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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
Perparim Isufi
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Perparim Isufi is Balkan Insight’s editor and Kosovo correspondent. He joined BIRN Kosovo in 2014 as an editor of KALLXO.com. He is also a key editor of Prishtina Insight.
Before Perparim started working as a journalist at several media outlets in Kosovo, he studied political science at the University of Prishtina.
In his own words, he would lie if he said his expectations had been to stay in BIRN for such a long time.
“Eleven years and counting! Since day one, working with BIRN has always been intriguing to me. Different countries, cultures, and even time zones. A different approach to the job compared to local newsrooms in our geographical area is something I would have missed if I had not experienced it in my career,” he says.
Reporting from a country with an enduring political and security crisis, Perparim’s career has been dominated by current affairs stories, be they news, analysis, features, or interviews.
He also mentors young journalists on the Media Innovation Europe project that BIRN implements.
“I have a feeling that both I as mentor and the journalists I mentor cherish it. It is always exciting to get the perspective of a young journalist. It takes me back to my old self, when I was in need of a more experienced journalist, an editor, to guide me throughout the work,” he says.
Speaking of completing his professional career, he explains: “I don’t see it coming in the future, but when the day comes, I will have many things to reflect upon. As the saying goes, once a journalist, always a journalist.”
One passion will occupy his attention and time – reading.
“When that day comes, besides my family duties, I am already planning the reading list. I recently came across an expression: Tsundoku. It is about a person who buys books but piles them up and waits for another time to read them. My pile of books of all sorts is already waiting on the shelves.”
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Aleksa Tesic, a BIRN Serbia journalist, received first prize in the prestigious Dejan Anastasijevic Awards for investigative journalism, which was awarded on May 8 by the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia (NUNS).
He received the prize for a series of articles, “Silent Spying: How Serbian Intelligence Hacks Activists’ Phones – Without Them Knowing”, which revealed Serbia’s Security Information Agency (BIA) used the Israeli technology Cellebrite to unlock the phones of activists it interrogated.
The second prize and audience award went to KRIK newsroom journalists Stevan Dojcinovic and Bojana Jovanovic for their research, “Sky messages: Struggle in Novi Sad’s SNS over money and affection of Andrej Vucic”.
Balkan Insight/BIRN Serbia journalist Sasa Dragojlo and Haaretz journalist Avi Scharf won third prize for their series of articles, “Regardless of War Crimes Claims, Serbia’s Arms Sales to Israel Soar.” Read more.
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The winners of the Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence were announced at a ceremony in Vienna on 16 May, honouring three powerful stories that reveal pressing environmental, political, and social challenges across Europe.
First prize of €3,000 went to Zuza Nazaruk, a journalist from Poland currently based in the Netherlands, for her compelling story on the escalating crisis in the Białowieża Forest. The story examines how this UNESCO World Heritage site is being transformed into a militarised zone, where environmental degradation, heightened military presence and migration all converge.
Second prize worth €2,000 went to Greek journalists Ioanna Louloudi and Paschalina Kapetaniou for their investigation into the Greek state’s repeated failure to deliver justice to victims of police brutality, accidents, and disasters.
Third prize worth €1,000 went to Zuzana Vlasata, from the Czech Republic, for her story about a toxic leak on a Czech river. Her report shows how a factory linked to former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš should have been a prime suspect for the incident, but evaded official scrutiny. Read more.
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From forests and meadows to lakeside hotels and mountain slopes, the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid (MPC-AO) owns roughly 100 square kilometres of property in North Macedonia, according to a new BIRN database that sheds fresh light on the Church’s assets.
In “Religious Properties Uncovered”, BIRN identified a total of 14,757 individual pieces of property in cadastral records which the Macedonian Orthodox Church, its dioceses and individual churches own or have other rights to.
The Islamic Religious Community (IRC), its muftis’ offices and mosques, are listed as having ownership or other rights over 5,363 properties, covering 13 square kilometres. Read more.
