Category: News and Events

Rees has pointed at skills journalists need to know in order to interview those affected by trauma.
Four skill areas a journalist has to develop, according to Rees, are:

1. Listening
2. Beginning well and ending well
3. Simple questions, without feelings
4. Journalist need to know their role. Journalists are not therapists and are not there to cure the interviewees

The BIRN school’s participants went out form the session under strong impression.

Frederique Petit form The Netherlands finds the way Gavin had been communicated with victims in the movie he has shown very impressive.

“The way he communicated with the victims and what he told us on how you should lead victims up to a point where they would tell you their horrible stories and also get them back to a normal place, where you can part normally without having upset them too much,” Frederique said.

Vladimir Locev from Macedonia has admitted that he had no such experience but “it was very, very useful to watch his movie about Hiroshima and victims of nuclear bomb. It was amazing,” he said.  

“I think it takes a lot of time, a lot of experience until one journalist reaches that level to be able to retrieve and to get information from people who had those kind of … like rape victims, trafficking victims, the Macedonian journalist added.

Vlad Ursulean from Romania: “It really thought me how to shut up and, in an interview, listen first and try to work out from there. And, not to push people that have been through trauma or traumatic events. Make them comfortable to say things… saying things that they want.”

Bogdan Vacusta from Romania finds the presentation of Gavin as very useful. “His experience in Japan, that he told us about, was very good in terms of understanding that we have to develop the skills to do this kind of interview, because it is not a usual interview. We have to deal with some individuals who dealt with some very uncomfortable situations,” Bogdan said. “It was very surprising for me to see that even his presentation was something like talking to the victims that had difficult experience,” he added.

“What we’ve been trying to do these days is to explain that offshore doesn’t necessarily needs to be an island but an offshore type of company can be established in countries like Austria, Delaware in the US or in some other country in the world.

Radu went on to explain that there are still ways of getting information on offshore heavens.

Therefore, he has presented his new project named the Investigative Dashboard as useful tool for getting the information.

“The Investigative Dashboard is service which provides information to journalists but also provides access to experts,” he said.

The experts hired by the Investigative Dashboard would, according to him, provide information on what journalists can and cannot do when it comes to obtaining information from offshore heavens.

As owners of the companies are usually hidden being replaced by proxies, Radu has suggested some tricks on how to get name of the real owner. One of the ways is to ask a proxie how to spell his/her name correctly in order not to make in mistake since the name would be published in a story. In such situations, the proxie would usually point to real owner of the offshore company.

BIRN’s summer school includes a range of specialist programmes, exercises and round-tables covering the changing face of Balkan media ownership, violence against media professionals, and more.

Internationally famous journalists, trainers and presenters Don Ray, Mark Hunter, Luuk Sengers, Gavin Rees, Milorad Ivanovic, Manuela Mareso and the OCCRP training team with Drew Sullivan, Rosemary Armao and Paul Radu make up the training team along with BIRN’s in-house experts.

The programme is intensive but there will also be some time to tour the beautiful orchards, vineyards, monasteries and forests of the nearby Fruska Gora National Park, with visits scheduled to the Grgeteg, Hopovo and Krusedol monasteries in Fruska Gora, wine tasting in a 300-year-old wine cellar, and honey tasting in the Museum of Honey.

The deadline to apply for a full scholarship is July 25, while those paying the full course fee have until August 9 to sign up. The course fee of €549 and is all-inclusive, covering tuition, accommodation, meals and extra-curricular tours.

BIRN is looking for mid-career journalists from the Balkans to apply for the scholarship..

BIRN is gathering leading journalists and trainers, both from the Balkans and internationally to provide informative, insightful and entertaining training focused on investigative, computer-assisted and organised crime and corruption journalism, in print and broadcast media.

Confirmed speakers include renowned trainers and presenters Don Ray, Mark Hunter, Luuk Sengers, Gavin Rees, Milorad Ivanovic, Maunela Mareso and the OCCRP training team with Drew Sullivan, Rosemary Armao and Paul Radu.

The summer school will offer a full programme including exercises and round-tables on the changing face of Balkan media ownership, violence against media professionals, and more.
All applicants selected to attend the Summer School will get BIRN’s newly published textbook “Digging Deeper: A Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans” free of charge.

There will also be time to tour the beautiful orchards, vineyards, monasteries and forests in the Fruska Gora National Park.

Finally, all participants will receive a BIRN Summer School certificate.

BIRN will provide all necessary documentation and assistance for applicants that required visas or travel documents.

Journalists from South East Europe, who have at least three years experience, can apply for a full scholarship.

The summer school will follow the curriculum outlined in BIRN’s recently published   “Digging Deeper – A Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans”, written by Sheila S. Coronel, a professor at Columbia University in the United States.

In the morning programme of the summer school, the training will take journalists through this demanding discipline in a methodical manner, from a definition of what investigative journalism is, through the investigative process itself and the set of techniques for following people and paper trails, interviewing and checking the legal implications of journalistic work, and putting an article together.

In the afternoon hours, journalists will be able to choose one of two topics to examine in greater detail: either computer assisted reporting (CAR)  or organised crime and corruption.

Participants will also have the opportunity to engage in discussions with lecturers and guests, and attend case study presentations. They will receive a range of course materials including relevant books, handouts, readers and documentary movies which focus on organised crime, corruption and other topics.  Evening debates will tackle major Balkan media issues, from media ownership to violence against journalists.

BIRN’s Investigative Initiatives programme will also include a set of commercial activities in upcoming years that will target local universities in the Balkans, as well as media owners and publishing houses.