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The BIRN Network’s news and best reads from its flagship outlet, Balkan Insight, are cherry picked for you.
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Meet the People Behind BIRN
Aida Tinjak
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Each month, BIRN introduces you to a different member of its team. For April, meet Aida Tinjak.
Aida Tinjak is the Grants and Project Coordinator at the BIRN Hub. She works on two programmes: the Fellowship of Journalistic Excellence, which covers a region spanning 14 countries, from Poland and the Czech Republic to Greece and Romania. Since its beginning in 2007, more than 150 leading regional journalists have participated. The other programme, Reporting Democracy, is focused on leveraging independent journalism to critically examine the issues shaping the future of democracy in Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe.
Her professional path has been varied. Aida’s academic background in Art History and Pedagogy at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo, shaped the foundation of her interest in how culture, memory and narrative intertwine. She worked as a curator at Gallery 11/07/95, a memorial gallery dedicated to the memory of the Srebrenica genocide, where she encountered the power of war photography.
“These exhibitions were not merely artistic displays, they were testimonies. They revealed to me how photojournalism, particularly war photography, operates at the intersection of art, truth and justice. On the one hand, such images preserve historical facts; on the other, they restore voice and presence to those who were silenced,” Aida explains.
She also worked with several non-governmental organisations on projects related to cultural and creative industries and the empowerment of local communities. Joining BIRN in 2021 felt like a natural progression. She joined BIRN Hub as a Project/Programme Assistant and expected hard work, persistence, and the need to grow into the responsibilities ahead.
“That’s exactly what awaited me. The road wasn’t without its challenges, but each experience has left valuable lessons that have shaped my professional path. What I hadn’t dared to expect was the depth of connection within the team. It’s the people who make me proud to be part of BIRN – their trust, support, and understanding make every challenge easier and every success more meaningful,” explains Aida.
After the work is done, Aida has a number of favourite activities during her spare time:
“I enjoy spending my free time with family and friends, whether that means hiking, catching a live gig, seeing a play, taking a shot at a pub quiz (with more enthusiasm than correct answers ☺), or simply going for a walk (and pretending it counts as exercise ☺). At other times, it’s about embracing stillness – giving myself and my thoughts the space to pause, regroup, and recharge for whatever comes next.”
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Media outlets from 10 Balkan and Visegrad countries are invited to apply for grants, training, mentoring, and access to BIRN’s innovative audience-engagement digital tool in the second call for Audience-Engaged journalism grants.
This innovative approach places the audience as a direct and active participant in content creation, fostering trust and stronger relationships between media outlets and their communities.
What are we offering?
- Grants for individual stories of up to €4,000.
- Grants for cross-border stories of up to €8,000.
- Four-day online training on audience engagement.
- Mentoring throughout the project.
- Access to a digital tool to enhance audience engagement. Apply here.
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On April 11, BIRN launched a new version of its Digital Freedoms Monitoring Tool to continue monitoring and documenting violations of digital rights across the region.
Since 2024, BIRN has monitored digital rights developments in ten countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.
By continuously tracking incidents, BIRN provides crucial insights into how digital rights abuses evolve over time and how they may influence future policies and regulations. The methodology groups digital rights violations into seven umbrella categories, applying a human rights-based approach. Read more.
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From April 28 to 30, a regional journalism camp was held in Sarajevo, focusing on legally safe reporting, crisis journalism and digital security. The three-day training brought together 25 journalists from across the Western Balkans, providing them with essential tools to navigate a complex and increasingly hostile media landscape.
Participants engaged in dynamic hands-on training sessions, expert-led panel discussions and interactive risk assessment exercises. Read more.
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Stories that deserve a second look
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Balkan Insight is BIRN’s flagship English-language website and it provides daily news, as well as analytical insight and investigations.
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Around 80 Serbian students who cycled to Strasbourg met European lawmakers at the seat of the European Parliament on April 16, after arriving the previous evening, following a 13-day journey from the city of Novi Sad.
The students covered over 1,400 kilometres without a day of rest, passing through Budapest, Vienna and Munich, as well as towns across Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Germany.
