Tag: Macedonia

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.