The Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence was awarded on March 20 to ten journalists from around Southeast Europe, following their selection from almost 70 applications received.

The chosen journalists are:

• Aleksandra Stankovic from Serbia,
• Andrea Gheorghe from Romania,
• Dalibor Dobric from Croatia,
• Darko Duridanski from Macedonia,
• Gjergj Erebara from Albania,
• Lavdim Hamidi from Kosovo,
• Magda Munteanu from Romania,
• Mirsad Bajtarevic from Bosnia,
• Stanimir Ivanov Kumurdijev from Bulgaria and
• Zvezdana Crnogorac from Serbia .

They will participate until the end of the year in an intensive programme of training, research and reporting, beginning with a week-long seminar in Berlin on April 18.

Information on their experiences will be regularly posted on the Fellowship website.

Entry to the competition for the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence closed on February 29, 2008. We have received total of 64 eligible applications.

Following the close of the appeal for applications, the selection committee intends to choose up to ten journalists to participate in this year’s programme.

The selection committee consists of six permanent members from the media community in the Balkans, Austria and Germany, as well as one annual member, who is an expert on this year’s Fellowship theme - energy.

The results of the selection will be announced on March 20 on fellowship.birn.eu.com.

A presentation of the publication “Moving On: Overcoming Barriers to a European Future” was held in Zagreb on Monday, January 28. 

The occasion was to mark the completion of the Balkan fellowship for journalistic excellence for 2007, an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

Dragana Zarkovic Obradovic, manager of the Fellowship programme, presented the publication, and used this opportunity to announce the launch of the Fellowship for 2008. 

Last year’s fellow from Croatia, Davor Konjikusic, also took part in the launch, and shared with the guests his experiences about the programme. He encouraged journalists to apply and use this unique opportunity to realise their own investigative projects.

He talked about the topic of his own article, which highlighted the issue of inter-cultural cooperation in the Balkans. 

All journalists attending expressed a keen interest in the programme, while information about the book and the programme for next year was carried by HINA news agency and on web portal Javno.hr.  A number of media outlets said they would review the book and republish some of the fellows’ articles.

All articles in the book deal with the issue of mobility. They can be found in pdf form on the website http://fellowship.birn.eu.com in the local languages, as well as in English and German.

The articles are the product of investigative work by last year’s fellows, and can be republished free of charge.

The Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation announced on 16 January 2008 the launch of the second year of its fellowship programme for journalists in the Balkans. To be run in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, the initiative will each year give ten reporters the chance to run their own research project.

As the Balkan news media increasingly need to cover complex reform issues with regional and Europe-wide dimensions, this programme aims to foster quality reporting, regional networking among journalists and balanced coverage of topics that are central to the region as well as to the European Union.

Journalists from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia, are encouraged to submit research proposals on this year’s theme – ENERGY.

It’s a topic that preoccupies officials, politicians and citizens across Europe - and arguably one of the biggest challenges facing this continent and the international community. In 2008, applicants for the Fellowship programme are invited to explore the subject of energy. But not only headline issues such as the supply of fuel, climate change and renewable resources. Entrants are also encouraged to look at human energy such as the energy of ideas, energy for change and energy for reconstruction as well as destruction.

Ten fellows will be chosen on the basis of research proposals, which should include plans for cross-border research within the Balkan region and European Union member states, drawing on examples of cooperation or the lack of such collaboration, making comparisons and highlighting know-how.

They will participate in the fellowship programme, which features an introductory seminar in Berlin, supervision and mentoring, individual research trips to another country of the region and the EU, and a concluding seminar and award ceremony in Vienna. Supporting seminars also feature meetings with Austrian and German political and economic actors as well as with the Fellowship’s media partners - Süddeutsche Zeitung and Der Standard.

Successful applicants will receive a fellowship of 2000 Euros and a travel allowance of up to 2000 Euros, while the programme’s selection committee, composed of local and European journalists and experts, will award one fellow an individually-tailored opportunity for further professional development, to the value of 8000 Euros.

Fellowship reports will be published at the end of the year, and disseminated widely in all local languages, English and German.