with key stakeholders, analysis of monitoring and evaluation data, and field research. The approach must adhere to OECD/DAC evaluation criteria and be guided by a participatory and utilization-focused methodology.

Required Qualifications

Good knowledge of the media and political context in North Macedonia
At least 5 years of working experience in monitoring and evaluation
Knowledge of development perspectives and OECD/DAC standards
Very good skills in writing and speaking English
Be able to communicate clearly and effectively
Strong time-management and organizational skills
To be able to ensure confidentiality of project information
Proven experience in evaluating similar interventions on media programmes and/or non-for-profit organizations
Experience/knowledge on google analytics

How to Apply

Interested candidates or teams should submit the following documents by May 2, 2025 to [email protected] with the subject line: Application – External Evaluation BIRN Macedonia, project “Credible journalism for real changes”:

Letter of Interest
Technical proposal (max. 2 pages)
Financial offer (in SEK)
CV(s) of the expert(s)
Contact details of two references

To read the full Terms of Reference, click here.

BIRN Macedonia Holds Third Training for Young Journalists

Twelve young journalists participated in the third training of the 2024-2025 series of investigative journalism training courses.

The three-day course was held on February 21 to 23 in Shtip, North Macedonia.

In the previous training, in November 2024, the BIRN team guided the young journalists on finding and developing story ideas through checking public records, formulating access to information requests and identifying sources.

During the past three months, the participants made progress in researching and gathering information about the story ideas agreed in November.

The focus of the third training was improving journalists’ skills in storytelling and preparing them for the final presentations of their stories, expected in the coming period.

The participants learned from the BIRN team how to develop a good story lead that grabs the attention of the audience and how to build the structure of a story from the beginning to the end, inserting different types of information in each section of the structure.

The young journalists practised their newly developed skills directly on the stories they are working on as a part of the 2024-2025 training courses.

The importance of field research was highlighted during the training. As most of the participants have already done some field work on their stories, in the training session they had the opportunity to practice how to better describe what they’ve seen and experienced in the field, how to filter important from unimportant field information, how to pay attention to details and how to observe not only what’s there but also what’s missing.

The complexity of describing big data and providing context was also addressed during the training. Participants were shown examples of how to use analogies in presenting big numbers to make them more comprehensible for the audience, as well as how to use charts and graphs to better present complex data.

Developing specific writing techniques was also a part of the training, with participants having the opportunity to learn and practice how to best structure their sentences to make them easy to read.

BIRN Macedonia Presents Findings on Digital Rights Violations

On December 23, BIRN Macedonia’s team met with experts and government representatives to discuss digital rights in the country.

At the consultative meeting, BIRN’s senior journalist, Goce Trpkovski, presented recommendations based on findings from a two-year monitoring period.

Trpkovski showcased the most significant violations of digital rights and the patterns that have emerged, noting that BIRN recorded 501 violations from 2022 until the end of 2024, including hate speech, crypto currency scams and misuse of AI to create fake sexual content of girls.

Trpkovski presented BIRN’s recommendations for improving the digital rights situation in three categories: urgent, medium-term and long-term recommendations.

BIRN received feedback from a number of experts from the non-governmental sector, including the Research Institute RESIS, Internet Governance Forum, Media Development Center, Helsinki Committee of Human Rights, Metamorphosis foundation, as well as from the Personal Data Protection Agency, the sector for cybercrime within the police.

BIRN Macedonia Holds the Second Training for Young Journalists

BIRN Macedonia held the second training in the 2024-2025 year-long series of investigative journalism training courses.

Thirteen young journalists participated in a three-day course from November 22 to 24 in Veles, North Macedonia.

BIRN journalists guided the participants on where and how to find story ideas, shared how big stories can be uncovered from simple checks of publicly available records, how to develop the idea into a reporting plan, where to look for data, as well as how to identify sources.

In a newsroom editorial meeting simulation, the participants divided into teams were given the opportunity to pitch stories. BIRN journalists, together with the participants, discussed the proposed topics, assessed their viability and gave advice about how the stories could be produced. As a result, five stories were selected that will be produced in the upcoming months. BIRN’s senior journalists will provide mentoring support.

