BIRN Fellowship Alumni Meet in Belgrade

Posted on

Past participants in the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence from all over the Balkans came to Belgrade from November 28-29 for the annual BFJE Award Academy and to take part in parallel alumni sessions that enabled them to exchange experiences, discuss new ideas and present their latest projects.

Alumni came from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Kosovo. The Fellowship alumni network holds a biannual meeting and coordinates cross-border reporting projects by the alumni.

On the second day of the seminar, the alumni split into eight teams and presented proposals for topics they would like to cover.

The story commissioning session was held by BIRN’s regional director Gordana Igric, Macedonia country director Ana Petruseva and Fellowship editor Andrew Gray. It was the first round of a pitching session, after which bursaries for alumni teams will be provided in order to cover important regional issues.

Alumni fellows have already participated in the some of the most prestigious media and political conferences in the region and the EU, receiving regional and international awards for their work.

These awards include the Europe Reporting Prize, awarded by the Academic Association for Contemporary European Studies, the CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism and the Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism, as well as the Daniel Pearl award for international investigative reporting and a TED fellowship for innovation.