Investigative reporters got burnt by their own succes

While helping the opposition replace the corrupt gouvernment, Georgia'sinvestigative reporters came too close to power.

By Akaki Gogichaishvili, Scoop Caucasus' coordinator in Georgia

Posted June 27th, 2010

7 years ago, a conversation about the media in Georgia would inevitably have brought up the issue of investigative journalism or rather its abolishment. Today you would rarely hear the same sentiment - investigative reporting is moving into oblivion.

11-12 years ago when it was all starting in the Georgian media, it felt like 60-ies in the USA. Investigative reporters exposed corruption and other malfunctions of the government at its highest levels, causing outrage of people while governmental efforts to stifle them, would only add dimension to this outrage, even turning it into massive public rallies.

When public discontent eventually brought down the corrupt regime, ironically it also marked the end of investigative journalism that brought it all up. Media owners and part of the reporters who felt themselves part of the victory became too friendly with the victorious new government to now investigate their wrongdoings. They merely closed down investigative programs, shut down critical political talk-shows and either became part of the new regime or turned into its propagators.

Those in media who felt they had to retain their professional standards became outcast, no longer needed neither by their employers, nor by international donors who would prior support their efforts. Some of the professional journalists migrated from the country, while others left the media or moved to work into its safer areas, entertainment.

Today the Georgian media and especially television is mostly made up of very young journalists, who lack professionalism, understanding of true journalistic values, they are inexperienced and have no prospects to obtain one, since the existing media barely leaves them a chance.      

Recently some of the international donors came to the decision that investigative reporting needs once again their support in Georgia, and several projects for that purpose have been funded. The scale of support is still too low to give the needed boost to the new generation of responsible and brave journalists, but it is nevertheless very valuable, these few projects and Scoop Caucasus among them help create examples of modern investigative reporting in Georgia, - 5 stories last year, 6 stories this year, some extremely strong and good, others less so, but altogether they help the investigative reporters to get born again and survive for the time to come when the media and public calls them up once again.

Posted on August 19th, 2010

On July 28th, Victor Ciobanu, a journalist for Jurnalul TV in Moldova, was reporting on a copyright court case in front of the Chisinau Court of Appeals, when a person working for the Moldovan Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCECC) approached him, destroyed his camera and removed the memory card.

Later that day at the police station, the memory card was returned to Ciobanu but it appeared that all images were removed.

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists from South East and Central Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), condemns the assault on Victor Ciobanu.

SEEMO fully supports the statement of the Moldovan media NGO's who are calling on authorities to reject such attitudes by their employees towards the media and journalists in particular, and who are urging for an investigation concerning the Ciobanu matter.

"It is important for journalists to be able to work in an open environment, and the security staff of a public body, especially one combating economic crimes and corruption, should be setting a good example instead of interfering with that right," said Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General.

"SEEMO strongly believes that media have an important duty to inform the public about activities in their local communities. Persons working as public officials should be especially open and cooperative in communicating with journalists," Vujovic added.

"Those with legitimate complaints against the media can pursue these complaints through a range of different mechanisms. However, attacking journalists is unacceptable."

The International Press Institute (IPI) with members from the world's leading media outlets addressed an open letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Tuesday 10 August 2010 respectfully urging him to address a disturbing deterioration in press freedom over the last six months in Ukraine.
 

Posted August 18th, 2010

By Anthony Mills, Press Freedom & Communications Manager

President Yanukovych won election in February 2009 and has since raised fears that he is seeking to turn the clock back on recent press freedom gains in Ukraine.

A rise in attacks on journalists has been reported, along with a climate of impunity.

In the most recent worrying development, a Kiev court decided to cancel the allocation of broadcasting frequencies to two privately-run TV channels - TVi and 5 Kanal.

TVi Chief Executive Mykola Kniazhytskyi told IPI on Tuesday:
"After President Yanukovych came to power a number of topics became off-limits. On top of that there have been attempts to take away the licenses of TVi and Channel 5. Bloggers were 'invited' for questioning by the security services and were asked to sign that they would refrain from saying anything negative about the government."

Kniazhytskyi also said that a number of journalists had been allegedly roughed up by the police.

"Yesterday, a journalist from Novi Kanal was reporting on a photography exhibition," he said. "The police attacked him. The cameraman who was with him filmed the incident."

The journalist who was attacked, allegedly by members of the Ukrainian police special forces, can be seen attempting to follow security services personnel through a door on the exhibition premises after they had dragged away a person who was protesting against the exhibition, which reportedly focused on World War II.

"In a separate incident, another journalist, from STB, was attacked by a member of the president's security," said Kniazhytskyi. "This also was filmed, shown on TV, and no one was punished."

Kniazhytskyi asserted: "The courts are refusing to defend the journalists. This is a consequence of a decrease in independence in the judicial branch."

The TVi CEO also told IPI that he was recently followed by a car with false license plates which parked in front of his house and in front of the TV channel. He said he sent a reporter out to film and question the occupants.

The EU, the U.S. Embassy in Kiev and the European security watchdog, the OSCE, have all expressed concern about the current media environment.

"I viewed the 8 June [court] decision as potentially negative for pluralism in Ukrainian broadcasting," said OSCE media freedom representative Dunja Mijatovic in a recent report, according to the BBC.

The U.S. Embassy said that "Like Ms Mijatovic, we are also concerned about recent steps taken in Ukraine that have the potential to threaten media freedom," the BBC reported.

Ukraine's media is dominated by millionaires, and their business competition is reflected in the current developments.

However, one of the country's richest men is also the head of the state security service and owner of a media empire - including the county's most-watched television channel. The BBC reported that Ukrainian media watchdog Telekritika has warned that he also exerts influence over the state body overseeing television and radio.


In an April incident involving media freedom in Ukraine, police allegedly roughed up journalists and an editor working for the Express newspaper who had come to the office of a regional prosecutor to inquire about another Express reporter arrested without charge the previous day.


The journalist was detained in Horodok, in Ukraine's western region of Lviv. The incident, which was filmed, came a day after police had arrested a journalist from the same paper, who had recently written an investigative report exposing corruption in the regional government.


IPI Interim Director Alison Bethel McKenzie said: "We hope President Yanukovych takes note of the serious concerns we have outlined in our letter, and acts to address them. After several years of press freedom progress, Ukraine risks undoing those gains and sliding backwards into a climate of intimidation characterised by the absence of independent news."

The full text of the IPI letter to President Yanukovych can be read below:


Your Excellency,

The Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), a globally-renowned press freedom group, is writing to express its concern at the significant deterioration in the press freedom environment in Ukraine, since you came to office in February 2010. This follows several years of improvement in Ukraine's press freedom climate.

The current developments run counter to your public pledges to defend the freedom of the press and "to prevent pressure on the media".
We are particularly concerned about a Kiev court's decision to annul the allocation of broadcasting frequencies to two privately-run TV channels: TVi and 5 Kanal.

IPI is alarmed at reports of an increase in the number of assaults against journalists and a failure to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice.
In a number of instances, involvement by state security forces has been alleged.

We have also noted an apparent blurring of the lines between government office and private media ownership and have received reports of the exertion of political influence over the state television and radio channel regulatory authority.

We understand that a hearing in the license allocation case of TVi and 5 Kanal is approaching. We hope that it will be open to the public and that the Ukraine will make efforts to ensure that the allocation process is transparent, fair and not subject to political pressure.

We also respectfully call on you to ensure that those who attack journalists are identified and brought to justice, and to guarantee the independence of the broadcast regulatory authorities.

IPI is a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists dedicated to the furtherance and safeguarding of press freedom, the protection of freedom of opinion and expression, the promotion of the free flow of news and information, and the improvement of the practices of journalism. Based in Vienna, Austria, IPI is the oldest press freedom group in the world and holds consultative status with the United Nations, and the Council of Europe.
IPI would be happy to discuss these matters with you in person, at a time of your convenience.

In the anticipation of swift action on this matter, I remain

Respectfully Yours,


Alison Bethel McKenzie
Interim Director
International Press Institute (IPI)

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) fully supports this statement.

Posted on August 18th, 2010

On 9 August 2010 the mayor of the Serbian city of Zajecar, Bosko Nicic decided to prevent all directors of companies and public institutions in the city from making statements to the media without his prior consent.

Directors of companies and public institutions now feel that they must fear for their jobs if they do not comply with the directive, and journalists are limited in their reporting on current affairs.

The directive is a restriction on freedom of information and free expression. It contradicts Serbia's Law on Public Information, which notes that no one is allowed directly or indirectly - to limit or abuse the free flow of information.

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South East and Central Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), is alarmed to hear this:

"Putting the media under pressure will only encourage censorship," said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic.

He added: "Journalists should be able to express themselves freely and to carry out their jobs without any interference by the local authorities. An open media environment allowing for the free flow of information is a fundamental principle of any democratic society. It is vital for journalists and media executives to be able to report freely on current affairs."

"Serbia showed some positive media developments recently, so the limitation of the free flow of information by the mayor of Zajecar is alarming."

Finally, SEEMO supports the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) and the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) in their statements given in connection with this case.

When turning 18 orphants are left on their own 

Posted August 18th, 2010

Reporter: Saida Mustajbegović

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, approximately 3,000 children do not have parental care; one third of them are located in specialized state institutions. But nobody knows what happens with them after they turn 18 and leave these institutions.

In the orphanages they say that taking care of these children after turning 18 is question of private involvement of orphanage managers to pull personal connections.

The institutions for re-education of children say that these children “go to their families”, but nobody knows where and how they live.

Experts say that social orphans are becoming economic orphans, without job and roof over their heads.

The investigation was published by national newspaper Oslobođenje on the
1st of August 2010.
 
Click here to read the orginal story

And here to read the English version

Posted August 18th, 2010

The High Court in Nis, in a defamation case against Serbian daily newspaper Narodnih Novina journalist Dragana Kocic and editor-in-chief Timosenko Milosavljevic, ruled in favour of the defendants. Together, the two had been sentenced by the Court of First Instance to pay a fine of 1,000,000 Serbian dinars (approx. 10,800 EUR) for publishing an article using quotes from official documents - an indictment against a former military official.

Also the case of Brankica Stankovic and her team of investigative reporters, who work for the B92 TV programme, "Insajder" ("Insider") seems to develop positively. They had received several death threats while reporting on the activities of the leaders of extremist football fan clubs, and on 22 April 2010 the Serbian Court of First Instance rejected all charges against six persons detained in the matter, saying it was a private affair. The ruling triggered a chain of reactions throughout Serbia.

In a recent decision, though, the Higher Court of Appeal overruled the decision of the Court of First Instance and sentenced the leader of the Partizan football fan club one year and four months in prison over the alleged threat to the security of Stankovic in the form of chants such as: "You are dangerous snake and will end up like Curuvija" (a Serbian journalist shot in front of his apartment and whose killers have never been found). Additionally, the Higher Court of Appeal revoked the decision by the Court of First Instance in Belgrade, which had rejected the charges against six persons who allegedly threatened Stankovic, and returned the case to the Court of First Instance for further proceedings. SEEMO hopes the other persons connected to this case will be brought to justice as well.

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South East and Central Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), is very pleased by these and other positive media developments in Serbia. Click here to read more.

Posted August 18th, 2010
Reporters: Urim Hasipi and Admirina Peçi


Poverty has obliged a lot of girls from North Albania to enter the world of illegal trafficking by mariages. This is done through “illegal” forms of “matchmaking” including an organized agency network which promises the girls a “heavenly” life.

However, waiting for them are clients from Macedonia. Well organized, these agencies keep their functioning “untouched” from the police, which claims that there is no trace of this illegal activity or of the marriages between Albanian girls and Macedonian widowers.

Click here to read the rest of the story as it was published by national newspaper Koha, published in Macedonia, in two parts, on March 31st and April 1st,

Part 1

Part 2

The story also got published by Albanian Shqip, on April 8th. On the same day it was also broadcast by TV Koha, a regional media that covers the Northwestern part of Macedonia, headquarter in Tetovo.

Click here to read an Albanian and an English version.

Since 1998 hundreds of attacks especially on official web-sites of Serbia and Kosovo happened.

Posted August 18th, 2010

Reporter: Ermal Panduri, Prishtina, Kosovo.

The attacks are usually done by young enthusiasts, but their nationalistic attitude on the messages they leave is contagious.

The official web-sites of institutions of both countries are vulnerable because they don’t have safeguards with integrity. Attacks that happened until now did not cause significant harm or problem to the public, but they have potential to be upgraded on the scale of sabotage.

This is a report which gives a glimpse of who these people are and why they do it. Officials are not very much disturbed over these occurrences. However a US-based  expert says that until now these two countries have been lucky these attacks didn’t turn onto some more serious attacks.

The investigation was published in newspaper Zeri, daily newspaper, June 6th 2010.

Click here to read the whole story:

1. part

2. part

3. part

And here to have the English version.

Ukranian museums: how to steal a million

In the last 10 years, 40 regional museums were robbed. At the same time, Kyiv museums were almost never targeted.

Posted on August 9th, 2010

Reporter: Iryna Slavinska

Ukrainian Museums are systematically robbed. The number of registered stolen pieces of art increased from 106 in the period 1984-98 to more than 1.000 from 199-2009.

The reporter Iryna Slavinska from Ukrayinska Pravda investigated the issue and is now able to give a picture of the situation: There are clear patterns for robbing and selling of masterpieces as well as for getting the stolen art out of the country. A false certificate will cost you only 600 UAH (app 60 EUR).

One of the biggest and most expensive thefts was of the Caravaggio painting “The Taking of Christ or Kiss of the Judas” from the Odesa Museum of Western and Oriental Art in 2008. Recently, the painting was found in Germany.

Click here to read the story in English.

This investigation was published by Ukrayinska Pravda on July 12th 2010.

Art Mafia rules in Macedonia

Even though there only lives a little over 2 million people in Macedonia, there are more than 200 publishing houses. Why? It is a good opportunity to make money with little effort.

Posted August 9th, 2010

Reporter: Halimi Shklzen

Macedonia is the only state in the Balkans (and certainly beyond) where the government give support to the publishing of the literary works. Ministry of Culture for each year dedicates a very large share of cash and after the application delivered by the publishing houses, establishes a Commission composed of three members (two Macedonian and Albanian) for sharing the amount.

Often for the Commission members are proposed individuals that have no single relation with the literature or individuals who do not have enough capacity to assess what has value and what hasn’t.

In this process there is much politics, as members of Commission are proposed by the ruling parties, which, of course, ensure that the publishing houses that are close to the ruling parties benefit most.

This, at the same time is a good opportunity for misusing (the means) camouflaged with perfection...

This investigation was published by daily newspaper Koha.

Click here and here to read the whole original story.

Click here and here to read it in English.

The Ukrainian state subsidizes local transportation in order to let senior citizens and disabled ride free of charge. But in the city of Nikolaev in Southern Ukraine many drivers refuse to let disabled and retired get on their busses.

Reporters: Oleg Oganov and Yaroslav Chepurnoy from the newspaper Nikolaev Biznes

Posted on August 5th, 2010

The reporters Oleg Oganov and Yaroslav Chepurnoy from the newspaper Nikolaev Biznes investigated the issue and disclosed on May 26th 2010 a very simple corruption scheme:

The subsidy is actually handed out to the contractors running the local transportation.

But they keep the money and as they have very few busses themselves the losses are made by their numerous subcontractors many of whom don’t even know that they have right to get their share of the state subsidies.

The officials in charge of local transportation refused to give any information.

The whole story was published in the newspaper Nikolaev Biznes on May 26th 2010. You can read the story here:

Part 1

Part 2

English version.

In the middle of a journalistic investigation of murky business practices in the port of Yalta the Ukrainian police raided the offices of the port and the apartments of port officials.

Reporter: Olga Melnitskaya, Center for Investigative Journalism, Simferopol

Posted on August 5th, 2010

So the reporter Olga Melnitskaya from Center for Investigative Journalism in Simferopol decided to publish her findings from several months research on April 9th 2010.

If the police has found documents which substantiate the journalistic investigation, several managers will be sentenced and go to prison. They didn’t pay the staff of the port but directed millions of Hryvnas into their own pockets.

The search was explained by The Crimean Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as part of a criminal investigation opened according to Part 5 Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation, waste of property or appropriation by means of misuse of office).

Port officials were suspected of misappropriating three million hryvnyas. The case was opened after the media spread information about the seasonal transportation of passengers and about agreements between the port administration and private companies for ticketing.

Today “Center” found out that the searches were conducted not only at the port administration, but also in the apartments of port officials, as well as of businessmen with whom there were agreements to rent boats at low rental rates.

Let us tell about everything in order...

This investigation was published by The Center for Investigative Journalism in Simferopol on April 9th 2010.

Click here for the original version.

And here for the English.

SEEMO Condemns Brutal Attack on Serbian Journalist

Posted on August 2010

The Serbian journalist Teofil Pancic of the Serbian weekly Vreme was attacked by two alleged perpetrators who beat him with metal bars as he sat in a packed public transportation bus in Zemun, Serbia, on the night of the 24 July 2010, according to information recieved by The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South East and Central Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI).

After the attack, the perpetrators fled the scene and remain at large. Pancic suffered a concussion and injuries on his right arm.

SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic commented:

"SEEMO strongly condemns the physical attack on Pancic and regards the attack as a flagrant violation of press freedom."

"At present, the press freedom situation in Serbia remains alarming," Vujovic added.

"It is very worrisome that brutal physical attacks on journalists, such as this, still occur in Serbia. It is very important not only to find the alleged perpetrators but to find out who is the master brain behind the attack."

"SEEMO urges the local police authorities to carry out a thorough investigation and calls on the Serbian Minister of Interior, Ivica Dacic, to step up his promise of protecting journalists from threats both verbal and physical."

SEEMO would like to remind Serbian authorities that there are still many unresolved cases of attacks on journalists stretching back to the 1990s, including the unsolved murder of journalists Dada Vujasinovic, Slavko Curuvija and Milan Pantic. Even bomb attacks in front of the apartment of Dejan Anastasijevic and the kidnapping case of Dusan Reljic, both who were also working for Vreme.

One morning in autumn 2009 the inhabitants of two Ukrainian villages found the public road between them closed by a new fence.

Written by Liliya Vasylyeva and Oleg Kubar

Posted on August 5th, 2010

The reporters Liliya Vasylyeva and Oleg Kubar investigated the situation of the community road – the only one connecting the villages of Dibrova and Ilichovka and used both for traveling and for transporting farm equipment.

This road is part of the territory that was granted to a private owner. The decision was made by the village council, but the main problem is that during the council hearing, the village head completely lied about the future of the territory.

He promised villagers a recreational complex with a beach and service infrastructure available to villagers. Construction started and the private owner put up a fence blocking the road, which started a long-term struggle by the villagers to prove their right to the road. However, so far they have been helpless against corrupt officials from different institutions.

The investigation was published by newspaper Tekhnopois on June 9, 2010.

Click here to read the whole story.

Click here to read the English version.

OSCE Media report critisizes Scoop countries

Posted August 4th, 2010

The The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe recently published their Report to the Permanent Council by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, 29 July 2010.

The Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, critisizes several countries which are supported by Scoop and Scoop Caucasus.

Click here to read the report.

Student Died During Interrogation

The Ukrainian student Ihor Indylo was brought to the police station for interrogation after an evening out - and didn’t survive that. According to the police he simply fell and first hit a wall and then the floor...

By Dmytro Hnap

Posted August 4th, 2010

Reporter Dmytro Hnap from Ukrayinska Pravda reconstructed the events and interviewed – or rather tried to interview – all witnesses. The explanation of the police is to put it mildly not convincing.

The official police report claims the young man fell three times in the course of the evening of his death. However, testimony from witnesses and the forensic report proved the fatal injuries were caused in the police department and that Ihor Indylo died from being beaten and injured by somebody.

It is impossible to find out who caused his death because the police completely deny guilt and cover up the real people responsible.

Hnap wrote a two-part series investigating about the circumstances surrounding the death of student Ihor Indylo in Kyiv which were published by the newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda on its website. Information graphics were prepared by Oleksandr Akymenko.

– Part 1 “Monsters in shoulder straps? How student Ihor Indylo died”  was published on June 4, 2010.

- Part 2 “They killed Ihor Indylo” was published June 16, 2010.

English version

Both before the election campaign and during the campaign, all candidates for the Ukrainian presidency broke the law.

Posted on August 3rd, 2010

By Valentyna Samar

Reporter Valentyna Samar who hosts the program “Question of National Security” for the Ukrainian TV station “Chernomorskaya” investigated numerous cases of corruption and legal violations before and during the presidential election campaign in 2009-2010. She found all candidates guilty of some or numerous violations.

Among the ones that are in the focus of the program are:

- a number of candidates put up billboards many months before the campaign officially started;

- many candidates hid the amount of money spent on their campaigns, even though according to law such information should be public;

- a number of candidates provide false information about the source and amount of money spent, which contradicts information provided by NGOs and services monitoring the elections;

- and many candidates abused their positions and administrative resources.

As a result of the series of programs, law enforcement started an investigation into the pre-election campaign in Crimea by Anatoliy Hrytsenko, the head of the Crimean parliament.

The investigation was aired by Chernomorskaya TV on the 9th of September, The 22nd of September, the 6th of October, the 20th of October, the 17th of November, the 15th of December and the 12th of January so that the audience could follow the development during the campaign.

Also, the results of investigation were published by a variety of media, amongst them:

Zerkalo nedeli weekly (October 9th, 2009)

And The Center of Investigative reporting December 16th 2009 and January 14th 2010. 

To read the English version, please click here.

Posted July 30th, 2010

Thanks to a grant from the Swedish international development cooperation agency SIDA Scoop will from autumn 2010 and the next three years also support investigative reporting in Russia.

The grant from SIDA (950.000 EUR or 9,790.000 SEK) covers the North-western part of the Russian Federation, but Scoop has also own funding for some activities in other regions in the European part of Russia.

The new programme will be implemented by International Media Support, Denmark, Fojo Media Institute, Sweden, Danish Association of Investigative Journalism (FUJ) and the Swedish Association of Investigative Journalists (FGJ). The Regional Press Institute in St. Petersburg will be the Russian partner for coordination of the activities.

The journalistic coordinators of “Scoop Russia” will be Kajsa Norell  from FGJ and Henrik Kaufholz from FUJ.

”This is fantastic”, says Henrik Kaufholz, who has been with Scoop from the start in January 2003. “For some years we have been looking for funding to support investigative reporters in Russia. Now we are able to both train them and support them during their research”.

The detailed planning of the activities is not yet ready but you are welcome to contact the coordinators.

EC offers Lorenzo Natali journalism prize for human rights

Posted on July 30th, 2010

The European Commission is calling on journalists committed to reporting human rights, democracy and development issues to apply for the 2010 Lorenzo Natali Prize.

The Prize is open to print, online, TV and radio journalists working in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Arab World and the Middle East, and Europe.

Each applicant or group of applicants can submit one journalistic item printed or aired between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2010.

The Natali Grand Prize of 5000 Euros will be awarded to the journalist who submits the best piece of work. For each of the five geographic areas, three award winners will be granted a prize and a trophy:1st prize, 5000 Euros; 2nd prize, 2,500 Euros; 3rd prize, 1,500 Euros. The winners of the Special TV Prize and Special Radio Prize will be awarded 5,000 Euros each.

Deadline for submissions: 31 August.

To apply online, visit: Lorenzo Natali Journalism Prize.

By Valentina Angelovska and Aleksandra Filipovska

Posted July 23rd, 2010

Donkeys  are smugglers in chief in Macedonia, transporting expensive seeds through illegal crossings toward Serbia, Kosovo and Bulgaria . During the last ten years, selling“quality seeds” in the farm chemicals stores has increased and  become a priority way to make money as well as growing vegetable.

Import channels are well elaborated, and the transferred material can be very easily hidden in bags and cases pockets taken through legal border crossings. According to many, the earning from smuggling seeds and bedding material is compared with the earnings from excise products.

Farmers say that the situation with smuggling of seeds is alarming and that although there are fines, the traders earn the most in that way. Farmers from Strumica experience great difficulties with inadequate seeds. They purchase the seeds for vegetable production from various sources, and farm stores are the favorite destination for many, which are located in the closest cities at the border crossings.

Sources for “Dnevnik” state that there are many not registered traders and individuals offering seeds and bedding plants without quality and origin guarantees. Although they know that they are purchasing cheaper seeds with suspicious quality, farmers from Strumica are forced to do that due to poverty.  

The first part of the story was published on April 24th this year, the second one on April 26th. Both in the daily newspaper "Dnevnik".

Click here and here to read the original stories.

Click here to read the English version.

A broken computer for every child

Posted on July 23rd, 2010

By Vladimir Locev

Twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred million euro… tax payers can only speculate on how much the Government spent in order to computerize elementary and secondary schools. Besides permanent requests and accusations by the opposing parties, the Government has never given any information on how much the citizens of Macedonia have paid for the project “A computer for every child”.

According to approximate evaluation, around 160.000 computers were paid more than 32 million euro. Still, this amount does not include the price of the laptops purchased later for the first to fourth year pupils and teachers. Many people find the amount and the successful bidder selection criteria disputable, and especially the fact that a big number of computers are still “laying” packed in the schools’ warehouses and are loosing their value.

However, the computers at the majority of schools are not in function. They are waiting for better times in secured rooms at schools. An additional problem is that many computers, after they have been installed, were broken and turned into pieces. In some schools the computers which have not been stolen or broken, meaning the ones containing all parts, were used by students for watching porn movies during classes...

The articles were published 1-3 march 2010 in the daily newspaper "Dnevnik".

Click here to read the original stories
Click here to read the English version

Posted July 23rd, 2010,

According to information received by The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), during the early morning of 19 July 2010, an unidentified man contacted Socrates Giolias, director of the radio station Thema 98.9 FM and administrator of the most popular social and political Greek blog Troktiko. The unidentified man informed him that someone was attempting to steal his car. Giolias went outside to the building entrance where he had parked his car and it was then he was shot several times. Giolias's body was riddled with bullets and he died on the spot. Three alleged perpetrators fled the scene and remain at large.

SEEMO strongly condemns the murder of Giolias.

Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General said: "First and foremost, our condolences go out to Giolias's family, friends and colleagues for their tragic loss. This is another black day for journalism and, moreover, journalists as such."

Vujovic added that he was alarmed about the dreadful crime and that, "It is very important to find the person or persons responsible for this killing of a media owner as soon as possible. SEEMO asks the Greek authorities and police to do everything they can to solve the case and to bring to justice those who planned Giolias's killing and SEEMO therefore welcomes a full police investigation."

Bomb Attack on Home of Radio Journalist in Kosovo municipality Zvecan

Posted July 23rd, 2010

According to information received by SEEMO, during the early morning hours of 20 July 2010, an explosive device was thrown in the courtyard of Caslav Milisavljevic, editor-in-Chief of Radio Kosovska Mitrovica, in the Kosovo municipality of Zvecan.

The device exploded, causing damage to three automobiles, but fortunately no one was hurt in the incident. Although Milisavljevic reported the attack to the local police, the unknown perpetrators remain at large.

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists from South East Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), strongly condemns yesterday's attack on Caslav Milisavljevic.

"SEEMO strongly condemns the bomb attack on Milisavljevic and calls upon the local authorities to carry out an immediate and thorough investigation and to bring to justice those responsible," SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic said.

Vujovic continued, "Journalists must never be targeted for what they write or say, regardless of their reporting style or their background. Furthermore, any attacks on journalists must be fully investigated and carry consequences for the perpetrators. SEEMO urges the local police to do everything in their power to provide a secure environment for journalists."

By Olga Melnitskaya

Posted 23rd of July, 2010

The catching of dolphins is strictly prohibited in Ukraine, except to provide medical care – and after the treatement they must be set free again.

However, gaps in Ukrainian legislation allow businesses to make money by catching dolphins: businessmen avoid letting dolphins go with fake stories of ‘providing medical help’.

Last year, four dolphinariums opened in Ukraine, even though the Ministry of Natural Resources issued its last permit to catch a dolphin in 2007. All of the new dolphinariums had the same supplier – the business Nerum.

To read the whole investigation click here:

Part 1

Part 2

English translation

Posted on July 16th, 2010
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South East and Central Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), is concerned about the recently-adopted Electronic Communications Law in Serbia.

According to information received by SEEMO, on 29 June 2010, the Serbian parliament adopted the new Electronic Communications Law which envisages the creation of a database on personal electronic communications of citizens and allows national security and police forces to view the contents without the need for prior permission.

