New competition for Balkan Fellowships for Journalistic Excellence opened till March 5, 2012

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Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) together Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation, sixth time in a row, opened a call for applications within the program “Balkan Fellowship for journalistic excellence. The topic of the new call is communities and journalists from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia are invited to apply till March 5, 2012.

Applicants are encouraged to consider the annual theme, communities, in a broad sense. Candidates should examine different groupings-political, economic, national, gender, generational – and the relationship between them, external influences and the development of entirely new groups or factions. Candidates should write about the topic not just in the context of their home country, but also in at least one other regional state and within the European Union and should choose phenomena that are relevant, current and original.

 

Fellows are expected to deliver investigative stories of no more than 2,000 words that will inform regional readers about issues that have not been covered by the media before.

 

Remzi Lani, director of the Albanian Media Institute and a member of the program’s selection committee, described the fellowship as “a success story” and “opportunity not to be missed”. “The programme offers a unique opportunity for detailed, in-depth reporting in your country and beyond. At the same time, if offers fellows the opportunity to meet colleagues and industry professionals from across Europe”, says Remzi Lani.

 

Ten applicants selected by an independent committee to take part in the fellowship will receive a €2,000 bursary, up to another €2,000 for travel and research expenses and will attend career development seminars in Vienna and Skopje. In addition, the top three articles, again judged by an independent committee, will attract awards of €4,000, €3,000 and €1,000.

 

In the attachment you may read the recommendation from the 2011 winner, Juliana Koleva from Bulgaria.

 

Detailed information on this year’s theme, application form and guidelines can be found at:

http://fellowship.birn.eu.com/en/fellowship-programme/topic-2012-communities-apply-now.

 

Contact for further information:

 

Dragana Žarković Obradović

Fellowship programme manager, BIRN

 

Email: [email protected]