They were warmly welcomed in the cities they passed through, video footage showed, particularly by members of the Serbian diaspora. During their meeting with the members of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the students told them about their ongoing demonstrations seeking official accountability. Read more.
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Dutch former gendarmerie commander Hans Leijtens took the reins of Frontex with a vow to renew the EU border agency’s commitment to the rights of migrants.
Leijtens was commander of the Royal Marechaussee, which secures the country’s borders. At 59, being tapped to repair Frontex’s tarnished reputation wasn’t the career move he had been planning.
“I had a fine career thus far and was about to retire; there was no need to make the next step,” he said. “For me, it’s really about the mission.” With Europe’s leaders taking a hard line on migration, is he fighting a losing battle? Read more.
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Unions all over Greece joined street protests on April 9 demanding collective agreements and higher wages – halting trains, boats and flights.
The General Confederation of Greek Workers, GSEE, and the Civil Servants’ Confederation, ADEDY, led a 24-hour strike and staged protests demanding collective wage agreements for workers and measures to address high prices and the housing crisis in the country.
The strike was held under the slogan: “We’re continuing the struggle. Collective agreements and wage increases. Work with rights and life with dignity. Either their profits or our lives.” Read more.
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Israeli PR guru Srulik Einhorn worked to burnish the image of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and – BIRN/Haaretz can reveal – facilitate the flow of Serbian arms to Israel’s war in Gaza. Now wanted for questioning in Israel, he has set up shop in Belgrade.
In May 2022, Einhorn dipped into a web document he was sharing with Jonatan Urich, at that time a close aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A former DJ, producer and party promoter, Einhorn had spent the previous three years working for Netanyahu’s Likud party via his public relations firm Perception, helping to secure the party a string of electoral victories.
This particular document, however, originally concerned Serbia and its President, Aleksandar Vucic. Read more.
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The Czech authorities are mulling whether to crack down on the local branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose claim of “religious persecution” is downplayed by its critics as martyrdom posturing.
In a cease-and-desist order, dated from September 2024 and seen by BIRN, the Czech Culture Ministry called on the Jehovah's Witnesses to halt “any activity in violation of [the law]”.
“The purpose of this notice is not to interfere in the internal matters of the religious society,” read the letter signed by the head of the ministry’s Department of Churches and Religious Societies, Petr Simunek. It gave the Czech branch of the US-founded Christian evangelical movement three months to get its affairs in order over two of its most controversial practices, or else face deregistration.
But over half a year on, the fate of the Czech Religious Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses remains undecided. Read more.
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Top 3 Balkan Insight stories cited in other media
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Our Spring Guide
What to read, listen to and watch.
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📰 Article:
‘Children of War, People of Peace’: Bosnia’s War Childhood Museum Marks Anniversary: Sarajevo's War Childhood Museum, in collaboration with photographer Milomir Kovacevic Strasni, has presented a new exhibition, "Children of War, People of Peace", reconnecting past and present through a series of paired images of children photographed in wartime Sarajevo and again today, decades later.
📽️ Movie / Series:
Black Mirror. In a complex and dystopian future, several individuals struggle with the manipulative effects of advanced technology on their personal lives and behaviours. This TV series serves as a contemporary reimagining of The Twilight Zone, featuring stories that explore the collective unease surrounding the modern world. Season 7 aired on April 10.
🎧 Podcast:
Bad Therapist. Hosted by the psychotherapist Ash Compton and the journalist Rachel Monro. Each episode interrogates different expressions of therapy gone wrong: scammers, self-proclaimed gurus, and conversion therapy. It is a kind of response to the rise of therapy and therapy-speak as a cultural aesthetic rather than a scientifically driven discipline.
📘 Book:
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano. A novel about 12-year-old Edward Adler begins when he boards a flight in Newark with his family and 183 other passengers headed for Los Angeles. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes and Edward becomes the sole survivor. He struggles to find his place in a world alone. However, he eventually makes an unexpected discovery that leads him to profound answers about life, among others: When you’ve lost everything, how do you find the strength to move forward?
🎵 Music:
Dear Stephen. A song by the Welsh alternative band The Manic Street Preachers from their latest, 15 th studio album, “Critical Thinking”, about singer Steven Patrick Morrissey.
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See you in a month.
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