Serbian President Boris Tadic signed the law despite warnings by critics that it was unconstitutional and a threat to freedom of expression, and could jeopardise the confidentiality of journalists' sources.

SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic said: "Journalists in Serbia are particularly vulnerable to state efforts to access their personal data, especially in relation to attempts to identify their sources."

He added: "SEEMO understands that Serbia wants to improve its legal system and safety record, all of which is for a good cause. Nonetheless, protection of the confidentiality of sources is integral to a journalist's ability to uncover information which is of interest to the general public."

Posted on July 16th, 2010

Azerbaijan: The 6th of July, a Baku district court convicted Editor-In-Chief Eynulla Fatullayev of drug possession and sentenced him to 2.5 years in prison, writes Article 19 who condenms this act.

This conviction follows the recent ruling of the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) in two previous cases against Fatullayev, in which the ECtHR ordered the Azerbaijani Government to immediately release Fatullayev from prison.

According to Media Rights Institute Director Rashid Hajili, who is one of Fatullayev’s defence lawyers, Fatullayev’s defence team will appeal this case immediately and will pursue it up through the ECtHR if necessary, as they believe it constitutes a violation of Articles 3 and 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

“This conviction shows that the government will do anything necessary to keep Eynulla in prison,” said Hajili to Article 19.

Romanian journalist Adrian Mogos wins the CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism 2010.

Posted July 16th, 2010.
The Central European Initiative (CEI) and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) have chosen Adrian Mogos from Romania as the winner of the CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism 2010.

It was unanimously decided that the Award should go to Adrian Mogos, investigative journalist from Romania. With this selection, the Jury intended to promote the high-quality cross-border investigative journalism carried out by Adrian Mogos, cooperating with colleagues in different countries while raising important issues to the public awareness.

His work represents a good example for the young generation of journalists. Adrian Mogos will receive the Award of 5.000 EUR, offered by the CEI, on the occasion of the traditional CEI Journalists Forum, to be held in Warsaw, Poland, at the end of September 2010.

Among the main achievements as investigative journalist Adrian Morgos has coordinated the Scoop-supported "The Fields of Terror - the New Slave Trade in the Heart of Europe", a joint production of Romanian, Moldavian and Ukrainian journalists. The story, published in December 2009, is a cross-border investigation about forced labour networks still active in some countries in Western Europe.

Another important investigation to mention is Forged Identity - highway to EU story, which was published in mid-October 2009 in the Jurnalul National and an English version by Balkan Insight online publication. Afterwards, the story was largely republished throughout the CEI / SEEMO region in Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia/FYROM, Serbia and Italy.

Adrian Mogos produced many others investigative pieces on different topics: illegal deforestations in Romania, suspicious public tenders organized by the local authorities, abuse against Roma children, who are trafficked to UK etc.

The decision was taken on 2 July 2010, when the international jury met in Trieste at the CEI Headquarters and examined a total of 24 nominations from 11 CEI Member States. The personal risks taken while performing the duty, the quality of reporting as well as the impact on society of the messages conveyed were the main criteria taken into account by the Jury.

The jury was composed of Norbert Mappes Niediek, free-lance South East Europe correspondent based in Graz (Austria); Franca Roiatti, foreign affairs desk, Panorama weekly, Milan (Italy); Andrzej Godlewski, Commentator, Polska The Times, Warsaw (Poland); Marina Constantinoiu, editor-in-chief, Jurnalul National daily, Bucharest (Romania). Drago Hedl, editor and journalist of the daily Jutarnji list, Zagreb (Croatia), and Besar Likmeta, BIRN Editor-Project Manager, Tirana (Albania) - the winners of the editions 2008 and 2009 of the Award - were also members of the Jury. The meeting was also attended by Oliver Vujovic (SEEMO Secretary General) acting as advisor together with Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter (CEI Secretary General) and Barbara Fabro (CEI Senior Executive Officer).

Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter highlighted the commitment of the CEI to media issues in its Member States, especially with a view to encourage the role of independent media and give particular credit to those journalists who frequently exercise their profession under difficult conditions. According to Oliver Vujovic, investigative journalists are important for democratic developments of each country in the CEI / SEEMO region.

Adrian Mogos was born in 1974 in Cluj - Napoca, Romania. Currently, he works for the Romanian daily Jurnalul National. He is member of the executive committee of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism. Mogos has published plenty of investigative reports on Romanian media, but has also worked on several regional investigative projects.

Click here to read the press release from SEEMO.

The Black Sea Blog 

Let’s go visit the neighbours. That’s the starting point for a journalist and a photographer from Romania to do raw-style and deeply fascinating journalism travelling through the countries around the Black Sea.

Posted on July 2nd, 2010
By Brigitte Alfter
The immediate result is a highly recommendable Blog taking the reader along to get a fascinating and insightful first impression of this particular region. And what pictures!

“The Black Sea for fresh eyes, some digital technique, Turkish and Russian dictionaries and much curiosity – a three months blind search” they declare on the front page of their Black Sea Blog.

Stefan Candea writes about their experiences along the road. These days the team is in Georgia,  for example, travelling under police protection, as this particular part of the country has been marred by a criminal gang that not only attacked locals but also tourists. Stefan Candea is a double winner of the Global Shining Light Award for investigative journalism and winner of numerous other awards contributes with his observations along their road.

The fascinating pictures of the blog are taken by photographer, Petrut Calinescu, a Romanian freelance photographer working for a long list of media all over Europe and in the US.

Going by car from Romania via Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, the Ukraine and Moldova, they explore the EU-neighbouring countries, document their moves in word (English and Romanian) and with fascinating pictures.

As Stefan and Petrut rent a room to stay overnight we hear the story of the old lady renting out the room – she memorates her husband who was so bright and clever a professor, that the state gave them such a nice flat. And as they go up into the mountains we hear the background why police is accompanying tourists in this part of Georgia – to the level that they make sure Stefan is given the right amount of change in a shop.

Do use this unique chance and follow the Black Sea Blog.

Insider's report from safe house for trafficking victims

The shelters of the victims of human trafficking in Kosovo are called Safe Houses. They support tens of victims of violence and forced prostitution. The story gives an impression of the life on these shelters, but also the situation about the measures of the authorities to rehab them.

Posted July 2nd, 2010

By Serbeze Haxhiaj, Prishtina, Kosovo,
Safe Houses is a network of shelters in Kosovo that support victims of human trafficking, domestic violence and incest. The circumstances of living in these shelters are unbearable. Some of the women are pregnant, or are traumatized out of their severe experiences. Most of them are subject to the risk of being returned again to the networks of human trafficking or to the families they escaped from because of rape and/or violence.

They sit in these shelters isolated trying to come up with activities that would occupy them in order to beat the stress of uncertainty over their future. They all expect to be transferred to another country since they are exposed to a great risk of being caught on the same circumstances they escaped from if they remain in Kosovo.

Cases are recorded when they were also subject to the maltreatment by the police, judges and prosecutors. When there is a case created in courts about them, usually they are sabotaged or ignored by authorities who are believed to be close to the networks of human trafficking.

Managers of the shelters of these victims struggle to find support, but they can give nothing more than some claustrophobic rooms for them. Some 20 beds are situated into a room, whereas the total expenditure for a victims is something over 300 Euros, sometimes less than this.

The story was published in daily newspaper Zeri, May 10th, 2010.

Click here to read the English version.

Safe haven for critical reporters in Iceland

A new law, the Icelandit Modern Media initiative, makes Iceland the place to be for reporters who want freedom of expression.

Posted on July 2nd, 2010

The initiative addresses the key issues for free expression in the digital age, and may yet be the catalyst for the kind of legislative reforms that all 21st Century democracies will need.

Iceland is at a unique crossroads. Because of an economic meltdown in the banking sector, a deep sense is among the nation that a fundamental change is needed in order to prevent such events from taking place again. At such times it is important to seek a collective future vision and take a course that will bring the nation and the parliament closer together.

On February 17th a parliamentary resolution was filed at the Icelandic parliament suggesting that Iceland will position itself legally with regard to the protection of freedoms of expression and information. This suggestion for a future vision has sparked great enthusiasm both within the parliament and among those it has been introduced to.

According to Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), Iceland went from being placed first in the world for freedom of expression (2007) to 9th (2009). It is time this trend was rectified.

The goal of the IMMI proposal is to task the government with finding ways to strengthen freedom of expression around world and in Iceland, as well as providing strong protections for sources and whistleblowers.

To this end the legal environment should be explored in such a way that the goals can be defined, and changes to law or new law proposals can be prepared. The legal environments of other countries shld be considered, with the purpose of assembling the best laws to make Iceland a leader of freedoms of expression and information. We also feel it is high time to establish the first Icelandic international prize: The Icelandic Freedom of Expression Award.

This proposal does not belong to any single group or party, but should be considered a joint project of all parliamentarians to find a harmonious tone of reconciliation in order to pull the nation out of these difficulties with something to achieve together.

Read more here.
 

The President of Romania initiated a National Defence Strategy which contained, among other things, serious allegations against the media.

Posted July 2nd, 2010

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South East and Central Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), is very concerned about the Romanian National Defence Strategy which has been adopted by the Romanian Supreme Defence Council (CSAT) and passed on to the Romanian Parliament.

According to information received by SEEMO, the President of Romania initiated a National Defence Strategy which contained, among other things, serious allegations against the media - which is described as a security threat and vulnerability for Romania due to alleged press campaigns aimed at spreading false information about the activity of state institutions. The document has been adopted by the CSAT and was passed on to the Romanian Parliament on 23 June 2010.

"It is very alarming that the President of Romania, a member country of the European Union, has issued such a strategy laying out allegations against the media instead of defending freedom of speech and democracy," said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic.

Vujovic added: "It is even more worrisome that the strategy has already been adopted by the CSAT. In a democratic society the media plays an important role by informing the public about matters of public interest. The National Defence Strategy poses a threat to freedom of speech and critical reporting. SEEMO strongly condemns the statements suggesting that the media is a security threat and vulnerability for Romania, and calls on the Romanian Parliament to respect the role of the media and reject the strategy accordingly."

The state of Croatia's media has deteriorated dramatically in the past couple of years and Croatian journalism is possibly in an even worse state that it was during the repressive war years in nineties writes Scoop's national coordinator in Croatia, Barbara Matejcic.

Posted June 19th, 2010

Sensationalism and decline in general standards of journalism as devious ways of attracting the audience are only a tip of an iceberg; basic human rights of journalists who dare speak up regardless of the consequences are in serious danger.

That's why The Croatian Journalist Association (HND) had led a protest action in Zagreb, on Human Rights Day, December 10, under the slogan "Stop censorship – freedom for journalists". HND cocluded that Croatian journalism reached its lowest level and they cited - as the biggest problems - censorship lead by media owners and big advertisers in cooperation and violent attacks on journalists.

Tabloidisation of all media in Croatia is a one of the major problem which caused big
drop in newspaper circulation the last few months. Free, uncompromising and investigative journalism became very risky in Croatia. For instance,  perpetrators of the attack on Dusko Miljus, investigative journalist who writes about crime and corruption and had been severely beaten up 2 years ago, have not been found yet, and Miljus is still under police guard.

Several others investigative journalists have been fired the last six months because of having investigated corruption in the public sector.

Macedonians travel to India, Pakistan and other countries looking for human organs. Nongovernmental organizations are warning that people living in poverty, especially from the Roma community, are selling kidneys.

Posted on June 14th, 2010

By Natali Sotirovska and Vesna Kolovska

“I am selling kidney for 300 euros”, urgently. Such advertisements could be found on the pages of the Macedonian printed newspapers as well as on the internet markets.
America's Association of doctors in its official reports provides that Macedonia is part of the chain of illegal sale of kidneys, even though the trade with organs in Macedonia is prohibited and is a criminal act. However, the Macedonian police has never been interested through which channels Macedonian patients are traveling to India, Pakistan or other countries where the kidney transplantation is legal or half-legal.

Transplant tourism is permanent in Macedonia. In 2009 there were three patients who had kidney transplantation in Egypt. On average, 4-5 patients per year have kidney transplantation abroad, but some of them complain that they had complications.

However, the donors who are poor people and are deciding to sell part of their body are receiving very little funds. In the countries "exporters" of organs the poverty is enormous and misused. Donors receive 1,500 - 2,000 euros per kidney. On the other hand, buyers are paying huge amount of money. In Pakistan, for example, one kidney costs around 30,000 dollars and in other countries up until 100,000 dollars. The price of the liver on the market is 150,000 dollars.

The authors wrote 3 articles based on their investigation. These were published on the 7th, the 9th and the 10th of December 2009 by the daily "Dnevnik" as well as on the national radio "Kanal 77".

Click here to read the original articles:

Article 1

Article 2

Article 3

and here to read the English translation.

“Khimprom” in Vinnitsya used to be one of the major production sites in the Soviet Union. But in the years after Ukraine’s independence, it was slowly destroyed. 

With the help of various schemes. The reporters behind the investigation, Ihor Zaykovatiy and Marina Karabay, investigated the true reasons behind the destruction of what used to be one of the Sovjet Union's major production sites.

They found out that the plant’s failure was orchestrated by top government officials and big businesses in Ukraine and Russia.

On the local level, the execution of the big plan was conducted by directors and court arbiters, as well as asset managers who later blamed one another for the plant’s bankruptcy, but secretly made big profits on the plant’s asset division and sale.
 
The plant stopped functioning three years ago, but hundreds of tons of chemical waste still remains on its former territory in downtown Vinnitsya without owners, and therefore without anyone responsible for their liquidation.

The article was written by Ihor Zaykovatiy and Marina Karabay for the Vinnitsya newspaper “Real.” It was published on March 24, 2010.

To read the original story, click here.

To read the English translation, click here.

Genes of bacteria, plants, and animals are injected into numerous organisms and substances. Among the most modified plants are soy, corn and potatoes. No one knows for sure what kind of effects this has on coming generations.

Posted on June 13th

By Oleksandr Akymenko

The reporter questions the truthfulness of markings on product packaging in Ukraine regarding GMO contents. The new law of Ukraine requires that each product has a marking “Contains GMO” or “No GMO” since the beginning of 2010.

However, due to the lack of budget money, the producers have to test the products at their own cost, therefore the results from the laboratories are issued only to them and are not made public.

In the last half year, store shelves have been filled up with more and more products with green marks “no GMO”. However, this is what they write on the package, but does anyone control what is actually inside? This is what we managed to find out.

The article “Hunting for GMO” by Oleksandr Akymenko of the “Svidomo” Bureau of Investigative Reporting, was published by “Informator”, the newspaper of the “Agency for Journalistic Investigations” in the January 21-27, 2010 issue. “Informator” is based in Lviv, but the subject matter is relevant to all Ukraine.

Click here to read the original article,

and here to have the English translation.

With no options left in the official health care system patients turn to folk physicians who "treat" them from their living rooms.

Published on June13th, 2010

By Laura Papraniku

Many of the so-called physicians in Macedonia attract patients who cannot find cure in the official health care institutions. They then turn to alternative therapy - often dangerous – secretly performed in folk physicians' homes.

There these doctors regulate broken or displaced bones, sprained muscles. Without a single day at school, folk physicians have destroyed medicine. Some of them have even gained much fame, as they have had success with their patients.


Even though in many cases there were complications in the patients’ conditions due to treatment of “fraudulent physicians”, their “hospitals” are still full of patients.

In the period from 2000 to 2010 seven suits have been submitted against “folk physicians”, out of which two acts were registered in 2003 and four in 2005 and 2008.

The story was published in the daily newspaper KOHA in Macedonia, in two parts:

1st part: 25-03-2010
2nd part – 26-03-2010

English translation

23 IFEX members denounce censorship and escalating threats to free expression in Ukraine

Posted on June 13th, 2010

We, the undersigned journalists, defenders of free expression and members of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX), express our concern with the escalating threats to freedom of expression in Ukraine.

We join our Ukrainian colleagues and journalists in denouncing censorship and demand that Ukrainian authorities stop interfering with the work of the media.

According to monitoring research conducted by the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) and other organisations, there is evidence of a drastic decline in the state of freedom of expression in Ukraine since President Victor Yanukovych came to power in February 2010. The number of attacks against journalists has dramatically increased and the editorial independence of some prominent media outlets has been compromised. Journalists have stated that they are forbidden from covering certain topics on air and that direct pressure is exerted by the top management of the channels in order to influence editorial decisions.

On 6 May 2010, the news reporters from national TV channel 1+1 voiced their concerns against the censorship in an open letter: "They [station management] forbid us from covering certain topics and facts. Reports that include criticism of the authorities are taken off the air for political reasons. The final decision regarding what is broadcast is made not by the news program editor or by the chief editor of TSN news magazine, but by the general director of 1+1 TV channel.

"We also raise concern with recent tactics aimed at depriving television channel TVi of its frequencies. A rival channel, Inter, owned by the wife of the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has claimed it was granted the frequencies and has appealed to the National Broadcasting Council to obtain them. This type of administrative harassment hampers media freedom; independent media and the national broadcasting council should be free to operate according to the industry's policies and procedures.

On 7 May 2010, journalists working for national TV channel STB also denounced systemic censorship. In a separate open letter, they stated that since the presidential election, "the focus has shifted from critical independent coverage of government activities to stories covering the official activities of the Minister of Education Dmytro Tabachnyk, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN-UPA), and the official interpretation of Holodomor - the mass starvation of Ukrainians in 1932-1933.

"In April, authorities attempted to restrict media access to a press conference held by the President of Ukraine and his Russian counterpart in Kharkov. The authorities barred prominent journalist Mustafa Nayem of the independent online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda from attending the press conference, citing press accreditation issues. During the press conference, historical sovereignty agreements were announced that outline sharing arrangements for the country's oil and gas sector and extend the presence of a Russian military base in Ukraine. Journalists were prevented from asking critical questions about the agreements.

We thoroughly condemn the systematic undermining of the media's independence in Ukraine and call on government authorities and media management to undertake the following steps to restore confidence in the country's free press, a cornerstone of any functioning democracy:

1. We appeal to the Ukrainian authorities to abstain from any intervention that compromises the independence of the media;

2. We call on the management of media outlets, including STB and 1 + 1 television stations, to end interference in the editorial decision-making processes and allow these outlets to cover matters of the public interest independently;

3. We call on journalists and media outlets to outline and uphold transparent editorial policies that guarantee freedom of the press;

4. We encourage journalists to report cases of interference in their work to media monitoring bodies, citing provisions outlined in the editorial policies of the media outlets they work for;

5. We call on international organisations to publicly support this statement and to express solidarity with Ukrainian journalists who are fighting for a free press.

Signed:

Institute of Mass Information, Kyiv, Ukraine 

Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo

Investigativo Association of Caribbean Media Workers

Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression

Center for Media Studies & Peace Building

Comité por la Libre Expresión

Ethiopian Freepress Journalists' Association

Exiled Journalists Network

Federation of Nepali Journalists

Freedom HouseGlobe International

Independent Journalism Center

International Press Institute

Maharat Foundation (Skills Foundation)

Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance

Media Institute of Southern Africa

Media Rights Agenda

Pacific Freedom Forum

Pacific Islands News Association

Pakistan Press Foundation

Southeast Asian Press Alliance

Thai Journalists Association

World Press Freedom Committee

Read more here.

Tuberculosis is a huge problem in Ukraine. Doctors report app. 46.000 new cases every year.One president after another and one government after another has promised to fight this disease. But as the reporter Larysa Artemenko from Telegraf discovered, almost nothing happens. The Ukrainian government ordered modern German equipment for the production of vaccines, but the factory was never built and nobody knows where the equipment is. The country now imports vaccine from Denmark, but in Kremenchuk, where Telegraf is published, there is an acute lack of vaccines.

Posted on June 12th, 2010

Larysa Artemenko, reporter for the newspaper Telegraf (Kremenchuk/Poltava region), started a national investigation connected to the topic of the tuberculosis epidemic in Ukraine.

In the first publication, Artemenko proves the argument that it is in the government’s interest not to have Ukraine’s own production of BCG vaccine. Besides big pharmaceutical companies making money on tenders and vaccine sales, Artemenko’s investigation led to another big money pit – Lvivlikpreparaty, the factory had modern German technology to produce vaccines but did not have space to do it in. The article uncovers how the Ukrainian government more than a decade ago took out huge loans for 35,275,000 German marks and purchased the equipment but failed to finish building the plant. Now the country is left with huge debts, no vaccine and traces of the equipment are gone too.

The second article looks into the typical scheme with the involvement of the Party of Regions, which is now in power, and former Vice Prime Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk on the illegal seizure of anti-tuberculosis state health institutions. Neglecting all further reports and audits of the accounting chamber uncovering illegal actions, none of the sanatoriums were returned for the treatment of the sick with TB. The author describes in detail the story of two sanatoriums, which are two of many.

The third article tells the story of the program “Control of TB and HIV/AIDS in Ukraine” funded by the World Bank and implemented by the Ukrainian government in 2004-2008. The Ukrainian government, who was offered USD 60 million for the program, barely used half of the money and failed to implement it. The author showed the work of the Kremenchuk anti-TB prison hospital, but the conclusion of the article states that many of the inmates do not get the necessary or complete treatment and get released, thus spreading TB among the population.

There were three parts of the investigation published in the newspaper Telegraf (Kremenchuk/Poltava region: “Why does Ukraine not have its own BCG vaccine?” on March 25, 2010, “How Crimean sanatoriums were ‘seized’” on April 1, 2010, and “Why do inmates remain the source of tuberculosis?” on April 8, 2010.

Click here to read the English translation and the original stories:

English translation

Story 1

Story 2

Story 3

Scoop-supported reporter Nevena Panayotova, Bulgaria, has just received the James Bourchier Special Award for Journalistic Excellence for her part of an investigation on gold mining forcing people to leave their homes.

Posted on June 12th, 2010

Awarding this investigation seems even more right, because it has had big impact: In the winter of 2008 it was sent to the board of directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD )and the Bank didn't finance the cyanide project in Bulgaria. Recently, the investigation was used in the Court by a local NGO and as result the Supreme Administrative Court of BG banned cyanide use in Bulgaria.

Read more about the award here (in Bulgarian only).

Read the resume of the story here:

From 1990 to 1998 more than 30 000 people in the world were forced to leave their homes because of gold mining projects. A single gold ring leaves behind up to 20 tonnes of toxic waste. For the period 1990-1998 more than 30 000 people all over the world have left their homes. Because of gold.

The gold mining companies become more and more interested in the East European countries. Underdeveloped legislation, corruption and governments’ negligence of the interests of the people create the best natural environment for gold hunters. The non-stop raising price of gold –at the New York Stock Exchange reached its highest level since 1980 – the troy ounce is more than a 1000 USD at the world markets, and it stimulates the search for new deposits and new places. Moreover, the gold jewelry retailers marked the highest incomes in their history – about $14,5 billion US dollars only for the first six months of 2007.

The Balkan gold trail crosses Romania, Ukraine, Turkey, Bulgaria and Serbia – everywhere, with small exceptions it leaves behind devastated environment and sick people. And everywhere we tracked the same persons, who represent the companies, registered in Canada and closely connected between themselves at highest corporate level, or through the Geoscience Foundation, created by John Menzies, president of Euromax Resources.

They are active in Turkey and since 1988 they develop one of the biggest and oldest mines in this part of the world. Now, the damages are countless. They moved to Ukraine after the accident in Baia Mare in January 2000. At present, they work in several places in Bulgaria and Rosia Montana, Romania. In these four countries the projects are on territories close to protected zones or areas that should be protected, but because of the big financial interests, the status of those areas was changed.

In the near future they are expected in the Bor melting plant in Serbia.

Click here to go to the page with the whole story in several languages.

Posted on June 9th 2010

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has - with the help of several Scoop-people - compiled a list of people of interest in its coverage area. Some of these people are criminals, some are politicians and some are businessmen. Some are all three. All of these figures are well known and figure regularly in stories about organized crime and corruption.

OCCRP, in the interest of better public understanding and accuracy in stories,
is providing background information on these people.

They have recieved help from several Scoop-coordinators and/or Scoop-supported journalists. Some of them are: Vitalie Calugareanu, Vlad Lavrov, Dumitru Lazur, Djordje Padejski and Xhelal Neziri. Stefan Candea was the project coordinator. Editors include John Holland and Drew Sullivan.

Click here to go to the web site: People of Interest.

The OCCRP is a joint program of the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo,
the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism, the Bulgarian Investigative
 Journalism Center, the Center for Investigative Reporting in Serbia, the
Caucasus Media Investigation Center, Novaya Gazeta, HETQ in Armenia and a
network of investigative journalists and media in Montenegro, Albania,
Moldova, Ukraine, Macedonia and Georgia.

Scoop co-founder wins national version and is nominated for European Parliament award

Posted June 2nd,  2010

Co-founder of Scoop, Anne Haubek,won the national part of the European Parliament Prize for Journalism 2010. And: she is now nominated for the European version.

The prize is given for reporters having treated important European topics or improved the understanding of the EU-institutions and policy.

Anne Haubek is nominated for a specific edition of her weekly show « Europa lige nu », broadcast on March 28, 2010. This show, called "Forårsfornemmelser i Bruxelles" ("Spring sensations in Brussels), focused on the European strategy for 2020, EU's new foreign service as well as the citizens initiative, which means that 1 million citizens can - by their signature - back a plan to introduce European legislation.

In its decision, the jury mentions that Anne Haubek is capabable of communicating an often complicated topic in a dynamic and interesteing way so that not only EU – specialists are able to follow. Furthermore the jury notes that she often uses international sources, hereby assuring a broad and versatile angle.    

The European jury will make its decision in September, and the award ceremony will take place in October.

Click here to go to the web site for Anne Haubek's show "Europa lige nu".

Read more about the prize here.

Protests Against Continued Persecution of Jailed Editor

Freedom of expression campaigners will protest on Thursday 3 June outside the Azerbaijani embassy in London, calling for an end to the persecution of jailed journalist Eynulla Fatullayev.

Posted June 2nd, 2010

Amnesty International UK, ARTICLE 19, English PEN and Index on Censorship will also hand in a letter to the embassy – signed by key literary figures including Monica Ali, Alan Ayckbourn, William Boyd, and Philip Pullman - calling for Fatullayev’s immediate release and for new politically-motivated charges against him to be dropped.



Newspaper editor Fatullayev, 33, is currently serving an eight-and-a-half year prison sentence based on trumped-up charges of terrorism and defamation. In April this year the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that he had been wrongfully imprisoned for exercising his right to freedom of expression and that he should be immediately released.



Despite being a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, the Azerbaijan authorities responded by questioning the court’s authority. Chingiz Esgerov, Azerbaijan’s representative to the ECtHR, argued that “the ECtHR has no authority to give orders to the courts of other countries” and “the country’s legislation does not envision the release of a prisoner only on a basis of the ECtHR.” 



After the ECtHR began reviewing his case, Eynulla Fatullayev was further accused of possessing illegal drugs - a charge widely believed to have been fabricated in order to keep him in prison. 

In March Eynulla’s father received a death threat for speaking out about his son.

This is the third of such threats he has received.

Eynulla Fatullayev received an honourable mention before an audience of the UK’s leading journalists at last night’s Amnesty International Media Awards. In 2009 he was the recipient of the Amnesty International Special Award for Journalism Under Threat.



Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:



“The continuing imprisonment and persecution of Eynulla Fatullayev brings shame on Azerbaijan. It’s amazing that the authorities are so scared of the words of one journalist that they would damage their international standing in this way, even questioning the authority of the European Court of Human Rights.”



ARTICLE 19 Executive Director Agnès Callamard said:



“It is extremely disconcerting that Emin Fatullayev has received death threats for speaking out on behalf of his son. The Azerbaijani Government has the duty to ensure the safety and security of its citizens. They should publicly condemn such threats, investigate them thoroughly, and provide adequate protection to Emin Fatullayev.”



Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee and Deputy President of English PEN Carole Seymour-Jones said:



“Eynulla Fatullayev is just a journalist doing his job. He should be released immediately and these politically-motivated charges against him should be dropped.”



John Kampfner, Chief Executive of Index on Censorship said:



“Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right which journalists, human rights defenders and all of us should be able to exercise openly and without fear of reprisals. Azerbaijan must fulfil its international obligations to guarantee this right.”



The persecution of journalists such as Eynulla Fatullayev is commonplace in Azerbaijan. The authorities have curtailed freedom of expression and have shown persistent hostility towards independent and opposition media. Journalists continue to be harassed, threatened, attacked and imprisoned for conducting their professional activities. Defamation and false charges are increasingly used to silence critical voices.



