Karla is a journalist and project coordinator specialising in engaged citizens reporting and international affairs reporting. Before joining the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), she wrote for Jutarnji list, Euractiv, and Globus in Croatia, and served as a correspondent from the United Kingdom. At BIRN, she coordinates, mentors, and trains journalists in investigative reporting methods that place citizens at the centre as primary sources, and leads the development of a technical tool BIRN has built to engage citizens in the reporting process.
Summer School of Investigative Reporting 2026 Sessions
Engaged Citizens Reporting (ECR)
Audiences are increasingly dispersed and less actively engaged in supporting journalism’s core purpose of revealing and reporting facts. Engaged citizen reporting offers a way forward by revealing underreported: citizens can become active participants in investigations, surfacing facts, pointing journalists toward where abuse or misconduct is happening, and providing evidence to support reporting. Through engaged citizen reporting, BIRN has produced some of its most important investigations on issues related to online abuse, environmental damage, gender-based discrimination and many more.
In collaboration with Ana Petruševa, director of BIRN Macedonia, this session will show how to launch an audience-engaged project and what to consider along the way — from crowdsourcing evidence, preparing effective callouts to fact-checking and analysis and shaping storytelling. It will also address how to keep citizens engaged throughout the process, and why involving them ultimately builds greater trust and connection with your journalism.