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About BIRN

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, is a close group of editors and trainers that enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005. The original IWPR Balkans team was mandated to localise that programme and make it sustainable, in light of changing realities in the region and the maturity of the IWPR intervention.
Since then, its work in publishing, media training and public debate activities has become synonymous with quality, reliability and impartiality. A fully-independent and local network, it is now developing as an efficient and self-sustainable regional institution to enhance the capacity for journalism that pushes for public debate on European-oriented political and economic reform.

BIRN Ltd. was established in Serbia in August 2007, to support the development of income-generating activities by BIRN (referred to as "BIRN Hub"). The BIRN Hub, based in Sarajevo, is the regional organization, which supports the BIRN Network – a group of six non-profit organizations in the region, which for years have been developing local media throughout the region to actively report on key transitional issues. This structure serves to make BIRN a real Network, which supports the development of its members while maintaining a central, unified regional activity core.

BIRN has members in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, and the BIRN Hub.Together, these organisations pool their resources, connecting their growing teams of specialist journalists – local reporters and analysts – who are trained and supported to produce top-quality, timely and relevant coverage. The regular output of analyses and reporting, Balkan Insight, is frequently backed up with public debates and other events.

The Network leadership is composed of award-winning professional journalists and editors (both local and international), all of whom have many years of professional experience, and an in-depth understanding and interest in the region and its challenges, including transitional justice, human rights, post-conflict society-building, European integrations and similar issues. In the production of Balkan Insight, the network trains local and regional journalists and demanding the highest international standards.

Individually, the independent, non-governmental BIRN member organisations engage in relevant local media development projects. In Bosnia, this means training on war crimes reporting; in Serbia, on minority journalism; and in Kosovo, producing televised debates on current affairs. In Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania the emphasis is on reporting on the process of European Union integration and membership challenges.

While the BIRN Hub worked as a media training charity for the past two years, it has now established a new company, BIRN Ltd. It aims to broaden the scope of its regional publication Balkan Insight, commercialise it and create a solid foundation for the sustainability of its media development work to date, to the long-term benefit of the Balkan region.

In addition to the development of its sustainability efforts, BIRN Hub continues to implement a range of non-profit project and activities in accordance with its long-term strategy.



Our Mission is to build and strengthen an interconnected cadre of journalists across the Balkans, probing and analysing key transition issues and the process of European integration for policy-makers and the public at large. BIRN is taking steps towards self-sustanability, while also striving to secure its position as the premier Balkan investigative and analytical journalism organization and addressing the need for objective, quality, sustainable reporting on the region's political, economic and EU integration challenges.

Building BIRN's internal capacity:

The BIRN Hub and member organisations pool their skills, knowledge and resources, seeking in the process to become more self-sufficient, efficient, effective and sustainable centres of journalistic excellence, results-oriented training and public dialogue.

Capacity is built by strengthening the services and operation of the hub, providing staff training and support, thereby allowing further devolution of additional, specific activities to local NGO competence, with the hub coordinating cross-regional activities, opportunities for synergies and quality control.

Supporting BIRN to build capacity externally:

In the absence of good-quality, easily-comprehensible news journalism, and of region-wide Western Balkans think-tanks, BIRN provides something which fills both gaps. In this way, a culture of accountability, consultation and quality in policy-making is nurtured by the BIRN Network. It seeks therefore to improve its outreach, by building and developing its websites, increasing and targeting dissemination of its reports, and conducting at least one topical debate per month.

BIRN's reports focus on EU integration, post-conflict justice and peace-building, political transformation and democratisation, economic development, international interventions, social trends and regional cooperation. By so doing, they stand for more than just high-quality journalism – they also provide a platform to the main actors in the region's development to communicate their own messages to the wider public, and vice versa.

Sustainability:

BIRN also seeks support to implement its plans for sustainability. Currently, two approaches are being pursued: drawing on the existence and quality of BIRN's journalistic network, training and research expertise, the professional prestige and readership of its reports, and on the BIRN Network's prominent yet neutral position in society.

A significant step in its progress towards sustainability has been the launching of BIRN's two new websites in the autumn of 2007. While one site focuses on the organization's development and its activities, the other one is the platform for its publication, Balkan Insight.

The content of Balkan Insight will be free for readers and republication until January 2008 after which certain sections of the website will be available by subscription only. In addition, our expertise in serious investigative reporting and analysis of complex reform dynamics will be channeled towards a training consultancy for other media institutes, outlets and NGOs.

BIRN has so far received very promising feedback from a range of potential readers, customers, investors and advertisers.

Expected Results:

This strategy will allow BIRN to keep local and international decision-makers, stakeholders and the general public reliably and objectively informed of key political and economic reform dynamics in South-east Europe, thus creating a positive context for reform-minded policy and its implementation, as well as an investment in the poor economies of the region.

Additionally, it will also provide support to BIRN at a strategic moment, helping to consolidate its local roots and establishment in the region, and bolstering its plans for self-sustainability in the near future. Ultimately, this will mean an extremely valuable addition to the media in the Balkans, and worldwide.