 

• Demonstration details:
What: Protesters with placards demonstrating outside embassy and handing in letter to ambassador
When: 12 noon to 1pm, Thursday 3 June 
Where: Opposite the Azerbaijan Embassy, 4 Kensington Court, London, W8 5D 
• For more media information and interviews please contact:
§Rebecca Vincent, ARTICLE 19 Azerbaijan Advocacy Assistant, 0207 324 2509
www.article19.org 
Steve Ballinger, Amnesty International UK media unit, 020 7033 1548, Out of hours: 07721 398984, www.amnesty.org.uk
Robert Sharp, English PEN Campaigns Manager, 0207 324 2538, Out of hours: 07790 420011
www.englishpen.org
Padraig Reidy, Index on Censorship News Editor, 020 7324 2526, Out of hours: 07947 242 476
www.indexoncensorship.org

Posted on April 27th, 2010

By Anne Haubek

It is seen before in history that investigative journalism can force presidents to resign. Last year Moldova’s president  had to realize that as an inevitable fact.
 
An investigation done by a group of journalists managed to expose how the former president of Moldova Vladimir Voronin abused his power to berich himself and his family, which in the end let to his fall in 2009.

The investigation tracked down examples of how his family’s wealth had increased after he became president. The journalists managed for example to get information about how Voronin’s private properties from 1996-2009 were growing extensively and how he and his family were abusing their position to create monopolies for their own businesses.

The investigation is a good example of cross boarder journalism, because some of the stories had links outside of Moldova.

The investigation was published in March 2009 just before the election in Molodova and played a leading role in public protests against the president.

And, we could not have done this without Scoop, said Dumitru Lazur, who is one of the journalists from the team, when he was presenting the investigation at the biannual Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva in April 2010.

The journalists Irina Codrean, Vitalie Calugareanu, Vlad Lavrov, Dumitru Lazur and Stefan Candea from the team recieved the Global shining light award 2010 for their work at the conference, and the jury accentuated the strong research and also the insistence to hold the government accountable.

Click here to read the investigation.

Echos in the press:

Journalisten.dk (Danish Journalist Union's website)

Politiken, Danish daily

Most officials believe that joining a party guarantees them moving up the career ladder. In the case of the heads of the Dnepropetrovsk regional administrations, six heads belonged to one party – having received their positions after joining and the appointment of the governor, a party member.

Posted on April 20th, 2010

By Mikhail Nazarov

Reporter Mikhail Nazarov looks into the opaque and controversial appointment of officials in Dnepropetrovsk and Dnepropetrovsk region in the article “Policy behind-the-scenes”, which was published by the newspaper Dnepropetrovskoye Vremya on July 29, 2009.

The article begins with the story of one of the heads Dnepropetrovsk city committees on land, who believes that he was asked to resign because his superiors at the state committee on land were concentrating power with people close to them in preparation for the upcoming presidential election.

Long-term practice shows that official positions are filled by people with connections to political forces, not by the professional qualities and experience they possess. According to independent experts, only open and fair competitions such as in developed democratic countries can change the situation.

The article investigates the relation of party membership to promotions of officials. Most officials believe that joining a party guarantees them moving up the career ladder. In the case of the heads of the Dnepropetrovsk regional administrations, six heads belonged to one party – having received their positions after joining and the appointment of the governor, a party member.

Leaders of political parties were interviewed and they complain that people join parties for the personal career gains. They all deny lobbying and promoting their party members into high official positions. Zagid Krasnov, leader of the majority in the Dnepropetrovsk City Council, states that there is no practice of selling positions in Dnepropetrovsk councils or other authority offices at all.

In closing, the journalist presents the case of the recent downsizing conducted by the city of Dnepropetrovsk – in order to fulfill the pre-election promises of a political party to shorten the amount of bureaucracy in the city and increase efficiency. But even today, three years after the local elections, it is impossible to know how political parties are delivering on their election promises – not a single political force has published a report on their activity or achievements as related to pre-election programs.  

This investigation was supported by Scoop and published by the newspaper Dnepropetrovskoye Vremya on July 29, 2009. 

To read the original version, please click here.

To read the English translation, please click here.

The Ukrainian government approved the Program of provision of free access to dwelling and public objects for people with restricted physical abilities. But state and public institutions, multi-apartment houses and other objects remain inaccessible for disabled people.

Posted on April 20th, 2010

By Roman Martyn and Volodymyr Torbich, “Rivne Investigative Reporting Agency”

In 1993 Ukraine signed international agreement – the Resolution of General Meeting of UNO “About standard rules of provision of equal opportunities for disabled people”. In ten years Ukrainian government approved the Program of provision of free access to dwelling and public objects for people with restricted physical abilities. The same programs were worked out on the local level. However state and public institutions, multi-apartment houses and other objects remain inaccessible for disabled people.
Journalists of Rivne Investigative Reporting Agency ascertained that out of 12 objects defined by the program of accessibility provision only one - the Central Municipal Hospital - is adapted to the needs of disabled people. But a ramp there was made long ago, when the hospital had been built. Other 11 objects are equipped with non-functional and even dangerous construction, which became a waste of tax-payers’ money.

Reporters also made an experiment: in a wheelchair they tried to get into different public and state institutions, which are reported to be well-adapted to the needs of disabled people.

This investigation was supported by Scoop and posted at numerous sites, broadcast by local TV channel “Sphera TV” as well as published at OGO weekly and Rivnenska gazeta.

Click here to read the whole stories in original or English version:

Original version, part 1.

Original version, part 2.

English version.

This is a story focused on the fate of Albanian children isolated because of the fear of revenge for blood feud tradition among Albanians in Kosovo. And about the lack of any attention to this category of children by the public and civil sector.

Posted on April 20th, 2010

By Anita Kadriu, Prishtina, Kosovo.

The customary code, the kanun, which served as a self-regulating law among Albanians for centuries and has crouched itself into modern times, demands eye-for-an-eye retribution. Justice for a man’s murder can be met only by the elimination of any man from the perpetrator's family. The loss of a man from one tribe has to be compensated with the loss of a man from the tribe responsible for that murder. As murderers themselves go to state jail, that means that any man but the murderer may lose his life.

Many Kosovo male children have been walled in. They lost contact with school or society. State institutions do not have proper information about them, and police cannot even provide numbers of blood feud victims as they don’t register the motivation. Nor have the police been asked to escort such children going to school.
Charities involved do not know either. UNICEF says children have right to education, but it does not know of children locked in. Nor does Centre for Child Protection, a Pristina group.

Mediators provide temporary relief by engaging the families to a besa, i.e. a man of respect and honour. A besa can be arranged for the child to go to school. Mehmet Rukiqi, an ethnographer whose recent negotiation for besa involved a locked-in family that wanted to buy their children New Year presents, says there are at least two families locked in for each of the country’s 30 communes. The overall number of families in vendetta in Kosovo may well be in the upper hundreds.

The end of the war brought a mishmash of overlapping cultures, trauma, poverty and no exit from it, deteriorating traditional values, says Behgjet Shala, a prominent human rights worker, as he tried to explain the upsurge in vendettas and children as a target of them.

This investigation was supported by Scoop and published by the daily newspaper Zeri on the 21st of February, 2010.

Read the original articles as published by Zeri here:

Part 1

Part 2

Or read the English version here.

Posted April 20th, 2010

By Aleksandar Manasiev in Macedonia and Branimir Djokic in Serbia

People with spare passport also have their reserve country, which serves them as a safe place for hiding when the police gets the warrant for their arrest. Those suspected for crime in the Balkans are always well informed whether there is a ongoing investigation against them.

When they receive the first signals that is possible to end up behind the bars ,they instantly pack their bags,say farewell to their closest family members and before departure the never forget to take the most important thing-the passport for the country where they plan to flee.

Only one step on the other side of the state border is enough for them to feel safe since than the warrant becomes a useless piece of paper. The reason for that is simple: The Balkan countries do not extradite their own citizens ,so the suspected criminals move from one country to another just to escape the justice and the law enforcement organs. What is their life like, are they afraid from returning in their homeland or are actually satisfied from the conditions in the alternative motherland? Our reporters were investigating the phenomenon about the evasion of the justice by using dual citizenship.

The investigations were supported by Scoop and published in the newspaper Dnevnik in Macedonia (on February 23 , 24 and 25 -2010) and in the newspaper Vesti in Serbia (march 15, 16, 17 and 18- 2010). Short version of the story will be published  by  WAZ.EUobserver.com.

Read the articles in Dnevnik online here:

part 1

part 2

part 3

Or read all the stories as pdf's:

Vesti 1

Vesti 2

Vesti 3

Vesti 4

Dnevnik 1

Dnevnik 2

Dnevnik 3

English version

Part 1: When justice stops at the border

Part 2: People with spare homeland

Part 3: Criminals protected by the law

A british business man invested 70 million US dollars in the Rustavi Metallurgical Plant and waited for revenues but in vain, when he eventually arrived to Georgia to examine financial records, he was not allowed into the company, because it no longer belonged to him.

Posted on April 19th, 2010

By Nona Kvlividze

A British businessman thought it was a good idea to invest in Georgia, a number 1 reformer in the world, according to the World Bank and a number 1 to fight corruption, according the Transparency International. He invested 70 million US dollars in the Rustavi Metallurgical Plant and waited for revenues but in vain, when he eventually arrived to Georgia to examine financial records, he was not allowed into the company, because it no longer belonged to him. He was told that the Plant went bankrupt and was put out for sale, no information about the creditors, just names of two companies and none of them traceable. The journalistic investigation is based on interview of the British investor and some older documents of the company, both the court and the temporary auditor appointed by the court declined to provide information to the reporter as well as to the investor. Right after the Plant was sold for the second time the new owner changed the formal status of the company from limited responsibility into the stock-company and thus made the new owners invisible for the media, - the local low does not require stock-companies to make their owners publicly known.

This investigation was supported by Scoop and published by the national daily newspaper Kviris Palitra on April 8th, 2010. 

Click here to read the whole story in Georgian.

Click here to read it in English.

If journalists have a good idea for an investigative story but lack time or money to carry out the research, they can apply for funding. As a new option this call not only offers support for cross-border stories but also for European affairs stories.

Posted April 19th, 2010

By Brigitte Alfter

The next round for proposals to apply for a research grant from Journalismfund.eu is now open. The overall amount to be distributed this time will be € 25.000, the deadline for applications is June 14th 2010 at 12 o'clock noon.

For the first time we now offer two types of grants: One for cross-border reporting, and one for stories about European affairs. Read the rules for applications and assessment criteria. Applications are only accepted via the online application form.

Journalismfund.eu has had some very interesting applications, two of them are already published, one unveiled terrible working conditions of trafficked workers, and one unveiled dodgy business schemes in several countries.

However the criteria did not allow for journalism where only one colleague was doing the research on a European subject. We hope, that the new choice between cross-border reporting and European affairs stories will allow a broader variety of stories in this call for proposals.

With this call we also introduce an almost two months application period. The prolonged time to write the application will hopefully allow for some well-prepared applications. In the last round the jury had to turn down some interesting looking applications, because they were not clear enough or left too many open questions.

The outcome of the jury meeting will be announced on June 22nd.

In order to help applicants with the formalities of their applications, there will be arranged a series of skype chats, where interested journalists are welcome to reserve a time slot to get one-to-one advice about the application procedure.

The skype sessions will be arranged on April 28th, May 7th and May 10th , each of the days from 9am to 12 am Brussels time. The skype address is journalismfund.eu. If there is further need, further dates will be announced. Please reserve a time for the chat via brigitte.alfter@journalismfund.eu. Of course interested colleagues are also welcome to send questions directly by mail.

The new features for for this application are another step in our development of the best practice for this model of distributing European grants for journalistic research. The development of Journalismfund.eu and the research grants are supported by the Norwegian Fritt Ord Foundation and the Open Society Media Program aswell as via the Fonds Pascal Decroos by the government of Flanders in Belgium.

 

Journalist Arrested, Charged with Treachery in Moldova

According to information brought to the attention of SEEMO, the reporter Ernest Vardanian was arrested on 7 April 2010 in front of his house in Tiraspol and was accused of espionage and treason by men who indentified themselves as secret service agents of the Transnistria region of Moldova. Vardanian remains in pre-trial detention. If found guilty, he could face 12-20 years in prison.

Posted on April 16th, 2010

The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists from South East and Central Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), strongly condemns the arrest of Ernest Vardanian, an independent and well-known journalist in Moldova.


Vardanian is an independent journalist well-known in Moldova for his often critical reporting on state officials and matters of public interest. Vardanian was also a correspondent for the Russian Novuy Region agency.

SEEMO Secretary-General Oliver Vujovic said: "The accusations against Vardanian of high treason due to critical reporting are unacceptable. SEEMO regards prison terms for defamation as a gross violation of internationally-accepted standards and believes that defamation should be treated under civil law, not as a criminal offence subject to punishment by the state. SEEMO urges the Ministry of Security in Tiraspol to withdraw the charges and the prison sentence. SEEMO would also like to remind the Ministry of Security in Tiraspol that an open media environment, allowing for the free flow of information, is a fundamental principle of any democratic society."

The arrest and charging of Vardanian has prompted members of the Moldovan government and various international organizations to call for his release. SEEMO fully supports all these organizations, as well as those Moldovan authorities calling for Vardanian's release.

The World Bank and the Ukrainian government estimate that the total population of the country will decrease rapidly - from the present app. 46 million to 26 million in 2050. Nevertheless the Luhansk City Council in its development plan anticipates a stable population in this city in Eastern

Posted on April 15, 2010

By Konstantin Grodzinskiy

On October 20, the Luhansk City Council presented the “General Plan of the development of the city of Luhansk to 2029.”

In the second chapter, on page five, we find the following data:

“The population under the administration of the Luhansk City Council as of January 1, 2008 (not including the city Shchastye, which is located at a considerable distance from the city) was 467.9 ths people, including 441.8 ths people in the city of Luhansk proper.

“In the last 20 years, the population of the city council decreased by more than 70 ths, or 12%.”

Here is one more point: in the chapter “Economic development of the city, changes in the population and workforce” on page 8, there is a table, “Balance of labor resources,” in which the starting point is 2007 and the amount of people in 2007 is stated at 485.4 ths people, and in 2028 – 460 ths people. So if to count from the calculation of the developers, in the upcoming 20 years, the population of the city will decrease by 25.4 ths people (5.23%). What is the intrigue? Seems like simple, dry numbers. However, to people who follow information flows carefully, these numbers were very surprising....

This investigation was supported by Scoop and published in the newspaper “Realnaya Gazeta “Izhitsa”” on March 3, 2010, on the Internet website Luhansk Portal Top on March 4, 2010, on the Internet website Lugansk.pro.ua on March 4, 2010, on the Internet website Ostrov on March 4, 2010, and on the Internet website Propaganda – No! on March 9, 2010.

Click here to read the English version.

 Click here to read the Ukrainian version.

Copper or culture?

 As a new state Armenia is struggling to both preserve its cultural heritage and to promote economic activity.  So what to do when 7 million tons of copper and molybdenum ore are situated directly under ancient churches, wine factories and other historic monumemnts? Naira Bulghadaryan, reporter for the radio station 'Azatutyun', investigated the conflict.

Posted on April 15th, 2010

By Naira Bulghadaryan

Eighteen complexes of archeological monuments dating back to various periods of time have been encompassed within the territory of a future mining site.  These monuments, having great significance to the history and culture of Armenia, are being shoved aside by the mine industry. 
 Two years ago, by decision of the Armenian government, some areas adjoining Teghut and Shnogh villages were put at the disposal of the Armenian Copper Programme /ACP/ for exploitation. In 2001 ACP received, on a competitive basis, a 25-year license to exploit the Teghut mine. According to the Programme developed by the mining company, 357 hectares of forest would be logged to facilitate annual export of 7 million tons of ore from the mines rich with copper and molybdenum, which would make an important contribution to Armenia’s economic development. The government, upon giving the go-ahead to the private company to establish Teghut mine, announced the “Exploitation of Teghut copper and molybdenum mine” to be of high priority. Mining opponents have initiated a movement for the protection of Teghut, which involves dozens of NGOs. They have declared over and again that the “high national interests” announced by the government in reality have nothing to do with the interests of the state and the people, but merely serve the financial interests of the private company. They have also pointed out that the Armenian government, by pursuing a boost to the economy, has given its consent to destruction of a forest that is rich with biodiversity, and for relocating...

The story was supported by Scoop and published by the Armenian daily newspaper Aravot.

You can read the whole story in different languages here:

English version

Armenian version

Russian version

Georgian media getting too creative?

By Solveig Gram Jensen, posted on April 15th, 2010

National tv recently showed a 30 minutes long show about Russians invading the country and president Saakashvili killed. But it was all constructed - and the tv station did not tell this until later!

Check out the video here.

Last year, a reporter said she got hit by a Russian bullet while reporting for the battle field of the Russian-Georgian war like events. 

Check out the video here.

But according to other sources, she was hit by a Georgian sniper who shoot at her from a so called GEKO, that they uses in order to teach people shooting with plastic bullets. 

The articles published by Novaya Gazeta about Gazprom exposing links to high ranking officials in Russia are part of a long term investigative project. Journalists in Eastern Europe collaborate cross border in gathering and analyzing information related to the private businesses of politicians.

Posted on April 7th, 2010

By Roman Shleynov

We are talking about the friends, former colleagues, good old country house neighbors and just acquaintance of Russian Prime-minister Vladimir Putin. The experts consider that during the years he is at power his friends formed special elite group. Director of Institute of Globalization Problems Michail Delyagin dare say “the friend of prime-minister is main public position” in Russia.

We start monitoring of businesses linked with Putin’s friends reporting about brothers Arkadiy and Boris Rotenberg. To know more, read the story Arkadiy and Boris Rotenberg and Gasprom (English version) and story The Flying Laplander (English version).

Then we look into the businesses of Guennadi Timtchenko. About a third of Russia’s oil and petroleum exports are handled by Timtchenko’s companies. He started his business before Putin became top figure, but coincidently when Putin came at power Timtchenko’s business got in full blossom. To know more, read story The ‘Clearwater’ Oil Trader (English version), story Who is the Third Owner of Gunvor? (English version) and story The Flying Apparatus (English version).

Vladimir Putin has a lot of friends. And he has also distant relatives. As a whole the number of such friends and relatives is so great that the prime minister does not know details of businesses thereof. A lot of them connected with the stat controlled company Gazprom. His press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Putin does not know detailed information of their activities and that “his information thereof has only a fragmentary nature”. But if the Prime Minister casted just a look at Gazprom, he would see not any fragments but a quite completed picture: his friends and relatives hang as clusters upon this company controlled by the state. Many their businesses and posts, and sometimes businesses and posts of their sons and daughters are connected with that company. The collection of such people round Gazprom may be observes without any telescope in any weather. We counted persons who are not strange to the Prime Minister in a dense cloud of intermediates, contractors and partners round the gas giant. It amounts to 13 friends of Putin. To know more read story 4 (English version).

The investigation was published by The newspaper Novaya Gazeta between June 2009 to February 2010.

Reporter Oleg Oganov investigated a complicated knot of corruption in the profitable domestic waste removal business.

Published on April 7th, 2010

By Oleg Oganov
The first publication investigated the problem of unsanctioned dumps in the central private sector in Mykolaiv. The residents complained that garbage was not being removed, while the local district administration regularly allocated money for that purpose. It turned out that the matter went deeper and was the result of corruption among garbage carriers, housing-communal companies, and district administrations that conducted illegitimate tenders for waste removal services to launder money.

The second part of the story uncovered corruption with the creation and involvement of garbage mediation services. They were initially created to deal with clients, getting them to sign garbage removal agreements. In the end they added another layer of profit-taking and no real improvement in city cleanliness happened.

This investigation was supported by Scoop and published by “Nikolayevskiy Biznes” as a two-part story on the garbage problem in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. The article came out in newspaper issues on February 3 and February 10, 2010.

Read the original articles here:

Part 1

Part 2

English version

A Kazakh newspaper routinely harassed for its coverage of government policies, human rights abuses and corruption has been fined US$400,000 and handed a distribution ban, report International Freedom of Expression eXchange, the Almaty-based Adil Soz - International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The partially state-owned BTA bank is claiming damages from the "Respublika" newspaper for an article published last March that allegedly caused clients to withdraw funds from the bank. BTA filed a lawsuit against the Almaty weekly in summer 2009; the newspaper unsuccessfully appealed the damages. In September 2009, the newspaper was ordered to pay the fine. On 17 March, "Respublika" appealed to the economic court, claiming that it is unlawful for printing houses to refuse to print the newspaper.

"Respublika" says the article is factually correct and the issue had been reported in other publications. The distribution ban imposed last month, and upheld by an appeals court on 1 March, will remain until the newspaper pays the fine. But the ban prevents the newspaper from earning an income to pay the damages; it is currently only able to publish online. The newspaper has turned to its readers for help and has already paid US$54,000.

On 17 February, Kazakh media organisations urged the government to ensure that "Respublika" be permitted to publish, reports Adil Soz. Meanwhile, the newspaper is printing copies using office equipment.

"The newspaper is crushed by this fine. The recent court decisions have resulted in the refusal of printing houses all over the country to print the newspaper. This infringes on the right to freely receive and disseminate information and the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution," said Adil Soz.

In spite of revelations of asbestos being garded in unsafe way two years ago, theUkrainian authorities still haven't done anything to remove it...

By Tatyana Rikhtun and Erik Hagen

Posted March 20th, 2010

The story follows a report done two years ago by Rikhtun about dangerous asbestos removed from the liner United States – that has been stored in Inkerman now since 1994 and poisoning those that worked there. The local regulatory organizations insist that there is no dangerous waste on SMZ territory. However, the Sevastopolskaya Gazeta investigation proved otherwise.

Sevastopolskaya Gazeta - this time collaboratin with Norwegian publication Norwatch’s Erik Hagen - begins by updating on the progress since their last report on asbestos removed at Sevmorzavod – since then officials from one ecological inspection agency went to the plant and saw no bags of asbestos and concluded their investigation. Addressing various ecological services and departments that could and should account for the dangerous wastes proved that they took their responsibility hastily and were not interested in ‘seeing’ the dangerous wastes.

However, the reporter learned from workers who were protesting against downsizing, wage arrears and shortened production that containers with asbestos were still at the plant. The journalists found that SMZ officials had violated rules for working with abrasive materials during metal polishing – and were fined in May 2008. They also found evidence that in summer 2008 SMZ tried to explain the presence of illegal abrasives as the result of the work of “third-party” subcontractors – but the latter has signed documents from SMZ officials proving they cleared out all waste from their work.

The reporters took the material being stored in the rusted out containers to a laboratory in the Sevastopol construction college and at a state geological research institute, which both concluded that the substance was indeed asbestos. The containers the asbestos was kept in was never meant for long-term storage and have rusted, thinned and cracked – releasing asbestos into the year – endangering the workers, the entire bay area and the city of Inkerman.

Norwatch’s investigation into the sand and steel peals used for the metal cleaning of ship hulls for Norwegian companies Filstrand and FMV found that the abrasives used included 18 kinds of dangerous materials including cadmium, manganese, lead, mercury and arsenic. Their level exceeded the Norwegian norm by a couple of times. According to Ukrainian standards on dangerous waste, it is also considered hazardous. But the problem is that the plant officials conceal the dangerous waste, the regulatory organizations do not ‘see’ it, and thus in cooperation they endanger the population with life-threatening diseases.

This investigation was supported by Scoop and published in Sevastopolskaya Gazeta No. 28 of July 09, 2009.

To read the original story, click here.

For the English version, please click here.

And for the Russian version, please click here.

Posted on March 17th, 2010

New call for entries for the 16th edition of the Ilaria Alpi Television Journalistic Award is published. The competition is open to reports and press investigations dealing with issues of civil and social commitment (solidarity, no violence,
justice, human rights, employment).

The deadline for submitting is April 10th, 2010 at 12:00 am.

For further informations visit www.premioilariaalpi.it/en or read more here or send an e-mail.

The dark number of children victim of sexual crimes in Macedonia is much bigger then the official one.

Posted on March 17, 2010

By Gordana M. Blazhevska

Sexual or labour exploitation, the child is always victim and most of times is not even aware about it. In Macedonia, there are two centres for human trafficking. One is in Tetovo-Gostivar region and the other in Gevgelija and Dojran when it is about trafficking with juveniles.

Elvira is lovely young girl with long black hair in gathered in pigtails, light green eyes and honest child smile that conquers. As the other sixty children every day, before or after the classes she visits the Daily centre of the non-governmental organization, Association for the protection of the children rights (APSR) in Shuto Orizari.

Most of these children before they started to come in the Daily centre were spending their days begging on streets in different locations, at the bus and railway station, in front of the supermarkets, at the square, at the stone bridge in Skopje, at the frequent crossroads where the begging was covered by cleaning the cars’ windshields... 

This investigation was supported by Scoop and published in the weekly newspaper FORUM. The first  part was published on 27-11-2009, the second part on 04-12-2009.

Click here to read the whole story in English

And here  and here to read in Macedonian.

Posted March 2, 2010

By Avni Zogiani, Scoop’s national coordinator in Kosovo.


With a dire media sector the investigative journalism in Kosovo is going through a rough period of time. The lack of economic development has made the media too dependent on the income from the public sector. On the other hand the Government has shown not only the will to use public advertising to subdue the media, but was proven to be with control-freak tendencies as well.

The persistent lack of rule of law and confusion of competences and accountability line has yield deterioration of norms not only on politics, but on the media sector as well. Journalistic integrity is becoming an exception while there are journalists who start from receiving direct donations from the government to working blatantly on advising positions on different departments.

The investigative journalism is not very popular among most of the media today. Journalists who insist on doing investigative reports face not only threats and intimidation, but lack of support from their own media as well. Some few newspapers that try to afford this adverse environment by doing some investigative reporting are exposed to direct pressure by the public officers either through cutting the funds of advertising or through pressure against journalists by using the other media that are already under complete control of Government.

The intervention of the Government on the media market was open and direct. The head of the committee for appointment of the Board of the strongest media in Kosovo, the public television – RTK, was the actual deputy-PM. The former director of RTK declared he was politically pressured after resigning, though he himself was accused often by journalists of entailing political influence on public television.

The fact that the public media remain far strongest on the Kosovo media market is on a strike contrast with the developments on the region. Through combination of different means, initially through donations and later on through combining the public funding and the money from the advertising, the public media became unchallenged by the private ones. On the other hand, the lack of economic development has left the private media too dependent on the income from state advertising.   

The traditional low readership, didn’t give much advantage to the print media neither. It’s estimated that something like 30 thousand is the daily circulation of the whole dailies in Kosovo. Hence overwhelmingly the public opinion is shaped by the national TVs that are easily controlled in a time when lack of economic development gives no room for diversification of income.

Investigative journalism depends on the commitment of journalists more than on anything else. Some media that can still afford some investigative journalism will face suffocation should there be no significant investments on the sector.

Posted on March 2nd, 2010

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the unsolved murder of Monitor editor-in-chief Elmar Huseynov, who was fatally gunned down in his apartment building in a well-organised attack. ARTICLE 19 calls on the Azerbaijani government to redouble its efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice, and to take immediate action to improve freedom of expression in Azerbaijan.


Elmar's murder had a distinctly chilling effect on freedom of expression in the country. Today, journalists in Azerbaijan face harassment, threats, imprisonment, and violence for conducting their professional activities. Journalists are imprisoned on politically motivated charges of defamation, inciting hatred, supporting terrorism, hooliganism, and drug possession, yet those who commit physical attacks against journalists remain unpunished.

Opposition and independent media outlets operate on an uneven playing field, with unequal access to printing and broadcast facilities, pressure on investors not to advertise in their publications, and excessive civil defamation lawsuits filed by public officials. Self-censorship is pervasive, with few remaining journalists willing to accept the financial and security risks associated with pursuing investigative journalism.

These trends are alarming, and seriously call into question the Azerbaijani government’s commitment to freedom of expression and human rights.

