The programme is a continuation of BIRN’s award-winning “Paper Trail to Better Governance”, which produced a series of innovative and hard-hitting investigations between October 2013 andJuly 2016.
Journalists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia worked together to produce more than 30 pieces of watchdog journalism,www.balkaninsight.com/en/page/paper-trail, with many of the stories published alongside major international outlets such as The Guardian.
Reporters were provided with training in investigative journalism and given subject-specific briefings related to their stories.
The investigations used public documents, often obtained through Freedom of Information laws, to shine a light on corruption in the private and public sector. The findings have sparked a number of official investigations which are ongoing.
The new, three-year programme will continue to use public documents and FOI laws to uncover wrongdoing, while integrating new, computer-assisted techniques.
Xharra said: “We’re pleased that ADA continues to support BIRN’s work building a cohort of talented investigative journalist who have the skills, means and passion to hold the powerful to account. “