Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN)

📢 Attention, please! 🎞️ On the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH (Detektor.ba), a new documentary explores the pursuit of justice in Ukraine, where war is still ongoing, and in Bosnia, three decades since war ended there. You can find the link to this documentary here: https://lnkd.in/dhsafzqk

Today, #BIRN Montenegro hosted the launch of the Montenegrin Government Open Data Portal, followed by a panel discussion on open data in Podgorica ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dUHZcDx8

⏳ If you are from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, there are only two more days left to apply for our call for pitches: Cross-border economic reporting! 📅 The deadline is 18th December: https://lnkd.in/e89fgu_7 ❗ We offer: • Financial support up to €1000 • Editorial guidance • Data analysis assistance • Access to training events and workshops • Publication opportunities through Balkan Insight, JAMnews, Anhor.uz, and more.

⏰ Do not miss this opportunity! We are looking for stories about economic issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan that are at the intersection between local impact and global relevance. 📅 The call for pitches closes on 18th December. Submit your pitch here: https://lnkd.in/e89fgu_7 ❗ What we offer: • Financial support up to €1000 • Editorial guidance • Data analysis assistance • Access to training events and workshops • Publication opportunities through Balkan Insight, JAMnews, Anhor, and more.

🏥 Yesterday, our BIRN Albania colleagues launched the monitoring report, “Transparency and Accessibility in the Health and Education Systems,” during a roundtable event in Tirana. You can find the report here: https://lnkd.in/dYmMBp_6

🚀 Around BIRN in Thirty Days - here is our monthly newsletter! 📧 ☕ Tea, coffee, juice? What do you prefer drinking while reading? Whatever you choose, prepare your favourite beverage - here's something good to read! 😉 And don't forget to like, share and subscribe 👉 https://lnkd.in/dczFg-TA

📢 We have some excellent news! 🎉 The BIRN-produced documentary “Putin Calling: Russia's Disinformation Flows Unchecked Through Balkans” has won the 2024 Best Documentary award from the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, in a ceremony held in Pristina. 🤩👏 The documentary produced in Bosnia, Kosovo and Montenegro explores the scale of Kremlin-backed disinformation in these countries and its dangerous influence on the public. In total, BIRN Kosovo journalists won five awards in this ceremony. 🏆 Read more about the documentary: https://lnkd.in/dX63AWRH

📢 Here it is - our yearly Digital Rights report! 💻📙 We published it during our Digital Rights Annual Conference in Tirana. 🤔 What do you think - how much did our #DigitalRights worsen due to restrictive legislation, malicious use of #AI, hate speech, and the failure of major tech companies to prioritise rights and freedoms? 💡 Find out here: https://lnkd.in/dDeSev26

The last panel of our #DigitalRights conference focuses on the #socialmedia phenomenon among young people, with examples of TikTok challenges, social media pressures and announcements of harm, social media “activism,” etc. "I work with victims of gender-based violence. You have to do your work professionally and leave it at work. Otherwise, I cannot live", said Rita Behadini from the Center for Equal Opportunities "Mollëkuqja" who has experience working with victims of gender-based violence, including children.

Our Digital Rights Annual Conference in Tirana continued with a discussion on the expansion of violence against women in cyberspace. Xheni Karaj, executive director of Aleanca LGBT 🇦🇱, faced many threats online due to her activism and media appearances, which were used to spread #misinformation. "I started to face issues and consequences of misinformation in 2022 when I was a guest on a television show; all media took my statement and started to reproduce this news, magnifying the disinformation that this news represented", said Karaj. "I was receiving a lot of death threats on social media without even knowing why," Karaj added. "We don't realise the damage these messages impose on the activists and a whole movement when the whole country sees you as a 'public enemy' just because of the #misinformation."