ARTICLE 19 calls upon the Azerbaijani government to:

• Step up its efforts to find and prosecute those responsible for Elmar’s murder, regularly informing Elmar’s family of progress and providing periodic updates to the local press and the international community
• Take seriously journalists’ reports of threats against them and provide them with adequate police protection
• Promptly and thoroughly investigate all attacks against journalists and prosecute the attackers
• Cease all forms of harassment and intimidation of the opposition and independent media
• Abolish all practices that create unequal opportunities for opposition and independent media
• Eliminate legal provisions that stifle the exercise of freedom of expression, including criminal defamation laws
• Take immediate, concrete measures to establish an environment conducive to freedom of expression
• Comply with its international commitments to uphold freedom of expression, such as those outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Website of article 19.

Posted on February 27, 2010

Feel like trying a local sausage down at the farmers’ market? Perhaps you should think twice, if you’re in the Azerbaijani town of Sheki, where there’s an uncannily high ratio of serious infections from meat sold at the market. Local journalist Mehriban Aliyeva set out to investigate what’s wrong down at the market.

Something is rotten in the ancient town of Sheki some 300 kilometers from the Azerbaijani capital Baku. The number of citizens infected by serious diseases like brucellosis and botulism is on the rise, and several deaths have been reported.

According to local doctors the source of these diseases is flesh and milk that originates from sick or dead animals and is sold at local bazaars withot due veterinary controls.

But how difficult is it to lay hand on that type of meat? Not very hard, it turns out. One bazaar specializing in meat from carrions works every night from 11 pm to 7 am.

The customers are often surprisingly respectable: Public catering establishments, doner houses and sausage shops among them. And it’s not only semi-legal or illegal markets that are flush with bad meat. Also at official markets there is lots of dangerous flesh with an official seal based on forged expert opinions.

Through his sources at the markets the reporter gets into contact with several wholesalers specializing in flesh from carrions. One of them is a well-known dealer nicknamed “Flesh Ali,” while another wholesaler, Murad, complains that he is so busy with new orders, including from the capital Baku, that he can’t deliver the necessary amounts of flesh from sick and dead animals.          

Click here to read the whole story in English.

Click here to read the whole story in Azerbaijani.

This investigation was supported by the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism/Scoop.

Posted February 27th, 2010

Gasoline from Ukrainian filling stations is of low quality and very often consumers even get less than they pay for. That's the result of research done by the journalist Oleh Vasylevskiy from the Agency for Journalistic Investigations which has been published in Informator in Lviv in its November 20.-26./2009 issue.

Gasoline prices are rising almost everyday, but the amount of complaints from drivers about gas stations’ work is not decreasing. Sometimes they underfill, sometimes the fuel is of a bad quality – say car owners.

The state agencies for consumer protection would not participate in the test and afterwards even refused to see the results. So are these complaints legitimate? The “Agency for Journalistic Investigations” conducted our own investigation.

Click here to read the whole story in English.

And below to read the whole story in Ukranian.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

This investigation was supported by the Danish association for Investigative Journalism/Scoop.

The European football championship Euro-2012 has developed into a corruption scheme in the Ukrainian city Lviv.

Posted February 25.02, 2010

A documentary film, done by Ihor Chayka, starts out looking into the illegal appropriation of 25 hectares of land from the company “Zelenbud” by the Lviv City Council for the construction of a stadium for Euro-2012.  The repair of roads all over the city, hundreds of them at a time, is being started with violations in technical procedures in order to launder money. The next incident investigated was the proposal to move popular arts exhibition “Vernisazh” from downtown Lviv to a remote area. Some of the “Vernisazh” staff said that the same people behind the initiative to build a hotel there helped to get Sadoviy elected. Lviv officials’ decision to build the hotel in a historical area across from the Armenian Cathedral risks Lviv being removed from the UNESCO world heritage list – and officials were ready to use hosting Euro-2012 as an excuse to take away just about any land plot.

The film also looks at violations in the process of building the stadium in Lviv for Euro-2012. The company “Alpina” won the tender to construct the stadium, as Sadoviy said it was famous in Europe and the only one that had relevant experience. But it turned out later the company was involved in fraud in the construction of a stadium in Germany – and refused to build the stadium in Lviv one day after Sadoviy called for new local elections. “Alpina”, in the end, was not the investor but a contractor, and it was Sadoviy’s team that was lying to Lviv residents for half a year by presenting it otherwise.

As journalists say, it is impossible to get true information from the press service of city authorities. Chayka never got an answer to his request either. Lviv Mayor Sadoviy also refused to be interviewed for the film.


Read the whole transcript in English here.

One Drink – and We are not Going to School

Why do Children in Rivne Freely Buy Alcohol and Cigarettes?

Posted February 25th, 2010

By Kateryna Ivanova and Volodymyr Torbich

Politicians and their agencies claim that they are fighting for future generations: No cigarettes and no alcohol can be sold to juveniles next to schools. But, as the

Rivne Agency of Investigative Reporting found in an investigation, they don't care and - when informed - they don't act. One case is the “Special Child” Center on Verbova Street, where some pensioners have been selling cigarettes for years.

They sell to passers-by, to employees of the Road Inspection which is located nearby, and to schoolchildren, spending pocket money on cigarettes.

'We complained to the municipal police office', Olha Petukh told the team of reporters. 'District inspectors came and confirmed that there was an illegal outlet on Verbova Street, that tobacco and alcohol were being sold. But why is his business still going on? They are still selling – starting from 7 o’clock in the morning'.

To read the whole story in English, click here.

To read the whole story in Ukranian, click here and here.

This investigation was supported by The Danish Association for Investigative Journalism/Scoop and published by newspaper Rivnenska gazeta.

Posted on February 25, 2010

In the Ukranian town of Rivne a team of investigative reporters took a closer look at the municipal housing companies with a total of 52.961 apartments.

The managers and their staff do a poor job: Of the 52.961 tenants only 40.468 have a contract for their home, all companies have huge deficits due to neglecting unpaid rents and the maintenace of the buildings is poor.

This investigation was supported by the Danish association for investigative journalism/Scoop.

To read the whole story in English, please click here.

To read it in Ukrainan, please click here and here.

... is the name of the article published by Pohlyad newspaper, Chernivtsi, on August 13, 2009, issue #32(479). Reporter Viktoria Doskoch investigates a reader’s story of her cousin’s mysterious death.

Viktoriya Tun’ was searching for her cousin, Vasyl Tun’, but instead found his grave. Vasyl, a successful businessman in the past, became a drug addict and mysteriously died in 2007. Just before his death his house was purchased by a policeman, who was supposed to watch him. The law enforcer helped Vasyl get sole ownership of the house and then purchased it for a really low price. 

There are many unanswered questions in the story, even after the newspaper got official responses from the regional prosecutor, among them are: How did Vasyl die? Why were no relatives informed of his death and instead the policeman buried him by himself? How was Vasyl able to get sole ownership of the house while his sister was the true heir to it? Was it really Vasyl’s body that was buried in the grave?

However, the prosecutor found no grounds for exhumation; neither did they find reasons to open a criminal case against the policeman in this story.

This investigation was supported by the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism, Scoop.

To read the whole story in English, please click here.

To read it in Ukranian, please click here.

Posted on February 25, 2010

By: Željko Milović

Although the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), the longest-living European easy tune music contest, clearly state that “no political or similar associations are allowed” at “hilly Balkans”, hardly anyone held to the postulates  since the beginning of this manifestation in 1956  till nowadays.

As the former Yugoslavia was the only socialist and Slav country that took part at the Eurosong all the way until the fall of the “iron curtain”, so her better ranking was a sign of the country’s prestige. The success was less due to her discography industry but more to her political and socio-economical components. The Eurovision (as the manifestation was called prior the “Eurosong”- abbreviated ESC) was raised to the level of ‘the matter of the state”, since frequent bad ranking was publicly vindicated by the “conspiracy theory” against “free Tito’s country”.

“Esentially all our performances at the Eurovision, were the representation of the state, since we were greeted as the country between the West and the East. Everything had been prepared very seriously, at the highest level. For instance, while we were at the ESC in the Hague in 1980, we were welcomed by the Yugoslav ambassador, carried national costumes and dishes, accompanied by folklore groups, so to represent our nations as good as possible” – explained Milan Stupar, who as a high official of the Radio Television Sarajevo took part at three Eurovisions in the seventies. Today he  organize prestigious festivals in countries throughout the Balkans.


The Slovenian Samo Koler, the author of the publication “Eurosong – Preselections – Former Yugoslavia” issued by the Ljubljana branch of OGAE (Organisation Generale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision), emphasizes that “Eurovision” had entirely practical application in the Yugoslav times.

“The Eurovision was a favourite broadcast which provided audience with an illusive feeling of being a part of the Western Europe while it was soon realized that participation had economic benefits. Videos of natural beauties of participating countries were broadcasted at introductions, and since the tourism in the former Yugoslavia was one of the dominant economy branches, it was acknowledged as a good advertisement” – said literature professor, who deals already for decades with the phenomena of the Eurosong” in his works.

According to his opinion, all songs sent to the contest from former Yugoslavia, were accentuated apolitical, the only exception being “Vse rože sveta” (1967. “All roses in the world) and “Moja generacija” (1974 “My generation”). “Song authored by Rade Leskovar in 1967 was in“protest song” trend related to Vietnam. World War II is mentioned in “My generation” but rather as a part of life story of its author Kornelije Kovac” explains Koler.

Politics have, however, involved through several non-participations of Yugoslav representatives at the Eurovision. In May 1979, YRT (Yugoslav Radio Television) decided to stay away since the manifestation was held in Israel, the country that Yugoslavia had no diplomatic relations with, and the next year the manifestation was skipped due to illness and death of the country’s President Josip Broz. Also in Gothenburg 1985, Yugoslavia did not take part, since the performance date – May 4 matched the anniversary of the death of Tito, the National Grief Day. Interestingly, the performance date was exactly the same for the 1991 Eurosong but nobody cared about the “sad commemoration”.

After Tito’s death, political disputes of the six republics and two autonomous provinces came to surface, especially reflecting the “Yugovision”, qualifying contest for the ESC. Victory of the “Riva” band from Zadar in the 1989 Eurovision corresponded to  the beginning of the final breakup of SFR of Yugoslavia. First multi-parties elections were held in the republics, and the demon of national-chauvinism directly reflected at the ESC which was to be held in Zagreb. Belgrade’s eminent publicist Petar Janjatovic witnessed the unpleasant happenings.

The Eurovision was held in May 1990, and about that time the nationally oriented party HDZ won the elections in Croatia. I arrived in Zagreb fifteen days prior to the contest and found the whole city in “cubical” design, which those days symbolized the new ‘awaken Croatia’. There was not a single symbol of Yugoslavia, although it was officialyl the organizer of the contest” – recalls Janjatovic.

Although the manifestation was supposed to be hosted by young Serbian pop-rock moderator Dubravka Makovic and Croatian actor Rene Medvesek and to be directed by Belgrade’s Stanko Crnobrnja, “signals from the top” changed the things fundamentally.

“Dubravka and Rene worked out through all rehearsals, but then horrible pressure started by Croatian state structures, who found inconceivable that manifestation supposed to present the “New Croatia” to the world is about to be moderated by a female Serb. Dubravka started to receive anonymous threatening phone calls and was ‘promised’ physical elimination. Hence her room had to be guarded” sais Janjatovic.

Heated atmosphere and the pressure of Zagreb media finally resulted in new moderators, just a few days before the ESC. Doyens of Croatian television Oliver Mlakar and Helga Vlahovic were chosen, and Stanko Crnobrnja was also replaced with a Croat, Anton Marti.

“In my opinion – if Yugoslavia was “shot at” in the Maksimir stadium (football game finished with the clash between Serbs and Croats – the author’s note) then it was finished off at the Zagreb ‘Eurovision’”, explicitly said Janjatovic.

In Zagreb in 1990 Yugoslavia was represented by Tatjana Materjas Tajci, in the eyes of the Serbs she was the embodiment of the just proclaimed Croatian statehood. In what way and how much this “Eurovision Song Contest” affected mental structures in the Balkans, brightly describes the exclamation used by soldiers of JNA (YPA – Yugoslav People’s Army) and Serbian volunteers when leaving for Slavonija and Baranja battle fields in the early nineties.  Shouting “We will fuck Tajci” used to explain war perception of men in camouflaged uniforms.


The next “Yugovision” was the last wherein all Yugo-republics participated. It was held on March 9 in Sarajevo whilst on the streets of Belgrade toughest demonstrations against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic took place. The demonstrations claimed human lives.

Serbian singer Bebi Dol won the contest, but more important than the victory itself proved that the voting process showed the impossibility of Serbian-Croat cohabitation. During the voting, the Belgrade Television and its satellite Television of Novi Sad awarded no points to a momentary leading Croatian representative Daniel Popovic, while two other pro-Belgrade studios TV Pristina and TV Montenegro “tipped” him with miserable five points. A similar thing occurred to (by that moment rated second) Croatian female singer Ivana Banfic.

Bebi Dol won, but gained score only from “eastern” TV centres – from Belgrade and Pristina maximum of 21 point, from Novi Sad 19 and from Podgorica 7. No one else found that sub-average song deserved at least one point.

“Scenario was clear – TV Montenegro was the last to vote, and they ‘reached the verdict’. It was presented by model Rade Kekovic, a member of the jury, who at the very beginning stated: ‘I know I will hurt many peoples’ feelings and I apologise in advance’” – precisely explained Daniel Popovic who had already attended the ESC in the early eighties and won the best Yugoslavia ranking until victory of band “Riva”.

Popovic recalls that, couple of days later, Kekovic “opened up his soul” to “As” – a Sarajevo tabloid, and confessed that he was put under pressure. “Kekovic stated by name everyone who threatened him to end his career, and that was a very brave gesture of the youngster from Podgorica” – said Popovic.
    
That orchestrated voting occurred today admits musician Goran Gula Pejovic, who with Aco Djukanovic (brother of then and current Montenegrin Prime Minister) and Kekovic was third member of the Montenegrin jury.

“Someone from the Montenegrin television, I cannot recall who, told me that I have to give maximum of 7 points to Bebi Dol, 5 to Sarajevo singer Zerina Cokoja, and the rest of points I can choose to award by myself. That is how I did it. Nobody namely mentioned either Daniel or any Croats, at least not in my case. I remember that at the rehearsal one of the two remaining jury members gave to Daniel maximum number of points which “evaporated” by the evening. Who was behind all that is known to people much more powerful than myself” – mysticaly said Pejovic.

The selection of the last representative of the rump Yugoslavia was held on March 28 in Belgrade. Since Slovenia and Croatia had opted for independence, they stayed away from that competition, and Macedonia withdrew its representatives only a few days prior to the Yugovision. In contest of the representatives of only three republics, “dead race “of two Belgrade contestants took action, and the winner was, up to that time folk singer, Extra Nena.

Independence of ex Yugo-republics created a number of new states which comprehended the Eurovision similar to what former country did, just with more accentuation. They all craved for acceptance from the West, and in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina political goal was to refer to the state of war in their countries, wishing to appear in the context of entertaining show as well, not only in the reports of war corespodents.

First performance as an independent state B&H made while in the midlle of the war. Sarajevo was under siege and constant sniper fire, so the local competition was powered by diesel generators in the building already hit with hundreds of grenades. Only musicians able to make it to the central manifestation participated. Most of the songs dealt with social and war themes (“Heart of Europe”, “Bosna shall sing again”…) and “engaged” song “All the pain of the World (is tonight in Bosnia)” performed by Muhamed Fazlagic Fazla was sent to Ireland. It was supposed to make Europe pay attention to the bloody things in Bosnia.

“Everyghing should by put in the context of perception that we had in hermetically sealed Sarajevo. The greatest pshycological problem was the fear of its male population from being separated from families, and the song is telling about the dylema: either leave Sarajevo to be with dearest who were there thanking the humanitarian workers or stay and defend what their beloved could return to. We identified the evil as a category and asked a question: if we don’t deal with it – who will do it and when” said Fazla who has lived in the USA since 1995.

Verses (reviewed by reputed writer Abdulah Sidran, saying how studiously was taken first performance at the ESC) were explicit and clear to everobody: “All the pain of the World is in Bosnia tonight / I remain to defy / And am not afraid to face against the wall / I know how to sing I know how to win”. After Fazla’s performance, applause lasted for almost five minutes. The message was sent, and Europe reacted as expected, even before the very manifestation.

Leader of the Bosnian delegation at that Eurosong was Milan Stupar, Serb from Sarajevo: “I was preparing Fazla for expected two or three journalists crew but when we landed there were at least 15 cameras on the runway. They followed us as monters throughout the whole Eurosong, looking at us as if we were from another planet. At the press conference, first question was how I, being a Serb, can lead the delegation. And wherever we would go, the situation repeated. Journalists asked only the political questions having politicized the whole thing up to the ultimate extent” – explained Strugar.

Croats neither remained immune to the opportunity to present themselves at first appereance as an independent state. They had sent little known “Put” (“Path”) band to the ESC, and as the great numbers of Croats were getting killed in war actions, song with clear political-patriotic associations “Don’t ever cry”  authored by Djordje Novkovic was chosen.

“Give us the peace, thou Heaven of Love / Don’t ever cry, my Croatian sky”, was sung in the song on which the Croatian OGAE portal explicitly said: “The patriotic song has won and touched the European audience, forced journalists to write about the situation in our country”.

Only Koler emphasises that to some degree different situation occurred in Slovenia. “With first performances one could felt national pride about hearing Slovenian word from the Eurovision stage after so many years, and at that time our representatives were received by the president prior to their departure. Later on it was done by the minister of culture while all that disappered recently. Slovenian contest in the eyes of its’ politicians became an issue that matters the national television, and there is nothing political about it anymore” explains Koler.

The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, the union of only two – territorialy, economically and in any other way disproportionate – federal units, came back to the ESC after a decade, but in a bad moment though.

At «Evropesma / Europjesma» (hereinafter referred to as: «Europjesma») (two different spellings due to a language dialect differencies in the two federal units meaning “Eurosong”), qualifing competition for the ESC, in Sava Centre in 2004 victory was taken by “Lane moje” (“My Lamb”) song, inspired by Serbian etno heritage, and Belgrade’s jury repeated scenario from 1993, awarding minor number of points to Montenegrin representatives. No one in the smaller unit protested, but all this was an initial capsule for events that resulted with crash of S&M two years later.

“By the key”, the next “Europjesma” (“Eurosong”) should have been held in Podgorica. With the lead from earlier “Yugovision” experiences, “someone” had in 2005 assembled “project No Name”. Six teenagers with fair musical education and without big musical experience were chosen, with styling that “drew” towards the national costume, and 7/8 rhythm in song towards the etno, while the quote from Montenegrin national song “Poljem se vija” was used in the composition ouvertire.

The Montenegrins were not willing to miss the opportunity. Extraordinary compatible four-memberd expert jury of TV Montenegro: band “No name” scored the best while no points were awarded to main competitors from Serbia – Jelena Tomasevic and Ogi.

“I think they (Montenegrins – author’s note) were jealous on the previous year success of Zeljko Josksimovic, and he is from Serbia, so they wanted revenge upon us” – spoke at the time Jelena Tomasevic, who has had to wait for her appearance at “Eurosong” for another three years.
Spokesperson of TV Montenegro was explaining that four members of the jury were working as an autonomus body without any influence from the organizers of the contest. Marina Cuca, one of the members of then Montenegrin jury, said today that everybody was under the influence of the “Europjesma” (“Eurosong”) from last year and full of desire to give a chance to the young Montenegrin artists.

“There was no politics involved; no one told to us how to vote. Maybe subconsciously in our heads there were national awakening and patriotism, as well as thinking – why Serbia must always be chief in everything, so all was hatched out of it” – emphasises Cuca.

Happenings at the “Evropjesma” (“Eurosong”) provoked tough reaction in the Serbian media, turning into real harangue unseen since transparent “hatred speeches” during the wars in the nineties. It was claimed that “No name” victory was secured by Aco Djukanovic, brother of the Montenegrin Prime Minister, and it was further flamed by the statements of Serbian and Montenegrian politicians.

So Miodrag Vukovic from the governing Montenegrin party DPS was sending message: “The song has won, Belgrade cried out”, adding that this was “final evidence that Montenegro must not be better in anything”, directly alluding to impossibility of common life. Publicist Petar Janjatovic foresaw the event on May 2005: “If nothing stops the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, then it will be finished off by theEurosong” said for a Belgrade daily.

The Serbian media unanimously called for the disqualification of “No name” band which served as a stimulus for the Montenegrin independentists. On the other side, in their anti-Montenegrin campaign, Belgrade’s newspapers were discovering attributes of future Montenegrin soverignity on every spot. For instance, it was noticed that in the song video “a beautiful girl wears a bobbin of red wool in her hands which associates the new Montenegrin flag”. What Tajci used to represent to Serbian auditorium then, “No name” jumped  in instead.

Real reaction could be seen on the forum of RTV Serbia’s web site, where”war started” against the traitorous late brothers”. The nature and number of reactions are sufficiently described by the conclusion of participants themselves at one of the topics: “Such quantity of nationalism outflow, chauvinism, spitting, traducing, homophoby, disapproval of facts… is bad and pitiful picture of a part of our audience.

At the very Eurosong in Kiev, “No name” performed with clearly expressed pro-independence attitude. Besides that, this boy-band was the only with two hanging flags in the box – the Montenegrin and of the State Union. That spoke for itself (between the lines).

Analysts of political and socio-public environment at the Balkans mainly agree that the final blow to S&M followed at “Europjesma” “Eurosong” in 2006 at the Sava Centre. After a problematic voting a year earlier, there was a tacit opinion that  according to a pattern of “brotherly” relations between the “two eyes in the head”, the  “Eurosong” shall be attended by Serbian representatives. Belgreade was keenly preparing and extracted charming vaudevillistic song of entertaining “Flamingos” troup (it was also chosen due to political correctness – constisted of a Serb and Montengrin). In Montenegro precontest winner was taken by Stevan Faddy, and together with “No name” and several other contestans prepared for “Europjesma” (“Eurosong”) that was to be held in the elite Belgrade stage – the Sava Centre.

It happened that on March 11, 2006, for first time in history, the Serbian state television did not broadcast  the selection of the ESC representative on its Channel 1. Early that morning the former President of the Republic, then the Hague prisoner Slobodan Milosvic died. Therefore the Serbian officials thought it more convenient to move the show to a less significant Channel 2 of RTS. The show itself was never questioned.    
The Eurosong went awry when the voting commenced, after the songs were played. First member of the jury, being the representative of RTCG gave all points exceeding 5 to performers from Montenegro whereas the patriotic ’My Love’ (refers to the forthcoming independent state as love) played by ’No Name’ received maximum 12 points thus completely shunning the best Serbian compositions. The same pattern was followed by his other colleagues so it became clear that the RTCG representatives had arranged the voting as it occured in 2005. The public loudly objected while the threats culminated when the last jury member and the chairman of the Montengrin jurists Bojan Bajramovic approached the microphone.  
’Velibor Covic on behalf of TVCG and I had organized a meeting of the Montenegrin delegation at the Hotel Majestic on the Eurosong day. It lasted almost 3 hours. We had to elaborate the whole plan. There were some disagreements, colissions, and disputes but we had agreed the procedure for the jury. None of the Montenegrin politicians, I affirm, knew of our intentions. Even some persons close to the establishment told me ’the Belgraders would make it smoothely’. The strategy was clear, both ours and of the Serbs, that is to perceive and locate the favourite of the opponents. That’s where the Belgraders made a fatal mistake since they had picked the wrong target’ - now openly speaks Bojan Bajramovic on the proceediongs of the jury.    
The RTS representatives in the jury cast less than a quarter of their ballots for the performers from Montenegro, whereas the major favourite- Stevan Faddy received none. ’No Name’ got humble 4 points which very resembled  ’the Montenegrin scenario’, it was just badly carried out. The voting wasn’t fare on either side but the Montenegrin part of the jury turned out to be shrewder. The Trojan Horse Stevan Faddy stated that his song was not the candidate for the Eurosong and added ’he who knows how- will make it, while he who doesn’t know how- will never learn it’.  
When it was clear that ’No Name’ would have the best score the auditorium exploded and in the lynch atmosphere the Montenegrin band was prevented to replay their song. Bottles hit the stage while the security kept the angry crowd  from reaching the ’Nameless’. The Montenegrin jury and performers were evacuated from the Sava Centre escorted by strong police forces. That was a well timed bomb- Serbia wouldn’t swallow the fact that of being outmanuevered twice while the Montenegrin public had the scenes of chaos and attack on young Podgoricans in front of their eyes.   
The whole problem made the headlines in the media because of its political dimension. Televisions from neighbouring countries reported on the matter as well as BBC and Sky News. The Croats were straightforward: ’The Montenegrins gave Serbia a blow in the middle of Belgrade while No Name openly flirted with nationalism. The Eurosong was even debated in the Parliament of Montenegro. Belgrade’s daily ’Novosti’ had the article headline ’Either Flamingos or no one’ whereas Podgorica’s daily Vijesti had ;Either No Name or no one’, both being published  the same day.     
All Yugoslav republics have used the ’Eurosong’ to promote their statehoods and that’s perfectly legitimate. Of course it is legitimate to say to your country ’My Love’ in an implicit way. Everything was by the rules, whoever made them. We had a right to higly rate all Montenegrins and give Serbian favourites zero rate. So that was a legitimate politization of the Eurosong for we broke no rule. Let’s be open, that night we started the referendum campaign in the Sava Centre alhtough many were unaware of that’ frankly says Bajramovic.  
He discloses another peculiarity related to the Eurosong finals evening in Athens which was scheduled to take place a night before the referendum on independence in Montenegro. ’We truly had plan to unfold the Montenegrin flag which we would carry to referendum with us’ admits Bajramovic.    
The Epilogue: RTS Director Aleksandar Tijanic didn’t sign the formulary for Serbia and Montenegro (S-M) attendance at Athen’s Eurosong. Both sides confronted in the referendum campaign used the Eurosong as crucial proof of the ’depravity’ of the opposite side. Thus the last joint manifestation gave the final blow to S-M which somehow had managed to stand on its feeble knees up to the Sava Centre event.  
Although it’s just a TV show, the Eurosong has always been intricate with politics and political agendas, not only in the Balkans but also in the whole of Europe. Thus the Norweigans sent a song in 1980 which carried the protest against the building of a power plant. Spain had a song in the Argentian tango rhytm during the Anglo-Argentinian war over the Falklands while the song that won that year was a German composition ’Ein bisschen Frieden’ that reflected demonstrations in Western Europe against the deployment of  American Pershing and cruise missiles. The peak was reached in Zagreb in 1990 where no less than 4 countries (Italy, Austria, Norway and Germany) sang about the fall of the Berlin Wall and future unification of Europe. One of them- ’Unite Unite Europe’ of Toto Cutugno actuallu won.   

Because of Israel’s participation in the contest in 1973 all North African countries shunned the contest although they were rightly entitled, being the members of EBU. One Arab country, Morocco took part only once in 1980 when Israel absented itself because of its national holiday. Greece boycotted the festival in 1975 after the Turkish military intervention in the northern part of Cyprus. Turkey boycotted the year after since greece sent a song supporting the Cypriot Greeks. To make things worse, the Turkish TV put a broadcast of a patriotic song during the performanse of the Greek singer.   
Politics doesn’t circumvent the Eurosong even in recent yers. Thus the Ukrainians in 2005 sent ’Razom nas bahato’ song to the ESC which was the unofficial hymn of the so called Orange Revolution. Last year the Russian government sent official protest because the Ukrainian representative had allegedly mumbled ’Russia Goodbye’, instead of  ’Lasha Tumbai’ on the stage .

„Politics didn’t circumvent a single sphere of social life, so neither did pop music, but that makes the former Yugoslavia and her successor countries no exception. At somepoint it used to happen in all European countries. The fact is – the less the state is succsesfull in economics and/or politics , the more attention it gives to the music. Approaching developed Europe politically and economically shall contribute to comprehension of the real essence of the Eurosong.: It is three hour entertaining show of high technology, and the success or failure thereof doesn’t help for better of worse of its people“ concluded Samo Koler.

And until that happens, the countries will, with more or less success, and with more or less visibility, put through political and national motives through the most popular music contest of the Old Continent.

The investigation was done with the support of SCOOP, the Danish project for supporting the investigative journalism in South Eastern Europe

To read the Serbian version, please click here.

Georgian government puts pressure on investigative journalist

Posted February 25, 2010

ARTICLE 19, together with other human rights organisations, urges the Georgian government to stop pressurising and intimidating prominent Georgian investigative journalist Vakhtang Komakhidze.

