Balkan Fellowship Story Praised at the GIJC

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An Investigative story, written by 2009 Fellow Adrian Mogos received an honorable mention at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference, held in Geneva in April 2010.

Forged Identity – Highway to EU, was nominated and short-listed among three finalists for the Global Shining Light Award. Adrian’s story, demonstrated the ease with which illegal immigrants can take on new identities with forged and falsified Romanian identity documents and gain access and settle in the EU. Adrian himself secured forged Romanian identity documents which he was able to use in Germany in order to set up a second ‘identity’ in the country.

The award was established in 2007 as an award for investigative journalism in a developing country or a country in transition, which was reported under threat, duress or in the direst of conditions.

The criteria was that the journalist, journalism team and/or media outlet has provided independent, investigative reporting, which
– Uncovered an issue, a wrong-doing and/or a system of corruption which gravely affected the common good, and
– Did so in the face of arrest, imprisonment, violence against them and their families, and/or threats and intimidation

The winner was The Poverty ’empire’ of the presidential family, conducted by a cross-border group of journalists that  exposed how the former president of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, abused his power for personal financial gain.