Selection Committee
The Selection Committee is comprised of seven prominent media figures from the Balkans and Europe. Each year, committee members read, evaluate and select story proposals for the fellowship.
Alongside these six permanent committee members, an expert in the fellowship investigation topic - for 2012 it is community - is appointed as an annual member.
At the end of the fellowship, the seven committee members vote on the best three stories, taking story structure, presentation of the facts, style, relevance and appropriate use of regional and EU research into account.
Permanent Members
Alexandra Föderl-Schmid
Alexandra Föderl-Schmid is editor-in-chief of Austrian daily Der Standard, media partner of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence
Milorad Ivanović
Milorad Ivanović is the deputy editor-in-chief of weekly Novi Magazin. He was previously deputy editor of daily Blic, the largest Serbian daily newspaper and the paper's foreign affairs editor. He has a special interest in investigative and cross-border journalism.
Gerald Knaus
As president of the European Stability Initiative, Gerald Knaus works from Berlin and Istanbul to lead the institute’s influential research on South Eastern Europe and Turkey.
Remzi Lani
Remzi Lani is Executive Director of the Albanian Media Institute, an independent organisation set up in 1995 to assist the Albanian media to strengthen professional standards.
Markus Spillmann
Markus Spillmann has been the editor-in-chief of the Swiss daily newspaper, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and a member of its managing board since 2006.
Annual Members
Frank Umbach
BFJE 2008 – Energy
Frank Umbach is responsible for the Security Policies in Asia-Pacific Program of the German Council on Foreign Relations
Tim Judah
BFJE 2009 – Identities
When revolutions across Eastern Europe cast off communism at the end of 1989 Tim Judah found himself endlessly dialing numbers in Romania and cutting tape at the World Service.
Slavenka Drakulic
BFJE 2010 – Taboo
Slavenka Drakulic, born in Croatia (former Yugoslavia) in 1949, is an author and journalist whose books are translated in over twenty languages
Nerma Jelacić
BFJE 2011 – Justice
Nerma Jelacic is the official spokesperson for registry and chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, and acting head of the media, outreach and web section.
Florian Bieber
BFJE 2012 – Communities
Florian Bieber is a Professor of Southeast European Studies and director of the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz, Austria.
Paul Lewis
BFJE 2013 – Integrity
Paul Lewis is Special Projects Editor for the Guardian. He runs teams of journalists at the newspaper working on a range of investigations.
About
About Us
In 2007, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ERSTE Foundation initiated the fellowship programme, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, to foster quality reporting, initiate regional networking among journalists and advance balanced coverage on topics that are central to the region as well as to the EU
What is the Fellowship?
Journalists in the Balkans must now report on complex reform issues with regional and European dimensions. The fellowship provides editorial guidance, training and adequate funding to do so.
Our Partners
Prominent German and Austrian newspapers, Die Süddeutsche Zeitung and Der Standard, are media partners of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence programme
Contact Us
Please contact us for any additional information about the programme, or if you have suggestions, remarks or complaints about the web site and its content
Selection Committee
The Selection Committee is comprised of seven prominent media figures from the Balkans and Europe. Each year, committee members read, evaluate and select story proposals for the fellowship.
Fellowship Team
Editors and journalists from across the region and beyond all work together to make the Balkan fellowship a truly international experience. Scroll down this page for more information on our editorial team.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