Komakhidze reported receiving death threats from the Georgian authorities on 10 February. He had recently returned from a visit to South Ossetia where he has been producing a documentary examining the 2008 Russian-Georgian conflict.

ARTICLE 19 has issued a joint statement with the South Caucasus Network of Human Rights Defenders, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, the Human Rights House Foundation, and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.The Association "Journalistes pour Journalistes" also issued a statement on the matter, click here to read it. 

The organisations condemn the use of threats against Komakhidze, and call upon the Georgian government to ensure his safety and to cease harassment of journalists. The joint statement also calls for a prompt, effective, thorough, independent and impartial investigation into the incident and the creation of an environment safe and conducive to diverse voices.

“The use of intimidation and scare tactics to silence dissent is unacceptable, and the lack of investigation by the Georgian government calls into question its commitment to freedom of expression”, comments ARTICLE 19 Executive Director Agnès Callamard.

For more information click here.

Posted 14.02.2010

Three former police officers, three stories shrouded in mystery, protectionism and corruption. Alexandru Covali, alias “Shalun”, who was the head of a network of trafficking in women and minors, worked in the police force of the Soviet Union.

From 2001 until 2006, he made a fortune through a human trafficking network that worked with the tacit consent of some of his former colleagues.

Former police officer Oleg Bolboceanu, who was convicted of trafficking women to the United Arab Emirates, was amnestied.

Marin Strungaru, another former policeman and one of the few Moldovans sentenced to imprisonment for trafficking in organs, says he serves someone else’s sentence.

“There is a tacit agreement between the judiciary and the power: The Government allows the judges to take bribe, while the judges help mafiot governors to escape prison.”

This investigation was supported by Scoop and published in the following 4 newspapers:

Cuvintul liber 1 and 2, Ecoul Nostru, Glia Drochiana and Observatorul de Nord.

Click here to read the English translation.

Posted 14.02.2010

When it comes to murky deals and secret contracts the former Moldovan government is - as documented  by the investigative journalists Dumitru Lazur and Vitalie Calugareanu in Jurnal de Chişinãu in December 2009 - in a league of its own.

At the center of the investigation is the oil terminal in Giurgiulesti at the river Danube - one of Europes most important waterways. In 2004, not long before the parliamentary elections, the Moldovan Communist Government decided to renew the oil terminal.

But the government was not able to honor its commitments to foreign partners, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and a Greek consortium. The port is now owned by a company registered in the Antilles islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Moldovan state has paid a substantial part of the investments. A former banker from EBRD is also skimming.

The investigation was supported by Scoop and published in the Jurnal de Chişinãu in December 2009.

To read the whole story in English, click here and here.

To read it in Moldovian, click here and here.

Posted 14.02., 2010

Local politics in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk is not about politics at all, but about money and how to get hold of it. The investigative reporter Larysa Artemenko took a closer look at the management of 1.187 publicly owned buildings and the city halls it-systems for receiving payments.

In both cases the private companies involved had close connections either to members of the council or to the mayor of Kremenchug Mykola Hlukhov.

The Scoop-supported investigation was published in the format of 2 articles which ran in the weekly newspaper Telehraf in November and December 2009 under the meaning title Octopus and Octopus 2.

To read the whole story in English, click here

To read it in Ukrainian, click here and here.

To read it in Russian, click here and here.

Heavy metals pollute the fields in the village of Syuniq in Southern Armenia.

Posted on February 14th, 2010

In the small village of Syuniq in Southern Armenia Armeza Stepanyan and many other women are ill: Her blood pressure is always either too high or too low, she suffers from headache and her sight is getting worse and worse.

After years of suffering there has finally been scientific research. Now she and everybody else in the village know the reason: Their gardens and fields are heavily polluted. When they eat beans and tomatoes they also get a dose of heavy metals like copper, nickel, lead, arsenic, chromium and last but not least mercury.

The Armenian reporter Aghavni Haroutiunian published a report supported by Scoop about the dangerous life in the countryside in the daily AZG November 21st 2009.

To read the whole story in English, click here for part 1, and here for part 2.

To read the whole story in Armenian, click here.

To read the whole story in Russian, click here.

Ivan Shulha, an independent Belarusian journalist and a member of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, was charged with minor hooliganism and sentenced to an administrative arrest for 10 days.

Posted on February 4, 2010

Ivan Shulha was detained yesterday, 3 February, when the police tried to enter the flat, he rents in Minsk Mihas Yanchuk.

Ivan was leaving the flat, when he saw the police coming and managed to call his colleagues from outside the building using an entrance door intercom. He warned them that the police were coming to the building. After that Ivan was detained. His colleagues and representatives of the Belarusian Association of Journalists tried to find out where he was, they called all the police stations in Minsk, but could not find any information about Ivan’s location.

Today, 4 February, it became known that the journalist spent the night in the Detention Centre at Akrestsina Lane, and was brought to Court of Savetski District of the City of Minsk. The court hearings started around 12.30, and at first journalists were not allowed in. Only after a break three reporters, including a representative of the BAJ Press Service, were allowed to be present at the hearings.

About 16.30 on Thursday judge Aksana Reliava voiced her decision to sentence Ivan Shulha to 10 days of administrative arrest for minor hooliganism.

“Detaining and charging journalists with administrative infringements is a usual practice in Belarus,” Deputy Chairman of BAJ Andrei Bastunets said after the sentence to Ivan Shulha was announced.

“Such cases do not increase the level of trust to the police and court system. Yesterday, when we spoke to police officers in the flat, they told us Ivan Shulha was suspected to be drunken in a public place and to tear a chevron off the uniform of one of the police officers. But today at the court they talked about a broken leg of one of the officers. These facts alert about further development of the satiation. BAJ will follow the story of our colleague and will provide him with all the necessary support.”

A masterclass for anyone who ever wanted to know how to bring own a government with a notebook.

Posted on January 16th, 2010 

2 veteran reporters present in Investigative Reporting: David Leigh, investigationseditor of The Guardian and professor of reporting at City University, London; and Nick Davies, special correspondent of The Guardian and author of Flat Earth News. 

Two of Britain’s most experienced investigative reporters join forces to tell the tales and teach the tricks of their trade – for student journalists and veteran reporters; print and broadcast; local and national; media lawyers, teachers and academics.

Techniques including:
* Finding stories
* Handling human sources
* Dealing with legal problems
* Exploiting the public domain
* Using the Freedom of Information Act
* Working with whistleblowers
* Answering ethical questions
* Dealing with leaks inquiries
* Undercover work

Read more here.

Even though you don’t livein the United Kingdom you have to be aware of their libel law – or else it can have enormous consequences. This is what a new report done by Drew Sullivan for The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) showed.

By Drew Sullivan,
Posted on January 16, 2010

Most journalists around the world are unaware of UK libel law and libel tourism (suing in a foreign jurisdiction with favorable libel laws). But if you a journalist in Switzerland, South Africa or Indonesia and think this doesn't affect you, you are wrong.  The UK courts allow pretty much anyone to sue you there. And because of English law, plaintiffs win 93 percent of all cases. 

When you lose, you are forced to pay your lawyers fees AND double the plaintiff's lawyers fees (which is a lot at 1200 Euro an hour). A Ukrainian website published only in Ukrainian and with almost no UK-based readers was sued and lost.

If you loose and are living in a European country, English judgments can be enforced against you under EU law. It has become the tool of organized crime, corrupt politicians, American celebrities, Saudi terror financiers and other nefarious characters around the world to punish good reporting.  

There needs to be far greater awareness. The UK is not alone.  Ireland, France, Singapore, Australia and other countries have been or may be likely libel tourism destinations.

Drew Sullivan is an investigative journalist and advising editor at the Bosnian-based Center for Investigative Reporting.

Click here to read the report.

Investigative journalism in Albania not only lacks money, training and freedom ofexpression. The reporters - like the rest of the population - have become cynical afterhaving gone through 2 revolts and 2 Balkan wars.

By Altin Raxhimi

Posted on January 2nd, 2010

One evening last November, millionaire Rezart Taci and his two youthful bodyguards were lounging at the Capriccio, a nightcap bar in a bustling Tirana neighborhood where he spotted journalist Mero Baze.

Taci, a 38-year-old oilman who last year bought the country’s run-down refinery from the government for an exorbitant price, brings football powerhouse AC Milan to play here, and entertains the whim of buying an Italian football team. He had often been a subject of Baze’s tirades, especially on the purchase of the refinery.

On the way out, flanked by his associates, Taci engaged in a conversation with Baze that went pretty much like this:

Swoosh! Thwack! Thunk! Bang! Ouch!

Well, this was actually the conclusion of the encounter. Rewinding it four minutes or so, according to the reconstruction from several sources:

Taci: “Why are you giving me that look?”

Baze: “But I am not looking at you!”

Taci: “Who are you telling that you are not looking at me?” He hits Baze. Walks to the door, telling his bodyguards: “You teach him a lesson!”

Hence the conclusion. Baze was sent to the hospital with body bruises and was released a few hours later.

Beaten and car blown up
Baze, 42, is a man to watch. Tema, a daily he runs, is required reading for political actors and buffs. He had been a close associate of Sali Berisha, Albania’s prime minister, for much of the past 20 years, but when they did fall out with each other recently, they did so bitterly. He unearthed a wealth of allegations on shady business connections of the prime minister’s family.

Four years ago, he was badly beaten by Berisha’s adversaries. Early this year, at the height of the revelations, his BMW was mysteriously blown up.

Taci had been his target the past months. Baze alleged that he had been evading taxes.

The Taci case became a cause célèbre. Journalism organizations and human rights groups protested. Along came the US Embassy, which plays the subliminal arbiter on societal ills. Berisha himself had come to the defense of Baze and the free press. Police detained Taci for about a week, and a district court refused his initial release on bond.

The incident highlighted the precariousness of journalism and media investigations. Albania ranked last in a recent classification of the development of investigative journalism in the Balkans –this being a region almost oxymoronic to the genre. That suggests a troubling situation with the country’s information flow.

Besides Baze’s, there are two other investigative shows in the country. Fiks Fare, (Exactly so!) which is run by Top Channel, conducts investigations of corruption in the public sector. This is offered together with side acts of, hold your breath, scantily-clad dancers! Yet, the program has forced at least one minister to resign on sexual harassment grounds and documented many bribery cases.

The other is Xhungla (the Jungle) reported, filmed, edited and produced by Artan Hoxha, a maverick veteran crime beat reporter who has produced penetrating documentaries on some of the wildest gangs in gangland Albania of the 1990s, and is widely regarded the dean of his journalism beat.

Other important investigative pieces appear in a scattershot way. Balkan Investigative Reporting Network has produced several important pieces on mishandling of World Bank tourism programs by the government, the suspicious deals of wind energy projects (Full disclosure: the writer of these lines has occasionally filed stories for BIRN). In 2007, one magazine showed how one Minister of Environment ran an un-environmental used-tires business.

Many believe that is too little in quantity and effect.
Before Kosta Trebicka, an Albanian businessman, approached the New York Times on an alleged illegal ammunition sale Albania was involved in, he had been pleading his case with Albanian journalists for a long time.

Cigarette smuggling, say, counts for a fifth of the cigarettes that go through Albania, but there is little journalism of fact on that issue. There is little research on the judiciary, on investments Albanian criminal groups operating in the west make in Albania. While rumors abound about the construction sector laundering money, no proper research has been made into that.

Many blame media ownership as the main obstacle. The largest media operators are owned by private businessmen who generate revenue through government contracts or licenses. Most publishers of dailies and some broadcasters list real estate developing as their main business. Such outlets are often used to advance the interests of the side businesses. It is common knowledge that the largest daily in the country, for example, supports the opposition leader and mayor of Tirana, and its publisher has also received road-building contracts from the City Hall.

Media outlets sympathetic to the government also get fat advertising revenue from government companies or agencies. Ardit Bido, a journalist, showed in a study for his diploma work at the University of Tirana that 80 percent of the advertising space one of the two best-selling broadsheets in Albania, Shekulli, the one close to the opposition was given to the opposition-controlled City Hall. Panorama, the other major daily, which is close to a junior government partner, sold 80 percent of its ad space to government agencies and companies.

Besides, no journalist dared to inquire the, say, murder on the elevator of one of the co-owners of one of Albania’s largest media companies and ask, on behalf of the public, why a harmless businessman, real estate developer and former policeman, would meet such a death.

The salary of reporters remains very low, and the journalists themselves, many with no job security whatsoever, all too easily agree to have their voices muffled on controversial stories. One reporter in a major daily told me once how he had written a brief story on a businessman suspected of fiscal evasion to discover that the businessman was also a co-owner in the newspaper he worked for, and so the story squashed as a result.

Lack of training - and passion

Investigative reporting seems to need a craving for whodunits followed by persistent research. No outlet in Albania would afford themselves long-term reporting projects that would take half a year or more to unravel. This may be due to poor planning, but also because they can be costly, and, with the media now feeling the hit from the Internet snowball, it may come low in the checklist of immediate tasks. Racy gimmicks beat them to it.

One might argue that some of this also comes from a lack of training. The pieces on television and the written stories tend to be poorly produced. Newspapers or TV stations tend to be understaffed to engage in quality work. Reporters in Albania often complain, for example, about how they are required to fill in whole newspaper pages.

But there is another, even more worrying sign, I believe, of why Albanians have not built strong investigative journalism in a sustainable way with the collapse of Communism. And this does not even need tools of contemporary cultural studies.

Albanians, including many in the country’s journalism community, have become increasingly cynical. When the rattle and passion that took them through two revolts and within the drumbeats of two Balkan wars out of earshot, in the 2000s they began to go about their own business. Crime or corruption may even have permeated some of the media as part of the country’s landscape. So, a regular reporter might ask, why bother doing good work, when you can eke a living with a mediocre one? Or, to borrow a beloved proverb from neighboring Montenegrins, why do today something you can do tomorrow?

Taci is being now investigated and prosecutors are seeking to build an indictment. He denies having hit Baze. Two colleagues of Baze who were with him in the table say Taci did hit the journalist himself.

Yet, the incident raises questions about what could happen to reporters who do not have Baze’s high profile when they engage in enterprise journalism.

Besar Likmeta, who is BIRN’s man in Tirana, was assigned by his editors last year to bag reaction on findings claims that one MP had a false law degree. This would be an elementary procedure in this job.

Likmeta, a short, plump, a bit of a reclusive young man, donning horn-rimmed glasses, does not strike one as the physical type. He inquired from Tom Doshi, a brawny owner of the country’s largest pharmaceutical business and the richest MP in that legislature, whether the law degree posted on the parliament web site was false or not.

He left the scene with a black eye. Likmeta did win an important regional investigative award this year. But he also had to withdraw the charges he had filed with the prosecutors. Doshi himself was comfortably reelected to Parliament last summer.

Slavery is still happening in Europe

Poor people are being lured from Eastern Europe to the Czech Republic for forced labour. Some of the worst gangsters are now on trial but there is no sign of this evil trade coming to an end.

Posted on January 2nd, 2009

By Adrian Mogos in Holland and Ukraine, Petru Zoltan, Doru Cobuz in Czech Republic and Romania, Vitalie Călugăreanu in Moldova, Transnistria and Ukraine and Vlad Lavrov in Ukraine.

While pricey restaurants in Berlin or Amsterdam serve fresh asparagus plucked from fields in the Czech Republic, none of the appreciative diners has the slightest idea that this much-loved item is only on their dinner plates thanks to the backbreaking work carried out by modern-day slaves – men and women lured from poor countries on false pretences and then held captive – beaten and threatened by armed guards if they ask for food, their wages or try to escape.

Our three month investigation in Romania, the Czech Republic, Moldova, Transnistria – a breakaway state from Moldova – Ukraine and The Netherlands, has uncovered the way in which a brutal criminal network of Ukrainian-run gangs recruited hundreds of victims to work effectively as slaves in Bohemia for years before the network was broken up this spring.

All the 40 victims of this from Romania whom we interviewed had been lured to an asparagus farm in Hostín u Vojkovic in 2007 and 2008, to toil for Bohaemer Spargel Kultur, BSK, a Czech firm owned by a Dutch company Procint B.V. None of them were neither paid nor decently fed and say they felt lucky to escape.

An ongoing investigation into forced labour into the BSK fields by Czech and Romanian police has revealed that at least 300 Romanians were trapped into forced labour there in 2007, 2008 and 2009. A more recent probe has revealed that Bulgarian Roma, Ukrainian and Moldovans also worked there for free.

This story was published by the newspaper Jurnalul National in Romania. It will be published in Moldova, Ukraine and other countries later on.

Click here to read the whole story in English.

Click here to read the whole story in Romanian.

 This investigation was one of the reasons why Adrian Mogos was awarded the CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits, click here to read more.

Free health care but bribes are needed

At the beginning of 2008 Azerbaijan introduced free health care service in all the the country’s hospitals. But there still is a nagging suspicion that doctors and nurses demand payment in the form of bribes to treat patients. Azeri journalist Nijat Daglar let himself hospitalize twice to check out the facts.

Posted on January 2nd 2010

By Nijat Daglar

Lankaran and Baku.

Health services in the provincial city of Lankaran, close to the Azeri border with Iran, should in principle be free like everywhere else in the republic.

A government order that came into force in February 2008 stipulates that all medical institutions, which receive government support, must provide free medical service and free medicines to patients.   

But on closer inspection things turn out somewhat different. On arrival to Lankaran’s city hospital the undercover reporter was examined for symptoms of a heart condition. He paid to have a nurse do a cardiogram examination, and later had to make another payment to the doctor in charge of the cardiographic unit.

The reporter talked to a number of patients at the hospital confirming that paying for treatment remains a widespread practice, because patients fear that they will get inferior treatment, if they don’t offer a bribe. There are also numerous cases, where patients have to pay for medicine prescribed at the hospital, he heard.

The reporter later confronted the hospital’s medical director with these facts, but was told that there has never previously been any reported cases of bribe-taking at the hospital, which employs a total of 340 physicians and 800 nurses.      

Read the orginal story here:

Part 1

Part 2

Read the English version here.

This investigation was published by the daily “Baku Khabar”. The first part on April 17 daily, 2009, the second part on May 15, 2009

"Foul!"cried the bidding companies

Read about the the Three bidding companies which cried foul at the irregularities allegedly made by the government procuring body in selecting a competitor to produceAlbania’s new biometric passports and identification cards. The country’s opposition denounced the deal in parliament.

By Alban Beqa, Tirana

Posted on December 22nd, 2009

Yet, the government went ahead and chose SAGEM. Violations that SAGEM allegedly made included incomplete documentation in the final stages of the tender, which was even recorded on video during the bid announcement meeting. Besides, the specimens offered by the company had been produced in 2004, and probably by a Dutch company called SDU. The government adviser on the bid was a member of the same company. While the specimens had to be personalized, that is, offer details that would include specific traits of individuals, what SAGEM offered were general ones.

Some raise suspicion of the company’s technological ability to produce the passports.
Other problems with SAGEM included a corruption scandal on a similar passport producing bid, which has been reported by the main international media, and had sent three Nigerian ministers and two SAGEM representatives to jail. SAGEM produced the biometric passports of Kosovo as well.

This article was published in the newspeaper Zeri i Popullit (Tirana) on April 30th 2008.

To read the whole article in Albanian, click here and here.

Cigarettes are smuggled from Albania to neighbour countries.

By Bashkim Shala, Peja and Prizren in Kosovo, Kukes and Shkodra in Albania

Posted on December 22nd, 2009

Mules and horses smuggling cigarettes through mountain paths along the border between Montenegro and Kosovo are not the truckloads of cigarettes swarming Peja after the end of the 1999 war.

But smuggling continues with the animals or vans, and a local prosecutor says that a 2007 bust of 15 tons of cigarettes in the region, show it is a work of organized crime. Some cigarettes enter Albania.

About a tenth of the cigarettes entering Kosovo are smuggled, according to the customs, though they add that most of it comes from the unguarded border with Serbia. The size of smuggling into Albania itself is hard to find, though official cigarette consumption in Albania equals that of Kosovo, despite the population being a third higher.

Cigarettes are smuggled from Albania into the southern Kosovo region of Prizren, again with mules. Kosovo and Albania police say they have failed to arrest smugglers in this area, though they had found carriage animals with cigarettes, and several operations have failed. One policeman is quoted saying that he suspects that smugglers and some policemen work together.

Smuggling happens also along Albania’s border with Montenegro, both along the Skadar Lake, and the mountains that Albania shares with that country, police admit.

The original article was published in two different media: in the newspaper Koha Ditore, based in Prishtina on May 20th 2009 and on August 24th in Courrier des Balkans, an Internet news service.

To read the whole story in Albanian, please click here.

Illegal immigrants use blood feuds as cover stories

Illegal emigrants from Albania use articles from newspapers back home to show that back home they are unsafe as victims of blood feuds.

Posted on December 22nd, 2009

By Artan Bizhga, Tirana and Lezha, Albania

What they do not say is that the articles have been ordered by them and are either distorted or false, serving only to convince immigration judges to give them political asylum in the host country.
Many such cases occur with emigrants in Belgium and the United Kingdom.
Much has been talked about the still surviving vendetta tradition of Albania, which carry the exotic name of the Code of Lek, and have been mythologized as medieval laws surviving modernity.
But the handling of blood feuds, which reemerged in Albania with the collapse of Communism in the early 90s, has been tricky . The organization that deals with it has been stricken by problems. A former chairman of one of them left the country for Canada suspected of having wheedled its funds, another was murdered in the mid-90s. Those two committees, too, assign certificates of ‘blood feuds’ to those who request them, used in western courts where Albanians seek political asylum.
The publication of false stories has turned into a system. One newspaper does this regularly, while others may do it occasionally. Sentences that could save your case: “The police and negotiating groups find it impossible to intervene in such a grave conflict.”

This article was published in Tirana-based newspaper Zeri i Popullit on August 5 2009.

To read the whole story in Albanian, please click here and here.

To read the whole story in English, please click here.

The sole administrator of two joint companies which have Sorin Ovidiu Vintu among the shareholders has been under arrest in the Chisinau penitentiary for several months, for theft. Four years ago, when the same administrator was a newcomer among Vintu’s groupies, he was apprehended by the police. Again it was theft, again in Chisinau. Together with him, one of the founders of a company related to the Posta Romana public company scandals was also apprehended.    

By Vitalie Calugareanu and Stefan Candea

Posted on December 21st, 2009
 
On December 17th 2004, Sorin Ovidiu Vantu met his new manager, on paper, in the case of companies IMOLA SA and GELSOR ASSETS MANAGEMENT SA (Gelsor AM). That is the Moldavian citizen Vladislav DEREVENCO who was invested as sole administrator.  

Derevenco can consider himself an accomplished man. He acceded in the high league of business, besides other experts: Vintu, Vladimir Soare, Gheorghe Raţiu and the Gelsor Group. At the age of 22, having gone through only primary school, owning a passport for only 2 months and having some issues with the police, Derevenco was the ideal candidate to take over the management responsibilities of two Romanian companies.

The documents appointing Derevenco sole administrator of Imola and Gelsor AM were certified and registered the very same day and afterwards issued in the Public Monitor. At that time, Vintu owned almost 60% of Imola and 1.5 % of Gelsor AM.

 
Arrested in Chisinau

An online random piece of news tells us about the professional career of the young employee with Vintu, a.k.a “the FNI father”. It’s a communiqué issued by the Chisinau police when Derevenco turned 23.

While patrolling to prevent private dwelling breaking and entering, the attention of the police officers located in the Botanica area was drawn by a white VAZ – 2101 vehicle, parked near one of the buildings located in the Trandafirilor Street. The vehicle wasn’t different in any way, but the driver’s and the passenger’s behavior was really strange.

When the officers asked them to identify themselves, as allowed by the law, both individuals tried to run away. They were apprehended on spot – the suspects were wearing a lot of gold necklaces and bracelets... To read the rest of the story, please click here.

Succes full seminar in Kyiv 

A seminar attended by close to 100 reporters in Kyiv recently confirmed thatinvestigative journalism in Ukraine is doing really well and still getting better.

By Henrik Kaufholz

Posted on December 12th, 2009

Almost 100 Ukrainian journalists participated in an annual Investigative Reporting Conference and the Third National Award Ceremony for Best Investigative Reporting Covering Corruption in Kyiv in the weekend 27th  to 29th of November 2009.

The event was organised by Regional Press Development Institute with funding from Action-MSI, USAID, and Scoop.

The award ceremony took place in Hotel President in downtown Kyiv and several media published reports about the event. The growing interest for investigative reporting in Ukraine was thus not only reflected in the number of nominees and guests but also in the interest of the media.

The seminar was a success not only because of the record number of participants but also because of the profound interest in promoting investigative techniques. In Ukraine we now have one newspaper in Lviv concentrating on investigative reporting and four centres for investigative reporting (Lviv, Rivne, Kyiv and Simferopol). Add to that several dozens media and reporters working with Scoop and other projects supporting investigative journalism.

According to our observations all the presented investigations show a high professional standard and substantial enthusiasm.

Illegal Brazilien meat in Macedonia

Brazilian meat continues to be sold illegally in Macedonia - under highly unhygienic conditions on the market counters.

By Anila Disha

Posted on December 12th

Though the meat is controlled there are cases of Brazil meat arriving in Macedonia which has escaped control. This meat enters Macedonia through border checkpoints in front of the border control eyes and there are cases when trade of this meat happens over the mountains, loaded over the horses’ backs.

Afterwards this type of meat ends up in the kitchen in the different restaurants as well as in the green market where there is no single hygienic sanitary condition to fullfill.

On the market the meat sold cheaper than at the regular meat stores (two thirds from the regular price).

The current economical and social conditions pushed the citizens to buy that meat even though they fear the the consequences of eating it. The sales persons at the counters say that they do not earn anything more from it than a ‘mouthful bread’ for their children.

The biggest part of the money goes to the meat owners that are keeping the meat in the storehouses situated in the periphery of Skopje. The experts explain that if meat is exposed to inappropriate conditions even only for three hours 5 million bacteria develop which - when occurring in such huge number - are a risk for human health. If you pass through the counters in Old Bazaar in Skopje you can see a line of counters filled with meat products, most of them come from Brazil.

To read the story in English, please click here.

To read the original versions, click here:

1

2

3

One 1st prize and one 2nd for Scoop in Ukraine.

By Henrik Kaufholz

Posted on December 12th, 2009.

Two reporters who have worked with support from Scoop were awarded at 'The Third National Competition for the Best Anti-Corruption Investigations Published in National and Regional Media of Ukraine'.

Larisa Artemenko won the first prize in the category 'regional press' and Igor Chaika came in second in the category 'national TV'. Ms Artemenko was awarded for her story about misuse of local budget funds in favour to the local elite of the city Kremenchuk and Mr Chaika for a TV-documentary about the corrupted mayor of Lviv - one of Ukraines largest cities.

The competion  and 'The Second Annual National Conference of Investigative reporting' was organised by Regional Press Development Institute with funding from Action-MSI, USAID, and Scoop.

The award ceremony took place in Kyiv Friday 27th of November 2009 at hotel 'President' in downtown Kyiv.

Read more about the growing interest for investigative reporting in Ukraine here.

Tree planting in honor of the Politicians

The planting of trees is supposed to be a common project in Macedonia. But itseems to be just a costly political manoeuvre.

By Biljana Lajmanovska

Posted on December 9th 2009.

The “Day of the tree” has been organized four times in Macedonia. The last time 7,500,000 trees on 120 locations were planted. But many problems prevented the project from being a real success. E.g. many planted trees were ripped out and stolen. The experience of the realization of the project has shown that the worst trees are poorly protected and maintained. Photos from the locations showed upward planted trees - with the roots up and above the ground.

After the planting campaign in Gorna Matka last spring, around 7,000 trees were extracted - almost one third of the planted trees in that region. In the region of Makedonski Brod and above Miladinovci the trees were eaten by the cattle. In Strumica there will not be any planting due to the resistance from the local citizens.

All the experts agree that the planting should not been performed in one day. They say that the one day campaign is nothing but the parade of the politicians…

Here the radio programmes made here:

1

2

3

An uncontrolled and unsustainable use of natural resources is taking place in the Western Balkans.

Posted on December 7th 2009

By Aleksandar Pisarev

An uncontrolled and unsustainable use of natural resources is taking place in the Western Balkans:  trough their research conducted in Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Montenegro, a group of reporters try to figure out where and how these illegal activates are conducted and by whom.

They also ask much money circulates in this business and what will be the long-term consequences if urgent actions are not undertaken.
 