During the training, the participants were shown how to look for and obtain data in a dozen open-source databases that BIRN’s journalists regularly use to research and write their stories. With the mentors’ guidance, the participants applied these database searches to their chosen topics. The participants were also given an interview simulation with various sources relevant to their stories.

The young journalists will work on their stories under senior journalists’ mentorship until February 2025, when the next training will be organized.

BIRN Macedonia Starts Second Year of Investigative Journalism Training Program

BIRN Macedonia started a series of trainings for 14 young journalists with a three-day course on October 4-6 in Dojran, North Macedonia.

The course was the first in a series of five training modules that will take place over the next year. The next courses will be held in November, February and April and will end with a summer school in mid-2025 where the journalists attending can acquire skills and techniques that will prepare them for work in journalism. The programme also includes mentoring support.

The first training consisted of a mix of theoretical lectures and practical exercises. The idea was to introduce the participants to important journalistic concepts, while allowing them to apply that knowledge in a practical way.

The first session focused on understanding investigative journalism, the concept of public interest, and the key ethical values of the profession. Through discussions and interactive activities, guided by experienced BIRN editors and journalists, participants in teams went through the initial stages of the investigative process – learning how to find stories, define a story pitch and where and how to identify credible sources and documents.

Young journalists showed great interest throughout the training and actively applied what they learned in practical exercises. Between now and June 2025, they will attend four additional training sessions covering different aspects of investigative journalism.

BIRN Macedonia Holds Fourth Training for Young Journalists

The fourth in a year-long series of training courses for a dozen young journalists took place from April 12-14 in Strumica, North Macedonia.

A new round of training sessions on investigative journalism basics was held in Strumica, North Macedonia, with a focus on writing and storytelling.

The course titled “Weaving a Story” began with the young journalists’ reflections on the stories they’d worked on over the last two months with their BIRN Macedonia mentors.

They presented how their stories advanced and discussed their experiences in contacting sources, communication with state and local institutions, data selection, as well as difficulties encountered while working on the stories.

The day continued with sessions on the importance of observation and on how to make use of photos and videos, including basic editing tips and tricks.

On the second day, participants put into practice what they learned the previous day during a visit to the Smolare waterfalls, where they were tasked to write an intro for a feature story and put together a short video. These texts and videos were later presented and jointly discussed with BIRN’s mentors, who gave constructive feedback.

The final day was dedicated to sessions about storytelling where participants were presented with different case studies to illustrate the various ways and approaches they can use to “hook” audiences to their stories.

They were also given a puzzle exercise: they got nine paragraphs of a BIRN article, without the lead, that they had to rearrange logically and write their own lead.

The final event part of the year-long training series for investigative journalism will take place in June.

BIRN Macedonia Holds Third Training for Young Journalists

The third in a year-long series of training courses for a dozen young journalists took place from February 23-25 in Berovo, North Macedonia.

Building on the previous training sessions, the third course, which took place in Berovo, aimed to help a dozen young journalists begin work on stories that will be published by BIRN Macedonia’s publication, Prizma.

During the three-day course, BIRN journalists explained to the participants where and how to find stories, how big stories can be uncovered from simple checks, how to develop a story idea into a reporting plan, where to look for data and how to identify sources.

In a simulation of a newsroom editorial meeting, trainees pitched stories in teams and were assigned senior journalists as mentors to develop stories. Together with the participants, BIRN’s team discussed the topics, assessed their viability and gave advice about how the stories could be executed. Five topics were chosen as a result of the stories that were pitched.

During the training, the participants were shown how to look for and obtain data in dozen different open-source databases that BIRN’s journalists regularly use in researching and writing their own stories. With the mentors’ guidance, the participants then applied these databases to their chosen topics.

The participants were also given an interview simulation, as well as a presentation on storytelling.

By the end of the training course, each team presented the work they had done on their stories together with their mentors over the course of the weekend and gave an estimated timeline by which they would be finished. The stories should be published in the coming months.