Formation January 2005 (2005-01) Country Director Anisa Sućeska-Vekić | Headquarters Sarajevo | |
 | ||
Type NGO based in Sarajevo specialized in monitoring and reporting war crimes trials Region Court Monitoring:
Sarajevo
Eastern Sarajevo
Travnik
Bijeljina
Tuzla
Mostar
Livno
Gorazde
Gacko
Zenica
Bihac
Doboj
Brcko
Banja Luka Official language Bosnian
Croatian
Serbian
English | ||
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH) is a non-profit organization based in Sarajevo that specializes in monitoring and reporting war crimes trials before the Court of BiH War Crimes Chamber as well as Cantonal and District courts. Acting as a public information service in the field of domestic judiciary and human rights protection, BIRN BiH works to increase public understanding and support for war crime prosecution. Furthermore, BIRN BiH supports the development of high quality media and civil society in BiH, aiming to empower a citizenry that exercises its democratic rights and obligations, and is fully active in the governance of its country.
Contents
BIRN BiH is a member of the BIRN network, which includes BIRN Hub, BIRN Ltd, BIRN Kosovo, BIRN Macedonia, and BIRN Serbia.
BIRN network has a number of publications and projects, including the Justice Series: Media, Civil Society, and War Crime Trials, Balkan Insight, Balkan Transitional Justice. The Justice Series is a media programme run by BIRN BiH and consists of the organization’s flagship publication Justice Report, Radio Justice, and TV Justice. These projects communicate via 300 media outlets reaching close to one million people worldwide. They include daily, weekly, and monthly radio and TV programs, online articles, reports, and analyses in English and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. In addition, BIRN BiH founded the Association of Court Reporters, a countrywide advocacy network in charge of promoting judiciary-media cooperation.
History
BIRN BiH was established in January 2005 to address the absence of media attention towards issues related to transitional justice and post-war reconciliation. Since its foundation, BIRN BiH has analyzed and informed the public on war crimes trials at the state and local courts throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, it remains one of the few sources of information on war crimes prosecution before the domestic judiciary.
Highlights
Various regional and international entities, including the judiciary and a number of war crimes victims, have voiced their support and appreciation for BIRN BiH’s contribution to the post-war reconciliation process. “BIRN BiH promotes independent media and raises the standard of professional reporting. Its investigative stories have sparked off many positive processes and brought to prominence the personal stories of victims which are all too often neglected in the public sphere” Tim Judah, The Economist, The Guardian, BIRN contributor.
“Over the past years, BIRN BiH has developed extensive expertise and a know-how in following all war crime trials in the whole of BiH. Given the physical distance between the former Yugoslavia and The Hague...the lack of consistent coverage by locally based media...BIRN BiH’s reports are a much needed source of accurate and easily understandable information about court cases and daily activities. BIRN BiH reaches out to those to whom this information matters the most: the people of the former Yugoslavia,” Serge Brammertz, ICTY chief Prosecutor.
At the end of the year 2013, BIRN BiH produced over 400 issues of Justice Report weekly magazine and wrote over 20,000 courtside reports, analyses, and investigations. The BIRN team also produced over 2,500 radio reports and investigative reportages, and 50 TV Justice magazines. The organization distributes its material via its website, which receives over one million visits annually from BiH, the region, diaspora countries and beyond.
Notable Reporting
Over the years, numerous publications have been used as evidence in a number of war crimes trials throughout BiH.
In 2012, the State Prosecutor’s Office submitted BIRN BiH’s analysis – Grbavica Killer’s Memory Still Haunts Grbavica – from December 2008 as evidence because it contained statements by Grbavica inhabitants recalling Veselin Vlahovic expelling and killing their neighbours. The Defence later requested every report published between April 2011 and August 2012 by BIRN BiH on Vlahovic’s trial. In his closing arguments, the Defense attorney Radivoje Lazarevic acknowledged BIRN BiH’s expertise and objectivity in reporting the Vlahovic trial, as distinct from other media outlets reporting the trial.
An analysis published in 2012, titled “The Untold Story of the Dretelj Horrors”, compelled a former UNPROFOR member, Hector Gullan, to give BIRN BiH a statement about what he witnessed during the war. “I have read with great interest your recent report on Dretelj- ‘The Untold Story.’ Absolutely correct! Those who committed crimes against humanity in Dretelj need to be brought to justice.”
During his stay at The Hague Tribunal, Miodrag Stojanovic, a member of the Defence Council of Ratko Mladic, said BIRN's Justice Report was his only link to what was happening in BiH when it comes to the work of the Court of BiH war crimes processing. “BIRN – Justice Report was my window to the world,” said Stojanovic.
Another Defence lawyer at The Hague Tribunal, Peter Robinson, who is advising Radovan Karadžić said: “BIRN – Justice Report is highly objective and professional from all other media. It is very useful in my work and I read it every day.”
Vasvija Vidovic, a long-time lawyer with legal experience before domestic and international institutions, completed an analysis for BIRN BiH entitled Visibility of Justice Allows for Fair Trials in October. She discussed the necessity for publicity of criminal proceedings and denies the criticism that witnesses can be influenced in their testimonies by media reports.
Many academic institutions rely on BIRN’s reports. At Duke University in the United States, BIRN materials are assigned as mandatory reading in some undergraduate courses. Others, including Impunity Watch, Swiss Association Against Impunity TRIAL, Human Rights Watch, University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies, Global Investigative Journalism Network and the ICTY, have consistently referenced BIRN BiH as an excellent source of reporting.
Critical Reception
"For Balkan watchers, BIRN BIH offers an immense resource: committed to fairness, superbly edited, and user-friendly. Can a news service win the Nobel? Besides reportage, BIRN BIH is itself a force for justice and European integration," says Steven F. Sage, a research historian from Washington DC and former U.S. Consul in Sofia, Bulgaria.
“As an editor of this radio station, I am very satisfied with your work and proud of our cooperation. We broadcast your weekly show on Fridays and Saturdays at 7pm and the daily reports in our news many times during the day. Our audience is very much interested in war crimes and issues of the past and due to that demand we are happy to say that Local Justice Under Spotlight has been a huge success. We really want to compliment the quality of your audio files and the speed you deliver them,” said the editor in chief of the Radio of the Federation of BiH, Dzevad Kucukalic.
“First of all I want to thank you for your material and readiness to assist us any time. As a journalist dealing with war crimes reporting, I must say that I am constantly relying on the content you produce…” Irena Antic, reporter of the Radio of the Federation of BiH.
“Over the past years, BIRN BiH developed extensive expertise and know-how in following all war crime trials in the whole of BiH. Given the physical distance between the former Yugoslavia and The Hague, the lack of consistent coverage by locally based media, and the Tribunal’s own limitations in disseminating information, BIRN BiH’s reports are a much needed source of accurate and easily understandable information about our cases and daily activities. BIRN BiH reaches out to those to whom this information matters the most: the people of the former Yugoslavia,” Serge Brammertz, ICTY Chief Prosecutor.
“BIRN BiH promotes independent media, and raises the standard of professional reporting. Its investigative stories have sparked off many positive processes and brought to prominence the personal stories of victims which are all too often neglected in the public sphere,” Tim Judah, The Economist, The Guardian, BIRN contributor.