Their research shows that a cross border cooperation of criminal groups is going on in this sector, and they warn us about total absence of cooperation between governments and authorities in order to prevent devastation of forests and other biodiversities.

During the writing phase the reporters felt obliged to ask the question whether the authorities in charge for these issues are part of the criminal activities or they only prefer to “be blind” in order to secure social peace for more than 50.000 people involved in this “business in the region of the western Balkans.

According to the research made during this investigation, a quick respond is needed urgently, because any delays will cause irreversible damages on biodiversity in some parts of Macedonia, Serbia and Albania.

The research was published as 2 articles in Albanian daily Koha on November 30th, 2009.

Click here to read them:

Part 1

Part 2

Or read the whole story in English here:

Part 1

Part 2

It looked like the Crystal night in Berlin, when a group of Macedonian hooligans beat Albanians and maltreated woman and children in the middle of Skopje at a foot ball game.

By Aleksandar Misevski, posted on November 29th, 2009

The police was badly prepared, and 4 citizens and one football supporter were hurt. The event is not unusual - but authorities don't seem too worried.

Growing up in an environment loaded with problems of different types, this phenomena has become of our everyday life, and is especially present amongst youngsters.

In recent years boys with the typic image: spitfire jackets, Dr.Martins boots, tight jeans, braces and of course shaved heads calling themselves skinheads seem to be promoting the group.

Most of them were football fans admiring the English skinheads as well as being influenced by the Paris skinheads.

This story was published in the Macedonian monthly magazine BLOK on October 1st, 2009.

To read the whole story in English, please click here.

To read the original story in Macedonian, please click here.

Another prize for Scoop-supported investigation on election fraud

Posted 21-11-2009

Transparency International Moldova chose to award the two repporters Lilia Gurez and Igor Volnitchi for their investigation on the fraud in the election campaign in Moldova. 

You can see the feature where the second prize is handed over Here

You can read the investigation 'Moldova - Polygon for Testing 'Dirty' Electoral Techniques' below. Here is how Lilia Gurez sees her and her collegues work:

“We never thought about prizes or awards. But we knew that we needed to show the truth about the parliamentary elections and the conditions under which they took place. We went into villages, talked to people, investigated electoral lists (where we discovered that even dead people had voted!), discussed with experts,  and wrote about all the illegalities in the investigation. The investigation (Part I and II has ben printed on the front pages of newspapers all over the country and became popular abroad. We do not know the real impact of the investigation, but we know for sure that now  Republic of Moldova has a democratically elected gouvernment and the communists are now in opposition. Of course, we could not produce this investigation without Scoops support”, says Lilia Gurez.

The investigation was recently awarded by the Eurasia Foundation Moldova as the best investigation of the election as well.

Tough Pressure against freedom of expression in the Balkans

Life as a reporter, and especially as an investigative reporter, is dangerous in theBalkans. Read about Two of the most recent examples here.

Posted on November 21st, 2009

The first example are the death threats are reoccurring against the leading investigative journalist Bakir Hadziomerovic, editor-in-chief of the television programme "60 Minutes," broadcast by channel FBiH.

Hadziomerovic and his family are receiving continuous death threats in connection with his reporting on alleged links between politicians and organized crime. The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), The Bosnian-Herzegovian journalist association, BH Novinari, and the Sarajevo-based Linija za pomoc novinara (Free Media Helpline) have also expressed concern about the threats.

In February 2008, SEEMO already reported about a case where Hadziomerovic also received death threats and again expressed its concern about the violent media environment for investigative journalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the political pressure they face.

The other example is described here by Appelt Report, a site which follows attacks against journalists, photographers or cameramen in the region since the breakup of Yugoslavia. Amongst the events are one camera man beaten and about a dozen journalists sentences to penalties for "defamation" or "insults".

Posted on November 18th, 2009

According to The weekly newsletter of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX) an Azeri court sentenced two bloggers to prison on November 11 in a politically motivated decision aimed at censoring young activists critical of the government, report the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) and other IFEX members. This conviction sends a clear message about the cost of democratic debate in Azerbaijan.

Emin Milli, 30, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison; and 26-year-old Adnan Hajizade was sentenced to two years. The young bloggers were convicted of hooliganism and inflicting bodily harm for allegedly attacking two men in July, report IFEX members.

In fact, Milli and Hajizade were attacked by strangers in a Baku restaurant on 8 July. The defendants went to the police to file a report about the assault, but instead of receiving medical attention, they were interrogated and charged.

The trial was a farce marked by fabricated charges, closed court hearings, a failure to detain and charge the real assailants, and inconsistencies in the presentation of facts, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Zadeh needs an operation to correct breathing problems resulting from the blows he received during the assault. Milli told RSF, "It is an honour for me to be penalised for my ideals." The bloggers intend to appeal.

Milli and Hajizade had posted satirical video sketches that criticised government policies and social issues prior to their arrest in July. They had also interviewed local residents and shared the responses online, using YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, reports the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Their blogs raised concerns about education, corruption and poor infrastructure in Azerbaijan.

"There is a longstanding pattern of Azerbaijani officials filing trumped-up charges against journalists to punish them for critical or satirical comment," said Human Rights Watch.

IRFS calls the judge's verdict a tool to prevent other alternative voices from criticising the government via new media in the run-up to the 2009 municipal and 2010 parliamentary elections. Severe limits are placed on independent reporting in Azeri television and print, which is why online media is an important space for discussion, says Freedom House. "Making examples of Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade sends a
terrible message about the scope of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan and suggests that the authorities believe they can operate with impunity. The arrests emphasise the plight of ordinary Azerbaijani citizens, who endure daily injustices in a system that allows the government to operate with unchecked power."

Kalashnikovs are being sold in half of the state. While the police claim the arm business does not pay off, dealers trade in Sipkovica, Aracinovo, Slupcane, Lipkovo and Skopje.

Pistols for 180 euro, Kalashnikov for 500 euro, bombs from 15 to 20 euro are the lowest prices of the dealers on the black market, selling the weapons that remained in the country after the disarmament initiatives in 2001 and 2003 for which the locals and internationals spent around million euro.

Most of the weapons can be found in Skopje, Kumanovo, Gostivar and Tetovo regions. It is sold in every village from the former crisis regions. The dealers, which “Vreme” has contacted, brag the business is booming.

- Kalashnikovs amount from 500 to 800 euro. The cheapest are those from China and Albania. The most expensive are those manufactured in Serbia. They are the most wanted, says a dealer from Likovo.

He sells bombs kashikara for 15 to 20 euros. Pistol 6 is sold for 180-200 euros, pistol 7 from 300 to 350 euros. The most expensive is the famous “TT” at price of 500 euro. The bullets are half a euro. In summer, during the wedding season, the price is doubled.

The data from the non-governmental organizations show there is less quantity of weapons in Struga and Debar. Pistols and air rifles can be found among the residents of Prilep, Stip, Gevgelija and Strumica. The dealers are very cautious when speaking of the arms business. They show their offer, but are photographed only with face masks.

- The trade is mostly with weapons from 2001. However, it is still trafficked. There is an open trafficking channel from Kosovo, through illegal crossings from Presevo and Vitina on Kosovo side of the border to Lojane, Radusa, Brest and Tanusevci in Macedonia. The shepherds on Sar Mountain have at least one Kalashnikov – the local observers say.

The villagers report that the smuggling on Sara and near Kumanovo is on donkeys. The criminals from the bordering villages in Kosovo load the donkey and let it go. It can easily find its way back home, in the villages on the Macedonian side of the border. This is also confirmed by the NGOs.

- Exchanging donkeys among the villages is the most frequent way for arms trafficking – says Andon Davcev, vice president of the National Arms Association.

The estimations of local NGOs and UNDP are similar – 330,000 pieces of all types of weaponry are in the country. Half of it is illegal. The police operate with a smaller number from 50,000 – 100,000 pieces of weapons, illegally owned by the citizens.

BOX:

POLICE REASSURANCE

The weaponry travels fast, but we have the control

While the dealers speak of the large quantities of weapons in their hands, the police reassure that the situation is under control.

- It is not hard to transfer the weapons across the border. The borders are permeable. Depending on the needs, the weapons travel fast from a country to a country. The same weapons can be found in Albania, Serbia, Kosovo or Macedonia. But, we have the control over the illegal weapons and arms trafficking have been reduced in comparison with the past – says Tomislav Nikolovski, head of the Sector for Arms Trafficking within the Ministry of Interior.

According to him, the black market of weapons is not profitable for the dealers.

- The profit is around 50 euro for a pistol and the penalty for the same pistol is one year in jail. It is more worthwhile to keep it at home than to sell it – says Nikolovski.

Text 2:

Brest – Record-breaker in seized weaponry

Commander Breza still controls the inaccessible ground

Bordering villages are made for smuggling, says Colonel Blagoja Markovski

Off course we have weapons, says Hamdi Bajrami, a k a commander Breza (Birch), while he is welcoming us near the hardly accessible road towards Brest, mountainous village near the border with Kosovo, just 30-km off Skopje.

But, he corrects the mistake immediately:
- No, there are no weapons, the police have collected it. What is left is for us to defend from the wolves – he says.

Bajrami is the local leader in Brest. He got the nickname commander Breza, after taking part in the conflict in 2001. The police have seized the largest amount of weapons in this village, last year. The arms were hidden next to his house.

- We have weapons. We are not terrorists as they call us, but we can use it. Life is difficult; the state does not support us at all. The police have searched throughout our houses, frightening the children. We are ready to defend ourselves if someone strikes again – says 25-year old local from Brest, introducing himself as Agim.

In Brest, Blace and Grushino last year the police have seized 102 pieces of weapons and 5,695 pieces of ammunition. This is the record breaking amount of weaponry seized in 2005.

The villagers say the police refuse to legalize the weaponry. Therefore, they buy weapons on the black market. The strict law on getting a license stimulates the illegal trafficking.

- I applied for a license, but the police turned me down. Hardly anyone gets license, although we really need the weapons to feel more secure in this mountain – says an older resident of Brest.

Blagoja Markovski, retired colonel, head of the disarmament operation, says the neighboring villages of Brest and Malino Malo are like made for smuggling.

- These are villages difficult to access and control. The locals are familiar with the narrow paths, which are easy way to smuggle weapons from one territory to another – says Markovski.

The report of the National Arms Association after the second disarmament operation in 2003 reads: “citizens in crisis areas, for which it is assumed that are in possession of military illegal weaponry, have not largely participated in disarmament operation. Small portion of military arms is handed over, although it is still dominant in the offers of arms dealers from these areas. There was total failure in Tetovo, Gostivar, Debar and Lipkovo regions.

Text 3:

ARACINOVO

Cheap and easy accessible weapons

The village is full with military weapons that cannot be legalized, local NGOs say

Aracinovo remains on the first spot according to the number of illegal weapons that is in the hand of the villagers, in spite of the measures applied by the police to enforce order in this Skopje village, widely known as a dugout of criminals, smugglers and dealers.

Although the commanders of former NLA (National Liberation Army) from Aracinovo say they have surrendered the weapons, the younger villagers claim the contrary is true.

- I have Chinese Kalashnikov, TT revolver and some other pieces. I do not have license for any of these – says 28-year old resident of Aracinovo.

Whenever he speaks, he blocks his nose and changes his voice, as he is not sure where the recording might end. He is afraid of going to jail.

He says the weaponry is easily accessible.

I bought it from some locals. It is easy to find weapons, and it is not expensive either. I will never hand it over. I do not trust the police, I need it for self-defense – says the interlocutor.

Six men sit in front of “Rinka” sweetshop in the middle of the village. They have all fought for NLA. Their former commander is among them.

- We surrendered the weapons, now we do not need it. If I need one, I can get it anytime. Give me money and I will get you a truck of weapons from Serbia, Bulgaria or Kosovo, wherever you want it from. We still have the connections – says the commander.

He knows the trafficking channels, but refuses to speak of them.

- I tell you based on my experience, seek the weapons from the officials. No one can traffic weaponry without connections with those in power – he says.

The police say the arms trafficking exists, but on a small scale. They still find automatic riffles, pistols and bombs, remainder from the conflict.

- They hide the weapons in the fields, stables or at home. But, since 2003 no one in Aracinovo walks publicly with pistols – say the police officers from the mixed patrol cruising the village.

The non-governmental organizations say most of the illegal weaponry is hidden in this village.

Aracinovo is full of weapons, despite all harvests and amnesties. We are talking about military weapons that cannot be registered. There are around 300 riffles, enough to equip two to three companies – says Andon Davcev, vice president of the National Arms Association.

BOX:

Police have different measures

Hoxha and teachers teach disarmament

Hoxha, teachers and women non-governmental organizations in Aracinovo convince the population to disarm.

- Through these institutions we want to point out how dangerous is the weaponry. These measures have given results, the shootings in the past three years have been reduced. Where we cannot convince them with words, we use force, say the police officers from Aracinovo.

The police seek ways to reduce the wedding gunfire. Before the feast, they call the host in the police station in Aracinovo, warning him that he is responsible for the behavior of the guests. If a guest takes out a weapon, the host of the wedding is charged.

Text 4:

SIPKOVICA

The weapons are traded for bread

It is worse than in Texas, each house has at least one pistol, the villagers say

An arsenal of weaponry remained in the village after 2001, testify the villagers from Sipkovica five years after the conflict that has made this Tetovo village famous as the main stronghold of paramilitary NLA.

- Here it is worse than in Texas. Everyone has guns. The reports they have surrendered it are just children’s stories, as we know that almost unusable pieces were collected with the disarmament. Everyone has at least one pistol – says 25-year old, highly educated resident of Sipkovica.

The older villagers sell the remaining weaponry from the conflict for money. They complain of being poor and forgotten by the politicians, which mention Sipkovica only when they send political messages.

- There are no jobs, the pensions are miserable. We live in poverty, only 2,000 denars social welfare. We sell everything that is left to get bread. We sell it to those offering us money; we do not ask who are they, where they come from and why they need the weapon – says a middle-aged man from Sipkovica, sitting in the local tea house.

Most of the weapons are in the hands of young people, 18 to 25 year old. They carry it to show how brave they are, or for self-defense or fearing the vengeance widely spread among Albanians.

- After the war, I fell in love with guns. I have pistol TT. I carry it on celebrations, or when I work in the field outside the village. My father knows I have this gun illegally, but he does not forbid keeping it. I do not have problems with the police, as I do not have it with me when I go out – says a youngster from Sipkovica, who has just turned 18.

While we are convincing the villagers to let us take pictures of the weapons, our guide says the Albanians feel insecure, even after the Ohrid Agreement granting more rights to them.

- The time has come, when anyone can point a gun to your head, even for a small quarrel. Even 15-year old children walk around with guns. I have pistol for self-defense. I do not have a license – says the guide.

Last year, 395 persons were reported for illegally manufacturing, keeping or trafficking weapons. Other 63 persons are suspects of committing the same crime in the first quarter of 2006.

Text 5:

VESALA

No weddings without gunfire

The weapons are illegal, but the police are to be blamed for not giving licenses, says Ilir Nurish, resident of the village

Two shots from a pistol echo, while we are heading towards Vesala, Tetovo village at the foot of Sar Mountain.

- Here they are, they started – says our guide from Sipkovica, referring to the shootings that can be heard over the summer near these villages.

We visited Vesala in the mid-July, when the wedding season has just climaxed. Today, the celebration was in the house of one immigrant in Germany.

There are shootings only at the weddings. No wedding, no gunfire. There is weaponry in the village, but is kept for personal use only. The weapons are illegal, but we are not to be blamed. People ask for license, the police do not give – says Ilir Nurish, resident of Vesala.

The police say many of the celebrations end up in family tragedies because of the weapons.

- Six out of 11 incidents last years happened at family celebrations. Shootings are registered on the streets and in the stores. In most cases, illegal weapons were used – says Borce Pesevski, police spokesperson.

You can reach Vesala through Sipkovica and Brodec, a region considered to be NLA’s stronghold. A shepherd, in March earlier this year, has discovered on this road larger quantities of various weaponry hidden in the field. Machineguns, mortar grenades and antitank mines were discovered. The police announced the weapons were left there several days after they received an anonymous call.

The experts warn the most dangerous are the owners of illegal weapons that do not trust the police.

- Such are the cases in former crisis regions. Their residents possess military weapons, Kalashnikov and pistols. They do not legalize even the weapons for which they can get license, having no confidence in the state and believing they can protect themselves more efficiently – Colonel Blagoja Markovski shares his experience from the disarmament operation.

The problem with illegal weapons is still serious, despite the generally improved security and reduced number of crimes committed with illegal weaponry.

- The weapons are on the streets again and we cannot stop it – says Xhabir Derala, head of NGO “Civil”, on the occasion of September 21, International Day of Peace.

(This research was supported by the Danish Association of Investigative Journalism)

To read the articles in Albanian click here, to read them in Macedonian, click here.

The Programme for African Investigative Reporting (PAIR), is moving ahead with national seminars in five countries and announcement of the first round of grants for investigations.

By Henrik Kaufholz

Posted on November 12th, 2009

PAIR, like Scoop, is managed by the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism and International Media Support and will be running at full speed from late winter. Ms Helene Chéret is the coordinator of PAIR and she can be reached via hcheret(a)hotmail.com. She speaks both English and French fluently and has been working as a journalist in Africa.

PAIR is sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the three year project has a budget of almost 700.000 EUR.

The first national seminar will be held in Ghana on 5th of December. Seminars in Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire will follow in January and February 2010.

Everybody in Moldova was convinced that the election was flawed. But the proof came when Lilia Gurez and Igor Volnitchi -supported by Scoop - published their investigation of the election campaign.

By Henrik Kaufholz

Posted on November 12th, 2009

The investigation was awarded by the Eurasia Foundation Moldova as the best investigation of the election.

You can read the investigation 'Moldova - Polygon for Testing 'Dirty' Electoral Techniques' below. Here is how Lilia Gurez sees her and her collegues work:

“We never thought about prizes or awards. But we knew that we needed to show the truth about the parliamentary elections and the conditions under which they took place. We went into villages, talked to people, investigated electoral lists (where we discovered that even dead people had voted!), discussed with experts,  and wrote about all the illegalities in the investigation. The investigation (Part I and II has ben printed on the front pages of newspapers all over the country and became popular abroad. We do not know the real impact of the investigation, but we know for sure that now  Republic of Moldova has a democratically elected gouvernment and the communists are now in opposition. Of course, we could not produce this investigation without Scoops support”, says Lilia Gurez. 

To see the award ceremony please click here.

 

Countries from the region of Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo pay little attention to the selection of  the dangerous medical waste as well as its destruction.

By Natasa Crvenkovska

Posted November 12th, 2009

Some of the medical centers, institutes and scientific institutions placed in bigger cities such as Skopje, Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nish distinguishes the dangerous medical waste from the ordinary one, but the mechanism of devastation of this waste among the countries is quite different. Bigger cities from the other centers from the region are still working on rising the awareness of the neccessity of selection and proper treatmant. Only international organizations that work and produce medical waste in the region safely destroy it, and for this purpose spend considerable amounts of money. These organizations are used as an example in other country's institutions on how the dangerous medical waste should be treated.
Considering the poverty of the above mentioned countries, which also face numerous ecological problems, it is unrealistic to expect that the problem will be resolved in the forseeable future. Support from the international community is therefore indispensable. This is particularly true about Macedonia which is a candidate for EU membership, but will fail to comply with the admission standards with this manner of waste management.

The article was published on 20.10.2009 in the weekly magazin „Globus“.

To read the original story, click on the links below.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

To read the whole story in English, please click here.

Poor working conditions at Western oil firms in Azerbaijan

A number of international oil firms are exploring the Caspian off shore fields, but working conditions and wages for local oil workers are often poor.

By Zaur Rasulzadeh

Posted on November 8th, 2009

Hiring and working conditions at the international oil companies in Azerbaijan do not comply with national legislation, nor international norms. There are huge differences between the wages paid to international employees and those meted out to local hires. Attempts to create independent trade unions in the sector are being hampered by the oil companies, and there are examples of workers, seeking to unionize, who have been fired.

It would seem to fly in the face of economic logic that the oil companies import workers that claim wages 6 to 10 times higher than those paid to local employees. Howevere, certain qualified workers from abroad can make 5-6000 dollars a month compared with 5-600 dollars paid to local workers performing the same tasks.

One reason for this is the way deals about oil exploration are structured, where so-called production sharing agreements give the oil firms an incentive to inflate costs.

It is also unclear whether the multinationals live up to their commitment that 95 per cent of workers should be locals within five years of a contract being signed.
Moreover there are serious clouds on the horizon: Currently there are some 15.000 people employed in Azerbaijani oil projects, but sources estimate that this could fall as low as 3.000 once initial construction has been finished.

This investigation was published by the newspaper Novoye Vremya on April 18th, 2009, to read the article on line, please click here, and to download it, please click here. 

Children from 14 years, who commit serious crimes in Azerbaijan, are kept in special institutions under the country’s Justice Ministry. Upon reaching adulthood at 18 they are transferred to ordinary prisons. Journalist Lia Bayramova investigated this practice and looked at attempts to reform the system.

By Liya Bayramova

Posted on November 8th, 2009

There are 41 young prisoners at the so-called Educational Institution under the Justice Ministry serving sentences of up to 10 years. One of them is 16-year old Farid U, who serves six years for a drugs conviction. Upon reaching 18 he will be transferred to an adult prison - in the same way as 120 teenagers have been dispatched within just the last four years.

Last year teenagers committed some 4500 crimes in Azerbaijan. In roughly one in five cases a teenager is sent to a youth prison of which there are three in the country.

This system has largely escaped public debate, but there are some attempts at reforming the current set-up, for example by creating a separate institution for young offenders, where they can serve the remainder of a sentence for crimes committed at under-age.

Among projects designed to find new ways of dealing with adolescent crime is the Baku Children’s Legal Clinic, which deals with cases involving teenagers, including some 30 of a criminal nature every year. The decisions reached in this framework involve alternative ways of punishment, not traditional prison sentences.
The Azerbaijani government in cooperation with UNICEF and the OSCE Baku office are now working to create a system for improving juvenile justice in Azerbaijan so that it will meet international legal standards.  

The investigation was published in Russian in the daily “Zerkalo” daily and in Azerbaijani “Ayna” weekly on May 30th, 2009.

To read the original story, please clik here.

Or more precisely: the lack of busses in Baku. Those that can be found are expensive, imported ones, that do not necessarily fit the requirements of this bustling city. So: how much public money has been spent on these imports?

By Farah Sabirgizi

Posted November 8th, 2009

Since October 2008 there has been a lack of busses on a large number of routes in Baku. Back then the Ministry of Transportation initiated a new programme involving the import of modern busses from abroad to replace ageing Soviet ones. Under the programme private operators have purchased several hundred imported busses with subsidies from the government. There’s great uncertainty, however, as to the exact number of imported vehicles and the price paid for these imports. Apparently the authorities have been paying through the nose for busses from Belarus, Germany and South Korea. Busses bought from MAN in Germany were priced at a 20 per cent premium compared to the cost elsewhere.

Some reports suggest that the busses imported from South Korea came at twice the price quoted by some Korean sources. It’s unclear why this has happened and who may have benefited from such pricing practices.
What is clear, however, is that many of the newly imported busses are unfit for navigating the congested and often narrow streets of the capital. Drivers are complaining that the vehicles are too large and that spare parts are prohibitively expensive.

As for the local passengers many have given up on the bus service, including the reporter herself, who now goes to work by foot. 

This radio emission was broadcast by Radio Liberty on June 3. www.azadliq.org
and can be found here.To read the original transcript, please click here.

For tens of years thousands of Ukrainians lived in dormitories belonging to factories or municipal institutions, but now their homes have been ‘privatized’.

By Azad Zafarov

Posted on November 8th, 2009

Zafarov looked into the case of residents who lived in dormitories that were privatized, and now live with threats and under fear of eviction by the new owners. The story begins with Lyubov Lipseyeva, who lives in a Kyiv dormitory with a sick father and underage child. She said that the building’s new owners have threatened to cut off their electricity and water. This case is similar to a whole campus of dormitories that initially belonged to the plant “Bavovnyanka”. During the plant’s privatization the dorms were sold illegally into private ownership by labeling them as ‘non-residential property’.
Channel Five team takes viewers to a protest in Kyiv where more than 100 residents from different parts of Kyiv are asking for privatized dormitories to be returned to state ownership. MP Anatoliy Matvienko, author of a law concerning the return of privatized objects to the state said it was impossible in this case, since the building is now private property. In order to return it, the government would have to buy it out from the present owners, but in the situation of crisis nobody would care to think about it. He advised residents to go to court to prove this.

An official at the prosecutor general’s office says that there were many discrepancies in the law, which were not clear until March 2005, making it difficult now to prove the building’s new owner is at fault. Last year, out of 20 lawsuits filed, only six were resolved in favor of residents. Even a presidential order, mandating the registration of residents into dormitories and a moratorium on their eviction – is ignored, which leaves residents with nothing but to wait for their eviction.

The program “Investigation into the illegal privatization of dormitories” by reporter Azad Zafarov was aired on Channel Five.

To read the English transcript of the documentary, please click here.

Black caviar is expensive, so swindlers produce fake ones.

By Valentina Samar, Ekaterina Danilina and Oksana Kazakova 

Posted on November 8th, 2009

This investigation deals with illegal producing of caviar imitation. Being effective radioprotector alginic caviar enjoys a vast demand. While legal factorial alginic caviar is wholesome but rather expensive, swindlers produce and sell cheap low-quality product, containing artificial dye and flavorings, unrefined cod-liver oil, cellulose and gelatin. Such caviar imitation is a potential threat to human health.

Reporters not only researched the technology of caviar imitation production, but also followed two major trade channels of fabricated alginic caviar. They figured out and filmed it with a hidden camera that fake caviar is mostly sold in trains on railway pass Jankoy – Melitopol and on highway close to Chongar.
The authors of the investigation also provided viewers with the instructions what to pay attention to buying alginic caviar in order to choose high-quality product.

The investigation was done by Valentina Samar, Ekaterina Danilina and Oksana Kazakova for the in-depth-programme National Security Issue for Chernomorskaya TV (Black Sea TV) and was broadcasted 19th May 2009
It can be seen (in Russian) here:

Part 1

Part 2

To read the English translation of the script of the programme, please click here to download it.

Pan-African Investigative Journalism Awards goes to tobacco-smuggling story

An exposé on a West African, internationally-linked, tobacco smuggling ring worth hundreds of millions of dollars; an undercover report from a Somali warlord brothel and the courageous publication of a Nigerian story that was under threat of censorship, has won the inaugural Pan-African Investigative Journalism Awards, extended by the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR).

Posted November 1st, 2009

Emmanuel Mayah, working for the Daily Sun in Nigeria, spent months infiltrating a syndicate that smuggled tobacco from West African harbors to Nigeria. Mayah identified kingpins, followed up on truck registration numbers, obtained documents, photographed warehouses, and called Nigerian government structures to account for and explain what appeared to be protection of smugglers.

"Going undercover with smugglers was already a brave thing to do, but it was the completion of the investigation with photographs and documentary evidence that made Mayah's story to the best full investigative exposé", said Charles Rukuni, who presented the Awards on behalf of the FAIR adjudicatory council.

The Editors' Courage Award, extended by FAIR to an African editor who has published an important story in spite of pressure not to do so, went to Theophilus Abbah of the Sunday Trust in Nigeria. Abbah withstood many threatening phonecalls and even protestations from some of his own correspondents, who were scared to attach their bylines to the story, and went ahead to publish Nuruddeen Abdallah's
"How Nigerian politicians are creating dynasties". The story -'a great story that should have been nominated for an Award on its own', in the words of Rukuni- dealt with the increasing habit among politicians in Nigeria to appoint wives, children and other relatives to political positions.

Runner-up in the Awards was Fatuma Noor of the Nairobi Star. Noor went undercover as a sex worker in a Nairobi brothel run by Somali warlords.

"Not only did she get the story about how underage girls from refugee camps were forced to work there, but she also identified politicians and CEO's of important businesses as customers of the brothel. She carried out her plan with good evacuation planning and managed to get herself out of there just in time", said Rukuni as he presented Noor with her Award.

Because investigative journalists in Africa are usually underpaid and underresourced, the FAIR Awards are cash prizes. At the Awards ceremony, held at the African Investigative Journalism Conference that was held this week by FAIR and the University of the Witwatersrand, Emmanuel Mayah walked away with 5000 Euro; Theophilus Abbah received Eur 4000,- and Fatuma Noor Eur 2500.