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Top Balkan Insight stories cited in other media
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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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Stories that deserve a second look
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With wreath-laying ceremonies and tributes to the fallen, leaders of Balkan countries marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II – although some governments took a lower-key approach to the commemorations – and the official name of the day varied from country to country. See more in Balkan Insight’s In Pictures.
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On May 1, 1995, Croatian forces started to retake areas of the country that rebel Serbs had seized in 1991 as Yugoslavia disintegrated.
At 5.21 a.m., the Croatian army began shelling Serb military targets in western Slavonia, near the Sava River. In less than 32 hours, Operation Flash (Operacija Bljesak) freed some 500 sq km and paved the way to reopen the motorway and railway line from Zagreb to eastern Slavonia, two key routes connecting the east and west of the country.
Operation Flash is celebrated in Croatia today as the first major liberation of occupied territory. Nikola Ivkanec, now 78, the policeman to whom the Serbs surrendered, recalls what happened. Read more.
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Josip Broz Tito’s supporters and groups of curious tourists came to pay tribute to his grave at the House of Flowers, part of the Museum of Yugoslavia, in Belgrade on May 25.
Youth Day celebrations, which used to be held on May 25 to coincide with the date of Tito’s official birthday, were major events in Socialist Yugoslavia before his death in 1980. Tito was actually born on May 7, 1892. See more in Balkan Insight's In Pictures.
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For the first time, a march labelled specifically as “anti-immigration” took place in Poland on May 10, even if the message has often been heard before on the streets of Polish cities, particularly during the annual Independence Day parades held on November 11.
The protest took place in the last days of the election campaign to choose the country’s next president, during which all three favourites used anti-immigration rhetoric, targeting not only non-European migrants coming into Poland across the border with Belarus but also Ukrainians. Read more.
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In parallel with worsening media freedoms and women rights in Turkey, the online abuse of female reporters is rising, aided by a climate of impunity.
Nese Idil says the level of abuse she sometimes receives online amounts to “sexual assault”. Last year, the Istanbul-based freelance journalist was targeted by far-right extremists when a member of the National Movement Party, MHP, in Bursa, northwestern Turkey, published her address on social media in response to her online posts about a football match between Bursa’s local side, Bursaspor, and Amedspor, from the southeast.
Idil, 34, was inundated with online threats and sexist comments; some contained photos of guns and bullets. Read more.
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Our Summer Guide
What to read, listen to and watch.
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📰 Article:
‘I’m Both’: Film Explores Experience of ‘Generation B’ Albanians in Greece: In Albgreko, a short documentary by Ilir Tsouko, the children and grandchildren of Albanian immigrants in Greece speak of feeling both Albanian and Greek in ways that those who came in the 1990s never could. Tsouko, who moved to Greece from Albania as a child in 1996, says his own identity is defined by this experience, which includes time also spent living in Germany.
📽️ Movie / Series:
Secrets We Keep. This Danish drama centres on a wealthy family living in a suburb of Copenhagen as they navigate the aftermath of a missing person case involving their rich neighbours. One woman is determined to uncover the truth behind the disappearance, even if her investigation implicates her closest friends and loved ones.
🎧 Podcast:
The Rest is History. Hosted by British historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, this podcast offers a fresh perspective on historical events, from ancient civilizations to contemporary history. Its dynamic storytelling and in-depth analysis enable listeners to revisit significant historical moments with new understanding. This unique approach has earned the show a place among the best history podcasts available.
📘 Book:
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro. Shortly after Rita is found hanging in a church, the police quickly conclude that it was a suicide, and the investigation is closed. However, her mother, Elena, knows it was murder and does not want to give up the truth.
Even though she suffers from a severe form of Parkinson's disease, which makes even the simplest physical actions a heroic endeavour, Elena begins a frantic search for the culprit. Knowing that there is no chance of finding him due to her condition, she decides to embark on an arduous journey to repay the gratitude of an old debtor and, with his help, finally solve the mystery of Rita’s tragedy. Based on the novel, Anahí Berneri directed the movie of the same name.
🎵 Music:
Got to Have Love. A new track by the English rock band Pulp, from their latest album “More”(out June 6), which is their first album in 24 years.
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See you in a month.
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