Tag: Serbia

‘The Dark Shadow of Green Energy’ follows Irma Popovic Dujmovic, a WWF Adria activist, on the road through Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, discovering how the regional plan for the mass construction of small hydropower plants creates multiple new problems instead of solving them.

The destruction of the natural environment, people’s resistance against small hydropower plants and the corruption involved in their construction are some of the issues covered by the film.

The documentary was aired on Al Jazeera Balkans, and was screened at the Free Zone film festival in Belgrade.

The BIRN Serbia shadow report focuses on negotiations for Chapter 23 of the EU acquis, which covers the judiciary and human rights, particularly the section on freedom of expression, offering insights and an alternative narrative on state of progress in this area.

The shadow report puts special emphasis on freedom of expression and media pluralism issues as a precondition for overall democratic dialogue in the country.

BIRN Serbia found that the constant shrinking of media freedoms and freedom of expression and absence of a social, political and economic setting conducive to the development of professional and sustainable media sector is a matter of concern, influencing the country’s overall democratic capacity.

The shadow report also calls for changes related to media legislation and the cessation of pressures on media by state bodies.

The report is a result of BIRN Serbia’s overall engagement in the field of media development and media freedoms, but also as part of activities under the project ‘Public Money for Public Interest’ supported by the EU through the IPA Civil Society Facility instrument.

Follow this link [in Serbian] on our project site to find out more.

‘The Dark Shadow of Green Energy’ follows Irma Popovic Dujmovic, a WWF Adria activist, on the road through Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, discovering how the regional plan for the mass construction of small hydropower plants creates multiple new problems instead of solving them.

The destruction of the natural environment, people’s resistance against small hydropower plants and the corruption involved in their construction are some of the issues covered by the film.

The documentary was aired on Al Jazeera Balkans, and will be screened at the Free Zone film festival in Belgrade on November 12 at 11 am, The Cultural Centre Of Belgrade.

Аleksandar Martinovic, one of the officials from Serbian ruling Serbian Progressive Party who has an illegal contract with Medical College in Cuprija, as a Ministry of Education inspection has confirmed, reported his salary from the college to the Anti-Corruption Agency  for the first time after BIRN’s article was published.

BIRN Serbia published the article ‘Cuprija: Political Employment at Medical College’ on October 23 about officials from the Serbian ruling party who work at the college.

Several months earlier, BIRN asked the college about these contracts, but its director, Hristos Aleksopulos, responded that “everything is legal”.

An inspection by the Ministry of Education found that all the contracts are illegal and that the college is obliged to terminate them due to the lack of proper documentation for their employment.

However, two of them – Aleksandar Martinovic and Darko Laketic – are still on the Medical College’s list of teaching stuff for the new school year.

Martinovic, the head of Serbian Progressive Party’s parliamentary group, reported his salary as 60,000 dinars, with a start date of October 1^, after BIRN’s report about him working at the college.

However, documents show that Martinovic has been working there much longer.

Beside his salary from the college, Martinovic has five more salaries from the state budget – a total of 264,000 dinars per month.

Another Serbian Progressive Party MP, Darko Laketic, reported his salary from the college for the new school year to the Anti-Corruption Agency, as he has for the past few years. However, Laketic is also among those whose contracts are to be terminated.

After BIRN published the report, there was a discussion in parliament about it, on the initiative of an opposition MP.

Martinovic and another member of the Serbian Progressive Party, Vladimir Orlic, who was also working at the college, rejected an official document from the Ministry of Education about their unlawful jobs.

At the same time as Martinovic and other Progressive Party members got their contracts, several employees of the college were laid off after their temporary contracts expired and were not renewed.

BIRN Serbia and portal Juzne vesti from Nis will implement a support programme in seven local portals in Serbia for the next two years, as part of the joint project “Digital Media Action”.

The selected portals are Bujanovacke from Bujanovac, Presek from Kragujevac, Ozonpress.net from Cacak, Glas Zajecara and Zajecar online from Zajecar, SOinfo from Sombor and Loznicke novosti from Loznica.

The programme, supported by the British Embassy in Belgrade, is designed in accordance with the needs and capacities of these local media outlets, and offers support in the field of promotion, technical improvement of the websites and mentoring of journalists and editors.

Twenty-six portals applied for the support programme, with each assessed on three sets of selection criteria:

• editorial orientations, formats and dynamics of content publishing
• technical and personnel capacities
• positions on social networks and in the local community

After making their choice of winning applicants, the selection committee said that the selected local portals have the potential to develop a quality daily informative production in the next two years, and to become the primary source of information in their communities.

In addition, the programme aims to modernise local media outlets, help them to develop a social media strategy, and find a self-sustaining business model.

BIRN Serbia has joined more than 40 civil society organisations in their call for parliament to amend the country’s draft Law on Personal Data Protection to clarify that citizens’ rights to data protection can only be limited if there is a legal basis to do so.

The initiative is being led by the SHARE Foundation, an NGO working to advance human rights and freedoms online, and Partneri Srbija, a civil society organisation devoted to upholding the rule of law.

The draft does not currently specify that a legal basis is required, which BIRN and other organisations calling for the amendment claim creates a risk that authorities or private companies handling personal data may restrict citizens’ rights at their own discretion.

The proposed amendment refers to Article 40 of the bill, which the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has also been vocal in the need for it to be changed.

He told N1 television network on October 23 that it was “without any sense and reasonable explanation” that the article did not contain a stipulation that citizens’ rights can only be limited by law.

The organisations that signed the call expect that an amended and final text of the law will restore the provision that citizens’ rights can be restricted only by law and that they will be given the highest level of protection of the right to privacy and personal data protection.

More details are available on the SHARE Foundation’s website (in Serbian only).