Posted on November 1st, 2009

Dario Novalic and Mustafa Mustafic have been awarded for their documentary “If you are watching this mum”.

It is the jury at the International TV Festival Bar in Montenegro who decided to give a Silver Olive to the Scoop supported documentary on the Bosnian children sent to Italy during the war.

The jury’s explanation behind the choice was: “ The jury decided to award the Silver Olive in the category of documentary to the film “If you are watching this, mum?” for telling a highly touching story through combining several portraits of orphans conveyed by emotionally charged scenes, without manipulating the audience at any moment”.

The men behind the movie gave this comment to Scoop in regards to their latest prize:

"We were sure that we made a good investigation documentary, but of course we didn't make it in order to get an award. We just wanted to tell the story about the children from the Bosnian war. Now, receiving this very prestigious prize, the Silver Olive at TV Fest Bar, we are happy and satisfied. Several professional movie maker from all over the world recognized language of our movie, they recognized that we haven’t tried to be nice and polite- just to tell the truth. We have tried to show that good investigative journalism and professional movie maker s can be the best possible combination for any documentary movie .“

Read more about the festival here.

Report on the situation from Scoop-coordinator in Serbia, Milorad Ivanovic, deputy Editor in Chief - Blic, Serbia’s largest daily, and founder and president of Media Focus - Center for Investigative Journalism in Serbia

By Milorad Ivanovic, posted on November 1st, 2009

This year was by far the worst for investigative journalism in Serbia. The big financial crises also had a great impact on the media and their intention to work on big, important stories.

In the last 15 years, particularly during the wars and the Milosevic regime, media in Serbia were known for their bravery and intention to investigate all serious stories. Even when the government tried to shut down media, to silence them, they were always able to survive thanks to financial help from abroad and particularly with money from advertisements. If a media lost the advertisement from a government-sponsored institution, there would be a company wanting to advertise in your media. If this company should want to stop, there would be another company waiting to invest.

However, the first effects of the crisis were already visible at the begging of 2009 when media reported loss of more than 40 % of their income from advertising. At the same time, the circulation lowered about 20%.

Adds went away
This meant that there was not a lot of alternative ways of income. If you attacked one company for their misconduct and they decided to stop placing their ads in your newspaper, there was a good chance that you would not be able to find a substitute. Due to monopoly on the market, basically 80 % of all companies and foreign companies are in the hand of a few very power full tycoons. Under normal circumstances, they should be the target of our investigations. But in times of crisis, the media have to be very careful when deciding to continue with an investigation or not.

Just one example - TV B92 has a very popular investigative program called „Insider“. This season they have covered some very important stories related to the major tycoons. As a result, they lost most of their advertisements and are presently in a quite difficult position. Other media find themselves in a similar situation - both print and broadcast.

Light at the end of the tunnel
In order to survive, most media decide to put their focus on light content, mainly reality show programs. Reporters from serious informative programs have been under big pressure not knowing whether they would survive or not. TV FOX, one of the 5 national TV stations, decided practically to shot down their informative program and dismissed 60 reporters. Instead of looking for good stories, reporters had to find out how to survive tactically. The key receipt was to be silent and wait for the crisis to end.

The SCOOP program also felt that something was going on at media market. During the last year’s time we received only two applications for support. But, now it seems there is a light at the end of the tunnel. In the last month SCOOP has received four very good applications, and there have been announcements that more will come. This is clear sign that the financial crises is slowly going away. It seems Serbian media will again be able to do what they do best –search and investigate.

A team from Reporters without Borders has researched the media situation in the Russian Federation and sees some improvement.

By Henrik Kaufholz, posted October 25th, 2009.

The team from Reporters without Borders has looked into the media situation in seven regions ranging from Arkhangelsk in the north to Sochi in the south, and from Perm in the Urals to Vladivostok in the Far East.

The report, compiled by five German correspondents accredited in Moscow, shows how some media owners and editors are able to create conditions for independent journalism through innovation and effective business development models. 

So whereas national TV, radio and national newspapers are controlled by the government and big business the conclusion is: While some journalists are resigned to the growing threats to their profession, others find ways to maintain their independence and even dare to report on critical issues.

The report offers as many reasons for hope as for concern. Most importantly, by drawing attention to the differences in the provinces, the freedom of the press in Russia will not just be evaluated by solely concentrating on the situation of the Moscow media.

Read an English summary here.

Read the summary in Russian here.

And find the full report in German here.  

Investigative reporters are facing harder times in East- and South East Europe.

By Henrik Kaufholz.

Posted October 25th 2009

According to this year’s World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters without Borders most of the countries, where Scoop is active, offer less freedom to the press in 2009 than in 2008.

In Macedonia (now ranked number 34), Serbia (ranked 62), Georgia (ranked 81), Azerbaijan (146), Belorussia (151) the conditions for the media improved , whereas Bosnia (ranked 39), Kosovo (ranked 75), Montenegro (ranked 77), Croatia (ranked 78), Albania (ranked 88), Ukraine (ranked 89), Armenia (ranked 111), Moldova (114), Russia (153) all fell back.

Denmark, Norway and Sweden are all ranked 1, and among “Scoop-countries” only Macedonia seems to have an open society with a free press.
Press freedom in Romania (50), and Bulgaria (68), where Scoop has been active, is still not up to EU-standards.

Read the report about the situation for the media in 153 countries here.

Five Azeri journalists were jailed and three detained this month, prompting the Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, to condemn Azerbaijan's "appalling position" on press freedom.

By Idrak Abbasov, Baku, posted October 20, 2009

Five Azeri journalists were jailed and three detained this month, prompting the Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, to condemn Azerbaijan's "appalling position" on press freedom.

Baku's Nasimi court on October 7 sentenced the director of the sports website www.fanat.az, Zahir Azamat, and Natiq Mukhtarli, a journalist from the site, to six month and a year of corrective labour respectively.

They had been accused of defamation by Mais Mansimov, the president of the Khazar Lenkoren football club, after they published an article accusing him of embezzling club funds.

Separately, the Baku appeals court on October 8 upheld a decision by the Nasimi court to jail Sardar Alibeyli, the editor-in-chief of Nota magazine, and journalist Faramaz Noruzoglu for three months, and to give a six-month corrective labour term to journalist Ramiz Tagiyev.

They had written articles accusing the former opposition politician Tahmasib Novrusov of acting on behalf of the government in a media campaign against the opposition parties Musavat and the National Front of Azerbaijan.

The sentencing provoked CPJ into issuing a harshly worded statement.

"Azerbaijan has reclaimed its appalling position as the leading jailer of journalists in the region," the statement quoted CPJ Europe and Central Asia Programme Coordinator Nina Ognianova as saying.

"Seven of our colleagues are now behind bars simply for expressing their opinion or covering the news. Authorities should immediately release all of them, decriminalise libel provisions, and allow the press to do its job without fear of reprisal."

On October 9, the appeals court upheld another ruling by the Nasimi court, confirming a guilty verdict against Alibeyli on one more charge, increasing his sentence to four months.

The second accusation stemmed from an article in Nota magazine charging a number of leading figures in the interior ministry's forces of corruption.

That same day, Ravil Mammadov, the deputy editor of the Milli Yol newspaper and the www.pia.az news agency, was detained by plain-clothes police on his way to work. Eldaniz Elgun, a journalist from the agency and publication, was called to the interior ministry and arrested later that day. Then, at 7.30 pm, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper and agency, Shahin Agabeyli, was detained by officers from the special police unit tasked with fighting organised crime.

An IWPR employee present when Agabeyli was detained had his camera confiscated, while two members of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety had their video camera removed.

Agabeyli said the operation was connected to an article in the newspaper and on the website about cuts that were expected to be made in the interior ministry.

The arrests revived a debate in Azerbaijan over its defamation laws, the subject of complaints from, among others, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which has said they lead to "intimidation and self-censorship". Defamation is a criminal offence in Azerbaijan, so it is not just the subject of civil proceedings, but is also investigated by state prosecutors.

Government officials say the laws are applied fairly, but opposition figures accuse the prosecutors of aiding the government with selective cases.

"Only opposition journalists have been punished for defamation," said Ranah Huseyn, parliamentary leader of the opposition Musavat party. "Journalists who praise the government and run down the opposition have not been punished. It is clear that these articles in the legal code only exist for one reason, to destroy criticism."

But Agil Abbis, who is also a deputy and who publishes the newspaper Adalat (Justice), defended the laws.

"If you remove these articles from the criminal code, then it will have an unwelcome side-effect. If the insulted, defamed person does not have the chance of taking his defamer to court then he will punish him himself," he said.

Idrak Abbasov is a reporter from Zerkalo magazine, and works for The Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety.

Obvious signs of secret deals and corruption in Georgian pharmaceutical business.

By Eliso Djanashia and Studio Monitor.

In 2008 Georgia’s annual inflation rate was at 5.5 %. In light of global and post war crisis prices on products and household goods in Georgia went neither down, nor up. Medicaments were the only exception. In separate cases prices for most commonly used medicaments rose by 200% over the last year and not surprisingly so, over 80% of medicaments import and 70% of the drug stores are controlled by two pharmaceutical companies that instead of competing are in practice cooperating with each other to keep prices on medicaments unnaturally high. Owner of one of the companies is a member of a Parliamentary Health Committee using his position to effectively block other players on the retail market from licensing to sell drugs in their stores.

To read the whole story in English, please click here.
To read it in Georgian, please click here.

This investigation was supported by Danish network SCOOP.

Posted September 7, 2009

Scoop has received a grant from Open Society Institute to support Russian investigative journalists. The grant - 77.000 EUR for the period 2009-2011 - will be used for training seminars, training material, expanding of the network of investigative journalists, participation in international conferences and support of investigations.

"Russia is a huge country, so in this phase we will concentrate on the European part of the Russian Federation", explains Scoop's coordinator for Russia, Henrik Kaufholz. "You still find independent media and independent journalists in Russia and they have been apporaching us for years to get support".

Scoop has already in 2008 and 2009 supported training seminars for investigative reporters organised by Nordic Journalism Centre. Reporters from Novaya Gazeta are also members of an international team, which investigates Gazprom with financial support from Scoop.

The activities in Russia are carried out in close cooperation with the Swedish organisation for investigative reporting, Föreningen Grävande Journalister (FGJ). Kajsa Norell, who is member of the board of FGJ, is the Swedish coordinator of Scoop Russia.

Posted September 27, 2009

By Henrik Kaufholz

Erik Hagen does not speak Russiand, and Tatyana Rikhtun does not speak English. Nevertheless have the Norwegian and Ukrainian reporter investigating the links between the shipping industries brought down a journalistic succes.
It all started when the two and the Ukrainian coordinator of Scoop, Oleg Khomenok, met at the Global Conference in Lillehammer. Back in Sevastopol Tatyana Rikhtun started the investigation and later in the research Erik Hagen and a cameraman joined her.
"We would never have been able to get so much material without the cooperation with Tatyana", says Erik Hagen. "She is the most persistent reporter I've ever met".
Tatyana Rikhtun adds that the presence of the two Norwegian colleagues during interviews put so much pressure at both authorities and the shipping companies, "that we got more information than I expected. They were not accustomed to this kind of cooperation between local Ukrainian journalists and reporters from abroad".

Read the report from Norwatch here and Tatyana Rikhtuns reporting in an English version is to be found here.

Norwegian shipping sailed into unknown waters, as the company FMV ordered supply ships at Ukrainian shipyards.

By Tatyana Rikhtun and Erik Hagen

Posted September 27, 2009

This investigation is the follow up of another one done by Tatyana Bus Rikhtun about the privatization of Sevastopol Marine Plant. Later on a new shareholder, Rafik Dau, bought into the company in 2003, and by 2006 had control over half the shares – during his tenure the company signed 3 contracts with Norwegian company FMV to build three ship hulls. But in just one day, the SPF decided to sell its last stake and did not allow Mr Dau to purchase it – he abruptly sold his shares and left Ukraine.

The new contracts required SMZ' owners to build up new specializations and equipment, and put in new investments (USD 100 mln) – which never came. An FMV engineer interviewed for the article said the main problem with the projects was weak management at the plant.

When the administration of the plant changed, the new owners changed all the subsidiary company managers – and even the company's general director left. Workers began quitting on their own, including ones that had learned new skills and learned the specifications for the FMV orders. According to one SMZ technician, FMV representatives were astonished that there were not even a sufficient number of people to do the work scheduled for the next day.

The issues between the workers and the administration include wage arrears, promised payroll guarantees and reforms. In addition, there were also issues with counteragents, whom were contracted by SMZ to complete work on the FMV orders; they were changed constantly due to SMZ not paying them or low quality work. SMZ still owes some counteragents for their work. About the same time, conditions at the plant deteriorated rapidly – there was no drinking water, no places to wash hands, no working toilet, and electricity was cut off from time to time. Nevertheless, the hull was completed – but FMV refused further plans to build more hulls with SMZ. In two years under the new management, even with orders and downsizing, the plant's debt increased by 16 times.

Conditions at the plant continued to deteriorate and by December 2008, wages had not been paid for two months. Finally, the workers were sent on unpaid vacation – still without the wage arrears being cleared. Upon their return – there was still no work or wages. Those that complained were offered to quit.

A local prosecutor checked into the worker's complaints and found that everything they said was true. He noted that though wages had not been paid – the plant's account had UAH 13 mln (though the salary debt was UAH 3 mln), and it continued to pay taxes and bank loans back. A criminal case was opened, but he believed it would be technically difficult to get it to court.

After workers began to strike over wage arrears, the plant's officials responded by prohibiting them from coming to work. During that time, according to workers, equipment and materials were being destroyed and looted from the plant.

At the closing of the article, workers were told to sign an agreement about downsizing and a complete firing of workers – and were threatened physically if they did not comply. The workers held out one last hope that an annual shareholder meeting could resolve the situation. However, on that day, only shareholder-workers were allowed on to the plant – and a controversial item was voted through – that "Yugsevmorservis" would be sold for UAH 50 mln to four unknown companies. The workers hoped it would at least lead to the salary debt being paid. But, as it turned out – the buyers were related to the plant's current owner.

The first part of the investigation was published in Sevastopolskaya Gazeta on April 30, 2009, the second on May 7, 2009, please see attached PDF-files. For the English version please click here.  

The story also was published by influential national weekly "Zerkalo nedeli" and is posted here.

Avoiding the Moguls in Romania

Nowadays, the only obstacle when talking about investigative journalism in romania is represented by the so called "moguls".

By Catalin Prisacariu

A media "mogul" in romania is a businessman that owns a paper (or several), a tv station (or more), radio station(s) and some magazines. The national important media in romania is shared by 3 or 4 "moguls". At least two of them are also politicians. And absolutely all of them are fierce businessmen (not only in media, but also in many other econimic fields).

Practically, when an investigative journalist works for a media outlet owned by a "mogul", the problems that can appear are:
- you cannot publish stories about the "mogul's" political friends;
- it is forbidden to publish investigative articles concerning the
"mogul's" businesses;
- in some cases you can be asked to gather information and publish a
story about a "mogul's" political/business enemy, even if there are
not any important information (for an investigative journalist) to
gather.

So, in a way, there's no chance for an investigative journalist to do his job. But, on the other hand, there's not a complete and absolute control of the "mogul" over the journalist. The condition to do your job is to know how to avoid your "mogul's" interests.

Catalin Prisacariu is a Romanian reporter working for Academia Catavencu, a satiric  weekly.

Making forgeries of widely known brands is a serious business in Macedonia. According to the rough projection of the experts, the state and domestic and foreign firms loose around 800 million dollars.

By Goran Rizaov and Aleksandar Manasiev

Posted September 19, 2009

The reason for doing forgery is very simple - easy profit without having to pay for advertisement. But, the forged goods don’t only damage the big companies or the state. First of all, the products are also dangerous to human health, they are unsecure and grant no garanties as for the quality.

The most dangerous business is the forgery of medicines and imitation of some famous pharmaceutical brands. According to the data of the World Health Organisation, every tenth medicine in the world is a fake. The percentage od these kind of medicine in developing countries, such as Macedonia reaches 50 percent.

Besides the forgery of the world known brands, in Macedonia there can also be found forgeries of the domestic famous macedonian products. Falsificators show great skill, making copies of these originals at the same time being cautious in order not to get the falsificat revealed.

In Macedonian courts there are several pending court cases among the firms which are suing eachother for stealling intellectual property and the required damage compensation is expressed in millions.

The stories were published in Macedonian daily Dnevnik on July 3rd, 4th and 6th 2009. To read them in Macedonian, please click on the links below, to read them in English, please go to the RTF-files below.

Article one

Article two

Article three  

300.000 names on the election lists in Macedonia belong to either dead people or people who left Macedonia many years ago.

By Laura Papraniku

Posted on September 19, 2009　

People say that with their own eyes they saw that on the voters' lists are the names and surnames of the members of their families or friends that passed away.

Others say that on the lists they saw the names of their friends or close relatives that are left Macedonia years ago. Halil Paloshi from Skopje said that on the list he saw the name of his mother, the passed away Nexhmie Paloshi, with NID 1810928455101, who died more than eight years ago:

"Every time when I and my wife go to vote, who has the same name, Nexhmie, see my mother’s name. They ask us for which Nexhmie we are going to vote, as there are two persons with same name on the list", he explains.

This dilemma is resolved via NID. It has never been clear with the list of dead people in Macedonia and as a result we have a huge number of fictive votes which can go up to 300.000 votes.

This story was published in the daily "Koha" on the 30th and 31st of July and August 1st, 2009. One of the stories was also published by the on-line media for investigative journalism Nacionalpress.

To read the stories in English please click on the RTF-file below. To read them in Macedonian, please choose the pdf-file.

East meets West – Scoop-journalists meet British colleagues in London. Read a personal essay by Albanian journalist and Scoop pioneer Altin Raxhimi

By Altin Raxhimi

Posted September 19th, 2009

One interesting thing that came out of the Investigative Journalism Summer School at the City University in London (CUL) has to do with how the field is now expanding into non-profit media outlets.

Chuck Lewis, now at the Investigative Journalism Lab of the American University in Washington mentioned at least a dozen new organizations, some gathering those who suffered from the cutoffs in the commercial media in the western world. The time is coming close to the awarding of the most important journalism prize in the United States, the Pulitzer, to the non-profit investigative journalism efforts. Europe is following suit, adds Gavin McFadyen, director of the Center for Investigative Journalism at CUL, and there are at least half a dozen such efforts trying to assist enterprise reporting efforts rather in a transnational scale.

SCOOP, with its modest contribution, and a pioneer in the field, has been one of them. It has sought to cover investigative reporting expenses in former Communist countries in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. The series of shop talks it organized, under the aegis of the East Meets West brand, was now seeking to bridge the two.

Conference attendants had the chance to see how undercover reporters Stefan Candea of Romania and Vlad Lavrov of Ukraine, for example, were able to scoop the incredible smuggling tobacco industry based in Kaliningrad, Russia, working together with British and Russian colleagues in stories that were published in the media in those countries.

Brigitte Alfter spoke about a joint effort of reporters in three EU countries in exposing the dangers that aggressive lobbying pharmaceutical companies engage in constitutes.

In the war crimes session, writer Misha Glenny, a veteran of the Balkan wars reporting, who has now focused on its ties to organized crime and legendary Croatian journalist Drago Hedl, who has persistently covered war crimes in his country, as well as reporter Vladimir Karaj and myself, who were part of a group covering Kosovo Liberation Army atrocities in Albania, spoke about our experiences in covering the field.

On a personal note, covering such a territory was a minefield, as it deals with both immersing into a detailed history of the conflicts that erupted in former Yugoslavia, but also because nationalist passions and defensiveness was something we struggled against all the time. Crimes are not crimes if they are committed by your side, the story goes.

Besides, the story was very complex, engaging, at different stages, at least five reporters, us, as Albanian, a Montenegrin, an American and a German, as we tried to find clues to fill in the puzzle.

Again, on a personal basis, this is why such gatherings, of western and eastern reporters – if we do follow such lines – are essential for all of us, so that we can share, exchange, and possibly work together in stories that are becoming increasingly complex and transnational in scale.

That is why the euphemistically called East Meets West Speed Dating was also a great start. Vladimir Karaj, for example, networked with a colleague from the Guardian on a potential to research stories.

Candea, of the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism and a SCOOP coordinator, had the chance to gather his gang of reporters and plan out new work as well as check on the progress of ongoing projects.

The face-to-face meeting between SCOOP coordinators from Denmark and the regions SCOOP covers also enabled to throw in new story ideas worth supporting in the region, a better way than doing it through email.

The non-profit investigative journalism is relatively new, most of it is less than a decade, and is gaining currency especially now that the media is facing tremendous financial and other pressures with the advent of the Internet and the political problems in all Eastern Europe. The solutions are looming from much closer now, and such solutions are part of all the efforts to better the democracies in our countries.

Due to lack of public clinics, Macedonian doctors advice their patients to come to priavte clinics where they work in the evening - but here the patients have to pay.

By Jordanka Ivanovska, Skopje, Macedonia.

Patients complain that they have been mistreated by their doctors who oblige them to come to their second working place in the private clinics and polyclinics where the treatment is not paid by the state. The problem is that during their working time in the state owned clinics, there are too many patients. For example a simple appointment for roentgen shots can last for months, like it is the case with mamography, even though up to 700 cases of breast cancer are discovered in Macedonia on an annual level. This is why the doctors use this situation and recommend their patients to come to the private clinics.
Because of the doctors neglecting, patients suffer and have additional problems beside the fact that some of them are in bad health and economic situation so they have no other option than to follow their doctor's advice.
Patients want to know where their money for health insurance goes because they pay to the state for their insurance, but at the same time when they go to a clinic they have to buy basic materials by themselves, like bandages, iodine and syringes. They even have to pay for blood, even though this is donated for free by the blood donors in Macedonia. However, the Health insurance Fund is quiet about this topic.

The stories were published on 22-nd, 23-rd and 24-th of June in macedonian daily "Dnevnik". To read them in English, please click on the files beneath this text. To read them in Macedonian, please click on the links.

First story

Second story

Third story

Macedonian political parties are financed from suspicious funds with unknown origin.

By Meri Jordanovska and Ivana Kostovska

Posted on September 17, 2009

SCOOP's investigation of the financing of political parties in the election campaigns has shown that names of high officials can be found on the lists of the parties' donors, published by the State Election Commission after the last presidential and local elections held in March 2009. Also the lists contained names of the farmers who have received monetary help from the state as well as names of wives and daughters of the presidential candidates, ministers or other individuals claiming that they were not donors.

This was the case with the president of the Student’s Association of the state University “St. Cyril and Methodius”, who, together with his mother and sister, has provided almost 10.000 euros in the campaign of the ruling party, VMRO- DPMNE. 

The businessmen are giving money because they are aware that the party which comes to power will "reimburse" their "favor". Before any elections, the members of parliament, ministers and others who have became high officials due to parties' privileges, donate their salaries.

The experts appeal that the authorities must check the origin of the money which enters the parties, while the Anticorruption comission is claiming that it is not easy to discover the trace of illegal sources of financing.

The story was published in the Macedonian daily "Nova Makedonija" in three parts 28.05.2009; 29.05.2009 and 30.09.2009.

To read the whole story in English, please click on the link below.

Scoop-supported reporters have exposed how the Moldovan president Vladimir Voronin and his family use their political power to become rich as well.

Posted August 7, 2009

By Irina Codrean, Vitalie Calugareanu, Dumitru LAZUR and Stefan Candea

In Moldova Vladimir Voronin 2001 entered the Presidential Office as a ‘proletarian’, but will go out as a millionaire when his term in office ends. During the last eight years, Vladimir Voronin, his wife and their children Oleg and Valentina became fabulously rich, gathering an impressive collection of houses, appartments and plots of land. Some of them were obtained free of charge or for derisory prices, with the tacit agreement of the authorities.

Furthermore, the head of state during five years kept secret the fact that his wife Taisia has held an important shareholding in CB FinComBank. Another example is how Oleg Voronin went into the transport business, more precisely railway transportation. Later on the major operator was pushed out of the marked, and eventually the government forced companies to import or export certain products “only by train”.

A third example is the very strong connection between Oleg Voronin and the trade in ovules and surrogate mothers called BIOTEX. The company BIOTEX is advertised on the Internet as intermediary in vitro fertilization, providing a large database on surrogate mothers. The business in mothers is administered by an Italian and a Russian German that operate in Chisinau and Kyiv. BIOTEX is also the name of a company registered in Chisinau at the same address as other companies where the president’s son Oleg Voronin works and even lives.

This journalistic investigation was financed as part of the Scoop project (through the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism – FUJ).

It was published in Moldova (Jurnal de Chisinau and Timpul), online (tens of websites republished the stories, especially the one related to BIOTEX and the surrogat mothers) and in Romania (Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism and 12 others, The Jurnalul National newspaper, radio and tv news reports.

To read the original stories please click here:

Voronin Junio goes into the railway business

The Voronins creating their family fortune

Voronin and the surrogate mothers

Please read all three stories in English here.

Stefan Candea gets special mention for his highly valuable contribution to investigative journalism from CEI and SEEMO.

Posted on July 30th, 2009

Scoop-coordinator Stefan Candia (Romania) who is responsible for Moldovan and transnational investigations received a special mention in recognition of his valuable contribution to investigative journalism from the Central European Initiative (CEI) and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO).

On 29 June 2009, the International Jury met in Trieste, at the CEI headquarters. The Jury was composed of Mr. Norbert Mappes Niediek, freelance South East Europe correspondent based in Graz (Austria); Ms. Franca Roiatti, deputy editor, foreign affairs desk, Panorama weekly, Milan (Italy); Ms. Marina Constantinoiu, editor-in-chief, Jurnalul National daily, Bucharest (Romania); Mr. Milorad Ivanovic, deputy editor-in-chief, Blic daily, Belgrade (Serbia); Ms. Angelina Soldatenko, director of the International Institute for Regional Media
and Information, Kharkiv (Ukraine).

The meeting was also attended by Mr. Hari Stajner (Serbia), CEI expert in media issues, acting as advisor together with Mr. Oliver Vujovic (SEEMO Secretary General), Amb. Pietro Ercole Ago (CEI-ES Secretary General) and Ms. Barbara Fabro (CEI-ES Senior Executive Officer).

The Jury examined a total of 26 nominations from 12 CEI Member States. The personal risks taken while performing the duty, the quality of reporting as well as the impact on society of the message conveyed were the main criteria taken into account by the Jury. It was unanimously decided that the Award should go to Besar Likmeta, young investigative journalist from Albania. With this selection, the Jury intended to “promote the good investigative journalism carried out by a very young journalist and, more in general, to convey a signal of support to the development of investigative journalism in Albania, which is particularly significant for this country”.

Moreover, the Jury decided to award a special mention to Esad Hecimovic from Bosnia and Herzegovina and to Stefan Candea from Romania, in recognition of their valuable contribution to investigative journalism. For that, they will receive a CEI SEEMO diploma during the “CEI Journalists Forum”. Please click here to read more.

An investigation funded by Scoop has exposed fraud at the parliamentary elections in Moldova 5th of April this year. It even looks as if Moldova is a testing ground for dirty tricks at other coming elections in Eastern Europe.

Henrik Kaufholz, July 24th 2009

The findings of the investigation can be summarized like this: 'The election in Moldova was won by the dead, the lunatics and the not-yet-born'.

The investigation, done by Lilia Gurez and Igor Volnitchi, has been published this week by several Moldovan media. Articles based on the investigation have also been published in Romanian, Russian and Danish.

The report has created a very lively public discussion in Moldova, but representatives for the Central Electoral Commission didn't show up, when Moldovan television invited them to discuss the matter with Igor Volnitchi.

Read the articles in Moldovan, Romainian, Russian, English and Danish on Scoop's website.

Moldova was given the role as guinea-pig for tests of illegal electric election techniques. This seems to have given victory to the Communist party already in power.

By Lilia Gurez and Igor Volnitchi
Posted July 24, 2009

Moldova, a small, poor, ex-Soviet country, with a young democracy, which many times is not functional, is a perfect polygon for testing „dirty” electoral techniques. There has always been a suspicion that such techniques have been used for all 18 years of the country’s independence, and in 2009 it seems that this suspicion has been confirmed: against all expectations the elections on April 5 this year were won by the Communists. They have been in power since 2001; but their approval rate has kept falling during the latest years. However, the Communists Party received 60 seats out of 101 in the Parliament, i.e. four seats less then they did in 2005, when they enjoyed greater popularity. The communists even came out number one in districts where in their most „glorious” times they were less popular.

Deriving from this situation, the opposition parties accused the governing party of massive electoral fraud, use of dirty electoral techniques, providing data to prove it. The Communists kept repudiating these claims.
This investigation was supported by the Danish Association for Investigative Journalism (FUJ).

It has been published in the Russian language newspaper Moldavskie vedomosti, in Romanian in the Jurnal de Chisinau, the Romanian news site Basarabia La Zi and the 3 language (Russian, Romanian and English) news site DECA-press.

To read the original story in English, please click here.

To read the original story in Romainian, please click here.

To read the original article in Russian, please click here.

To read the story as it was brought in the Danish newspaper Politiken, please click here.

Scoop’s stories about corruption, trafficking and war crimes were told to a new audience at the Centre for Investigative Journalism Summer School in London, where a part of the conference was named: East meets West.

Posted July 24th, 2009

The idea behind the Scoop participation at the Centre for Investigative Journalism Summer school (IJJ) from July 19-21 was to create new connections between Scoop-supported reporters and Western media in order to pave the way for future cooperations.

At the conference a number of the Scoop-supported investigators gave presentations. Amongst them were coordinator for Moldova and transnational investigations Stefan Candea (Romania), who has worked with Duncan Campbell (UK), Vlad Lavrov (Ukraine) and Roman Shleynov (Russia) in order to reveal the systematic production of fake cigarettes.

Also Albania-coordinator Altin Raxhimi and Albanian reporter Vladimir Karaj presented their investigation on war crimes against Serbians in Albania (to read more about this, please click here), while Ukrainian reporter Vlad Lavrov together with Andrew Jennings talked about the upcoming Euroean Championship in Ukraine.

Scoop’s manager, Brigitte Alfter, gave a presentation as well, namely on how to work as an investigative journalist with colleagues from other countries. 

Award for outstanding merits to Scoop-supported reporter

The Central European Initiative (CEI) and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has announced that the young investigative journalist Besar Likmeta from Albania is the winner of the CEI/SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism.

On 29 June 2009, the International Jury met in Trieste, at the CEI Headquarters. The Jury was composed of Mr. Norbert Mappes Niediek, free-lance South East Europe correspondent based in Graz (Austria); Ms. Franca Roiatti, deputy editor, foreign affairs desk, Panorama weekly, Milan (Italy); Ms. Marina Constantinoiu, editor-in-chief, Jurnalul National daily, Bucharest (Romania); Mr. Milorad Ivanovic, deputy editor-in-chief, Blic daily, Belgrade (Serbia); Ms. Angelina Soldatenko, director of the International Institute for Regional Media and Information, Kharkiv (Ukraine).

The meeting was also attended by Mr. Hari Stajner (Serbia), CEI expert in media issues, acting as advisor together with Mr. Oliver Vujovic (SEEMO Secretary General), Amb. Pietro Ercole Ago (CEI-ES Secretary General) and Ms. Barbara Fabro (CEI-ES Senior Executive Officer).

The Jury examined a total of 26 nominations from 12 CEI Member States. The personal risks taken while performing the duty, the quality of reporting as well as the impact on society of the message conveyed were the main criteria taken into account by the Jury.

It was unanimously decided that the Award should go to Besar Likmeta, young investigative journalist from Albania. With this selection, the Jury intended to promote the good investigative journalism carried out by a very young journalist and, more in general, to convey a signal of support to the development of investigative journalism in Albania, which is particularly significant for this country.

Besar Likmeta will receive the Award of 5.000 EUR, offered by the CEI Executive Secretariat, on the occasion of the traditional CEI Journalists Forum, to be held in Warsaw, Poland, in September 2009.

Besar Likmeta, born in Durres in 1983,is currently editor and project manager of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). Likmeta investigative work has streched from fake degrees to consumer protection and fraud by large state corporations. In 2008-2009, Limkmeta has produced several significant investigative reports that were widely republished and have made an impact in the Albanian society as well as regionally: Albania Ignores Trade in Fake Degrees, Wind Farm Threatens Albanian Paradise, World Bank Demolished Albania Village

Likmeta has worked as professional journalist for various print publications, electronic media and television. He started his career reporting for the Florida Times Union in Jacksonville, Florida. He moved to Albania in 2005 where he has been a features editor for the Tirana Times, a world news editor for the 24 hour news channel, TV Ora news, and lately as BIRN Albania editor. He has also contributed stories to various publications such as Jane's Intelligence Review, Businessweek and World Politics Review.

Moreover, the Jury decided to award a special mention to Esad Hecimovic from Bosnia and Herzegovina and to Stefan Candea from Romania, in recognition of their valuable contribution to investigative journalism. For that, they will receive a CEI SEEMO diploma during the CEI Journalists Forum.
http://www.seemo.org/awards/cei/cei09.html#top

Letter from the head of Kletsk District Police Department Mikhail Hrusha to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

Posted July 8th, 2009.

17 April BAJ members Nastassia Krauchuk and Katsiaryna Tkachenka, freelance journalists, were filming a building of a local church.

Police officers told them it was forbidden to film the church and took the journalists to a police station together with a publisher of Bojki Kletsk (Resolute Kletsk) bulletin Siarhej Panamarou (also a BAJ member) and his son Uladzimir. The detained spent three hours at the police, their equipment was confiscated.

But according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) the police officers have now been reprimanded for a serious drawback in work.

This is stated in a letter the Belarusian Association of Journalists received from the Head of Kletsk District Police Department Mikhail Hrusha in reply to an official complaint BAJ sent after the incident.

The chief of the local police informed BAJ that actions of his officers 17 April violated provisions of administrative procedures. They are “reprimanded for a serious drawback in work”. The police also promised to organize “additional training on studying administrative procedures” for officers.

Posted July 3rd, 2009.

After working as a voluntary in Scoop since 2006, Claus Vittus leaves Scoop.
“I have been forced to reduce my duties, and unluckily the work for Scoop is one of them, since I prioritize my family, my three kids and my paid work”
 Claus Vittus also regrets that there have been very few applications from Croatia, Montenegro and Kosovo the later years:
 “I joined Scoop to support investigative reporters in the Balkan countries for which I am responsible. It is a pity that there are not more applications, because the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the money to support investigative journalism”.
 ”I already travel a lot, and it is clear that if ’my’ Scoop-countries are to work better, it will require more travelling in the coming months, that is not possible for me because of my paid work at the Danish Broadcasting Corperation. I will still be there behind the scenes and wish to keep in touch with all the hard working people whom I have met via Scoop. Thanks to you who keep fighting for the investigative journalism, I will still pass by once in a while.

The evaluation of the first phase of the Scoop Caucasus project shows very good results!

Posted on June 23rd, 2009.

The national and regional coordinators of the Scoop Caucasus countries have evaluated the first phase of the project and it is a success. From the first fact finding mission in July 2008 till June 2009 we have established a regional network based on three experienced journalists as national coordinators, held three national seminars, established contacts with almost 100 reporters and funded 12 investigations – 4 in Georgia, 3 in Armenia and 5 in Azerbaijan.

These results are very convincing compared to results Scoop has obtained in other countries, and we will now do our best to fundraise in order to continue the success.

All investigations can be read here on www.i-scoop.org and later this summer on www.scoop-caucasus.org in English and in the original language: Georgian, Armenian, Azeri and Russian.

In an effort to counter increasing worries about infringement of press freedom by governments in Europe, both within the EU and beyond, the editor-in-chief of Germany's weekly Stern magazine, together with EU media commissioner Viviane Reding has launched the European Charter on Freedom of the Press.

The charter, while having no legal teeth and being largely a symbolic document, should begin to have some effect at the point of accession to the EU, as it is intended to be made a condition of entry for EU candidate countries in future accession negotiations.

"[The commission does] not have a direct competence to make the charter legally binding," said Ms Reding, "but the journalists will give the charter to the politicians, who will have to see that the charter is applied in real terms."

The ten-article charter requires, amongst other assurances, that journalism in all media be "free of persecution, repression and of political interference by government."

The charter is an initiative of the Stern editor, Hans-Ulrich Joerges, Ms Reding and other editors-in-chief of European newspapers and originated during a discussion between the commission and the newspapers in 2007.

The publishers and the commission meet on an annual basis to discuss sectoral concerns.

"The charter's main concern is at last to unify Europe journalistically and to enable all our colleagues to invoke its principles if press freedom is violated," said Mr Joerges at the launch in Brussels alongside Ms Reding.

Some 150 prominent journalists from 28 European states have signed the document, but all journalists are encouraged to do so at the document's online home.

To read the whole story click here.

Lack of iodine in water causes serious health problems in Armenia.

Investigation made by Gayane Mkrtchyan and Sara Khojoyan

Posted on June 22nd, 2009

The issue of shortage of iodine in water is considered a serious problem in Armenia, which, as a landlocked mountainous country, far from oceans and seas, is in the risk zone of IDD development (Iodine Deficiency Diseases) The lack of iodine in the human body can cause serious pathologies of the thyroid gland.

Because of losing major trade links in consequence of the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, the population of Armenia was deprived of iodinated salt.
Even though now salt is being iodinated (the existed standard is 40+/-15 milligram per kilo) in some regions of Armenia the problem is still acute, because the substance of iodine in salt is not enough to provide the required
amount of iodine.

This results in lack of hormones in the blood which is expressed by sleepiness; the work of the heart slows down, disorders of menstruation cycle which is followed by sterility.

Kurenkov, endocrine-surgeon of the Surgical Department at the ‘Goris Medical Center’ CJSC, explains what happens during hyperthyroidism or toxic goiter: “In this case the gland produces more hormones than necessary, as a result of which intoxication takes place. The heart starts working faster, the nervous system becomes supersensitive, a person feels frightened, s/he sleeps very bad and sweats all the time.”

This investigation was published 05.06.2009 by Armenia Now.

To read the whole story in English, please click here and here.
To read the whole story in Armenian, please click here.
To read the whole story in Russian, please click here.

In Armenia poor parents sell or hire the children out as workers. Boys and girls at the age of 14, 15 or 16 wash cars, sweep the streets and take similar jobs. Mostly illegal.

Posted on June 21st, 2009

The labor laws of Republic of Armenia are designed to guarantee the rights of working adolescents, but the corresponding state structures are incapable of effectively defending those rights. And all the children are working with the full knowledge and consent of the parents - due to socio-economical reasons.

The parents, the kids and the employers have all come to an arrangement to solve the basic set of social problems. For indigent families not knowing where their next meal will come from, references to the law are met with more than a fair share of derision and mockery.

But the professionals are convinced: either, adolescents shouldn’t be allowed to work or the methods used to monitor the actions of employers must be tightened.

Journalist: Armen Davtyan
Published 04.05.2009 by the newspaper Hraparak and hetq online

To read the story in english, please click here:
Article 1

Article 2

To read the whole story in Armenian, please click here.

To read the whole story in Russian, please click here.

The Orthodox fundamentalists in Georgia reaches for physical violence in order to stop events like halloween parties an art exhibitions.

posted on June 21st, 2009.

This is a story about the societal intolerance towards free thinking in Georgia, about clichés that the national Orthodox Church is trying to establish as national moral values and inability of the law-enforcing bodies to defend the right of free expression or even guarantee security of a person or a group of people who question or ignore these pseudo-values.

The investigation is based on a documentary video-material depicting instances of aggression against young people who in one case dare to publicly celebrate Halloween, an act of Satanism as the Church perceives it, and in another case, it shows a raid against the art exhibition where the artist dared to paint sexual parts of a body of a national saint. Both events had been sanctioned by the official bodies, yet they refused to stand by the victims of aggression just because the aggressors were supported by the Church representatives. 
The film was shot and edited by Nika Lutidze.

Click here to watch the video.

Click here to read the transcript in English.

In 2007, The Ministry of Internal affairs supplied it self with a number of devices for eavesdropping purposes after having passed a higly questionnable law.

Posted on June 14, 2009

Eavesdropping usually conducted by secret services in Macedonia is an old problem dating from the communist era when it was legalized. Despite the fact that Macedonian parliament forbid eavesdropping in 1997 by any means, there was official statements that The Ministry of Interior is buying new technology for this purpose. Now with a new law for following communications, voted last year, for the first time, Macedonian police may use recordings as evidence in court, this was never the case in the past, not even during the communist era. There were loud complains by many experts in Macedonia that the articles in the new law practically include all criminal acts not just high profile like, terrorism and organized crime, and that control of secret services is very weak. E. g. there is only parliamentary commission for observation on secret services, but this commission hasn’t even had sessions the last year. Also, there is no way, technically speaking of controlling how secret services will use this legal option. Some articles even allow that prosecutors verbally order the police to eavesdrop somebody's communications when the police don't know the name of suspect.

This article was published in the online media Nacionalpress.com

To read the original story click here.

To read the story in English, click here.

Scoop states support for Kosovo journalist Jeta Xharra, and her colleagues, victims of a dirty smearing campaign and right now threatened by government-supported media because of her and her team’s continuing struggle against corruption and crime in their home country.

Posted on June 11, 2009

A smearing campaign against Kosovo Albanian journalist, Jeta Xharra, reached troublesome proportions this week, as a commercial on the country’s public television accused her of being a spy and trying to foment civil war.

Many journalists in Kosovo and others with knowledge of that country are deeply concerned that this would be tantamount to a death threat for the host of Kosovo’s most popular political show and an important journalist in her own right.

Xharra hosts and produces the most important political and investigative talk show in Kosovo, Life in Kosovo, associated with the Balkans Investigative Reporting Network (see also Balkan Insight) and aired by RTK, Kosovo’s public broadcaster. She is a tenacious reporter who has covered the Kosovo war for the British Broadcasting Corporation and has braved in investigating many dangerous cases, including inner conflicts between Kosovo Albanian guerrillas in the early 2000s and has broken many taboos in post-war Kosovo.

Last April, Life in Kosovo sent journalists to interview top municipality officials in the town of Skenderaj as part of their local governance debate series. They were kicked out of the information office by the press officer of the municipality, and later physically attacked by unknown assailants in the town.

Council meetings with arms
The show later broadcast on Skenderaj voiced the concern about the attacks, including video footage of it, and included a report where an interviewee said that he speaks freely in that municipality because he carries a gun, and that municipal council members went to the council meetings armed.

The Mayor of Skenderaj is Sami Lushtaku, a former top Kosovo Liberation Army official, who spent three months in jail last year for threatening a judge, and who had been questioned by UNMIK police about his role in the 2004 riots in Kosovo. After the program was aired, Lushtaku went on an interview accusing Xharra of being a Serb spy.

That accusation bears a grave weight in Kosovo, which has been signed by the armed conflict of ethnic Albanians and the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic, and which had been viewed as an area where the majority Albanians and Serbia have wrested for its control. Kosovo became independent in February last year.

Hateful campaign in government newspaper
In addition, the newspaper which published the interview with Lushtaku, was Infopress, a small newspaper close to prime minister Hashim Thaci and to Lushtaku, both members of the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo. Infopress collects the bulk of government advertising reserved for newspapers in the whole country.

Infopress had been criticized by Kosovo’s Press Council on another issue last May, when it broadcast a debate regarding alleged crimes, Kosovo Albanian Army elements have committed in Albania during the NATO bombing of former Yugoslavia in 1999.

Infopress carried on front page attacks on Xharra, reiterating the charges of being a spy, which culminated about one week ago, with an article headlined that Xharra’s Days Are Numbered.

This caused uproar in the public arena in Kosovo and with the international community, forcing the newspaper to declare on June 9 that it was bowing to institutional pressure and would stop the attack campaign.

However, on that same day, the newspaper upped the attack by paying for a commercial on RTK, the same public broadcaster where Xharra hosts her show, which claimed again that Xharra, as well as the show producer Faik Ispahiu are Serbian spies, and that Xharra is trying to foment a civil war in Drenica, the province where the town of Skenderaj is situated.

Many people with knowledge of the situation in Kosovo are afraid that this would unleash uncontrolled elements in Kosovo to physically endanger Xharra and other enterprising reporters in the country.

SCOOP believes that such attacks on the press in Kosovo are a serious detriment towards the effort at making that country a viable democracy.

Posted on June 1st

Azerbaijani organizations, the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) and the Media Rights Institute have set up a 24-hour hotline for journalists and media groups in distress, especially those facing court cases or criminal defamation suits.

IRFS will conduct investigations into calls made to the hotline, and refer cases demanding legal assistance to the Media Rights Institute.

The hotline was set up with support from the U.S. State Department within the framework of the "Media Defense Fund" project.

Journalists or media groups needing support, may call: 055 816 4004.

For information, visit http://www.irfs.az/content/view/2339/28/lang,eng/.

25 freedom of information advocates and practitioners from the Caucasus region convened on May 8-11, 2009, to compare the laws and the practices across the region

Posted on June 1st 2009

Organized by the National Security Archive together with its partners from Tbilisi State University, the workshop included participants from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, and the United States, and representatives of the leading FOI organizations in each country, meeting for two days of presentations and discussion in Telavi, and a session at the State Security Archive of Georgia in Tbilisi.

Among the participants were lawyers who had brought FOI cases, journalists who had to use FOI laws in their investigative work, and academics—both those who helped draft and promote the FOI laws and those who faced problems with access in their work in the archives. The workshop took place at a critical turning point—all the represented countries now have FOI laws, most recently the Russian Federation in January 2009, but implementation of the laws is facing more and more difficulties in each of the countries.

One of the most striking findings of the workshop was the commonality of problems experienced by FOI activists across the region and their eagerness to work together to address these problems. This theme—the need to develop a joint strategy and create a functioning network to share information and support each other in their efforts— came up repeatedly in the reports as well as the discussions outside the conference room.

While the Georgian FOI law was passed in 1999, Armenian in 2003, Azerbaijani in 2005, and Russian in 2009, and a lot of work on requesting and monitoring was done after the passage of the laws, the countries still lack a truly reliable implementation mechanism. In Azerbaijan, for example, the Parliament accepted practically all the recommendations made by the NGOs, which resulted in a much improved law, but since then not much progress has been achieved in terms of real openness of government information.

In their current work, speakers at the workshop discussed the relationship between FOI groups and government agencies. The best approach, according to both the Georgian and the Russian delegations, was a combination of direct challenge and cooperation—“making ourselves useful to bureaucrats”—such as giving concrete recommendations that would help agencies comply with government requirements on publishing their information on websites. All participants agreed on the need to engage in educational work among FOI officials and that at the same time, lack of compliance should be addressed in lawsuits.

At the concluding “brainstorming” session of the conference, participants once again emphasized the need to pull their skills and efforts together and to share information about specific cases. The Georgian delegation expressed their intention to organize a freedom of information NGO for Georgia followed by a regional center for the Caucasus modeled after St. Petersburg’s Institute for Freedom Information Development. Other important initiatives included establishing a formal network with a website for the participants of this workshop where they could engage in on-line discussion of issues and practices. The organizers also decided that all presentations of this workshop and its concluding document will be published in two forthcoming issues of the Georgian Archival Bulletin.

For more information, please click here.

By Larysa Artemenko

Posted May 16 2009

Officials from Ukrainian Kremenchuk have privatized land plots (more than 3 hectares) in contravention of legal land succession. This investigation shows the scheme of elligal privatization and describes the chain of events and the figures that provided “the ruling elite” with nice building lots.

The investigation also deals with an attempt of utilization of city budget money for private needs of vice-mayors and other officials. It produces proofs of the City Council having provided 900.000 (about 122.000 euros) Hrivna (hrn) for the building of a gas pipe-line and a distribution point on M. Churay Street, Kremenchuk, where the cottages of deputies, vice-mayors and heads of different municipal companies are being built. The author managed to find the register of the future land owners and published it as an evidence of the facts described. She also compares the cost of the houses being built and the salaries of the officials according to their tax return.

Moreover, the investigator found another analogous scheme of land privatization, this time for 7 hectares. The list of people pretending to the building lots again includes the names of Kremenchuk officials.

Read original article in Ukrainian here.

Read the English version here.

Posted May 16 2009

The independent human rights organisation ARTICLE 19 is becoming increasingly concerned that acts of violence against journalists in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are on the rise. Previous attacks have seen a lack of independent and prompt investigation, creating a climate of impunity for the perpetrators and fear amongst journalists working in these countries.

In recent weeks Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have seen an increasing number of physical attacks on journalists and media workers, especially those covering politically sensitive issues such as opposition rallies in Georgia and the recent call for the cancellation of the “Flower Holiday” in Azerbaijan.

In Armenia, the most recent assault took place on 6 May, when Nver Mnatsakanian, a prominent television anchor and host at Shant TV, was attacked and beaten by unknown assailants outside his home in Yerevan.

ARTICLE 19 specifically calls on the Armenian authorities to condemn any attacks on journalists and to undertake to end all attacks. In order to prevent other attacks, ARTICLE 19 also urges the government to fully investigate all violent incidents, thereby sending a clear message that such abuses will not be tolerated.

The Flower Holiday
In Azerbaijan, police used physical force against Durna Safarli, Radio Liberty correspondent; Elchin Hasanov, from Yukselish Namina; and Afgan Mukhtarli and Layla Ilgar from Yeni Musavat newspaper on 10 May 2009 while they were covering events surrounding the “Flower Holiday”.

The “Flower Holiday” is an annual celebration of the birthday of former President Geydar Aliyev on 10 May. This year students called for it to be cancelled, to commemorate 13 people killed at the State Oil Academy in Baku on 30 April 2009. Journalists attempting to investigate these killings were also prevented from accessing information by authorities.

ARTICLE 19 urges the Azerbaijan government to set up an independent investigation into the police violence surrounding this year’s “Flower Holiday” and promptly investigate police attacks on journalists and peaceful protesters. Members of the public were beaten and approximately 50 demonstrators were detained for a number of hours on this day, simply for exercising their right to free expression.

ARTICLE 19 also calls for a complete disclosure of the findings of the investigation into the killing of 13 people at the State Oil Academy in Baku on 30 April 2009. The Azerbaijani public has the right to know what happened and who was responsible for this unprecedented massacre.

Georgian Police Attacks
In Georgia, journalists covering political opposition activities have reportedly been subject to police ill-treatment. These included, for example, Nino Komakhidze and Ani Khavtasi from The Versia newspaper who were covering an opposition movement protest on 7 April. They were allegedly also part of another group of journalists who were assaulted on 6 May, when violence erupted outside a Tbilisi police station.

ARTICLE 19 urges the Georgian government to conduct a prompt and independent investigation into the alleged police attacks. We also call on the Georgian authorities not to repeat the excessive use of force used to quell demonstrators in November 2007, including the beating of journalists by police.

ARTICLE 19 notes that Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which both guarantee the fundamental right to freedom of expression, including the protection of journalists.

List of Individual Journalists Attacked in South Caucasus

Armenia

On 6 May 2009 Nver Mnatsakanian of Shant TV was beaten by unknown assailants, suffering injuries to his head, feet and hands.

On 30 April 2009, Argishti Kiviryan, the founding editor of Armenia Today, was severely beaten with wooden batons across the face and body on his way home from work. He was hospitalised in a serious condition. According to eyewitnesses the attackers also shot at Kiviryan, although he was not hit.

These attacks follow on from previous incidents. In August 2008, Lusine Barsegian from Haikakan Zhamanak and Hrach Melkumyan, Radio Liberty acting director, were attacked and hospitalised in separate events. Edik Baghdasarian, editor of the news magazine Hetq, was also assaulted in November 2008. The editor-in-chief of Iskakan Iravunk newspaper, Hovhannes Galajian, has been severely assaulted twice, in 2006 and again in 2007. Even though Armenian police authorities have vowed to end the spate of recent attacks, no one has so far been found guilty.

Azerbaijan

On 10 May 2009, Durna Safarli, Radio Liberty correspondent, Elchin Hasanov, an employee of Yukselish Namina, and Afgan Mukhtarli and Layla Ilgar of Yeni Musavat were the victims of police force while covering events surrounding the “Flower Holiday”.

On 26 April, ANS TV correspondents Nijat Suleymanov, Elmin Muradov and Azer Balayev reported that they were subjected to ill-treatment by police when trying to report on the destruction of a building.

Assaults, including the murder of journalists, have continued to take place with impunity in Azerbaijan. The government’s failure to meaningfully investigate violence or threats of violence, thus implicitly condoning them, is illustrated by the fact that the 2005 murder of Elmar Huseynov, the editor-in-chief of the Monitor, remains unsolved. In 2008 alone, there were at least 49 incidents involving verbal or physical assaults on journalists.

These include four separate attacks, including the stabbing of Azadlyg reporter, Agil Khalil, who was later subject to a smear campaign on government-controlled television. Sergei Strekalin was sentenced for the attack although Khalil denies he was the person who attacked him. As a result of more attacks, Khalil was forced to flee the country by the end of 2008.

Hakimeldostu Mehidyev, correspondent for the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS) in the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan (situated within Azerbaijan) has also been subjected to several attacks, the latest in January 2009, when he was hit with a ceramic ashtray in the face. He had been filming a gathering of the political opposition. No criminal investigation has been initiated to date. In March 2009, he had a car crash after his car was allegedly tampered with.

Idrak Abbasov, another journalist for IRFS, was hospitalised with heart problems on 20 February 2009 after returning from Nakhchivan where he stated he was subjected to physical and psychological abuse by the National Security Ministry (NSM).

In June 2008, the journalist Emin Huseynov was detained and assaulted by police, after which he was hospitalised for 24 days, and continues to receive treatment. Court proceedings in the case are ongoing.

Georgia

Attacks on journalists have become increasingly common. On 7 April, police reportedly ill treated Nino Komakhidze, a journalist, and Ani Khavtasi, a photo-journalist from The Versia newspaper, when they covered an opposition movement protest.

On 6 May, the abovementioned journalists, together with Salome Kokiashvili, a Public Broadcasting correspondent, Zaza Shukvani, a Kavkasia TV Company cameraman, and Levan Kalandia, a Rustavi 2 cameraman, were seriously injured in a violent episode that erupted when opposition supporters clashed with police – who allegedly used truncheons and rubber bullets – outside a police station in Tbilisi.

Posted May 16 2009

In Dnepropetrovsk gambling machines have been massively installed and spread in recent years. They are even in public places such as transportation routes, markets, public eating establishments, etc.

According to executive authorities and several public organizations, the majority of these slot machines are illegal. In the places where one-armed bandits were removed, new slot machines appear shortly afterward.

Furthermore, according to specialists, the owners of the gambling machines conceal their true income, which leads to underpayment to the budget. According to some media reports, some very influential people in Dnepropetrovsk are involved in this gambling business that take various measures to prevent the relevant departments to set order in this area.

 Read the whole article in English here

Rea the original articles in Ukrainian here:

Article 1

Article 2

To remember the more than 800 journalists which have been murdered since the UN made May 3 the international day of press freedom, a short film has been made.

Posted May 16 2009 by Solveig Gram Jensen

In December 1993 the UN General Assembly made May 3 the day of World Press Freedom, honouring the "Windhoek Declaration." In the Windhoek Declaration journalists from all over the world had two years earlier demanded free, plurastic and independent media as an indispensable part of a democratic society. They denounced censorship and repression as the most severe violations of human rights.

The journalists asked governments worldwide to grant press freedom and the freedom to assembly as a constitutional right. They spoke out in favour of independent associations of publishers and journalists and sought international support for free media and journalists.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day.
More than 827 journalists have lost their live since the day was set up - they were shot, slaughtered or beheaded.

The most prominent cases are Anna Politkowskaja and Daniel Pearl. Only in a few cases the perpetrators are brought to justice, most cases remained unnoticed.

The seven associations want to remember those journalists with this film. They are not forgotten.
Links:

www.for-freedom.cc

http://vimeo.com/4266200

The seven associations are:
Netzwerk Recherche, Reporters Without Borders, DJV NRW, dju in Verdi, n-ost, International Federation of Journalists and Uznews.net.

26.04.2009

The court in Belgrade decided today to sentence 4 former Serbian policemen on total prison sentence of 58 years in jail for their role in Suva Reka masacre (Kosovo) where 50 members of Berisha family were killed.

The policemen were arrested after joint SCOOP/BIRN investigation in september 2005. Three policmen have been declared not guilty because of lack of evidence.

To read more about the investigation, please click here.

Serbian version.

English version.

These informations are based on several international organisations and eye witness reports.

The Moldovan authorities have been arresting journalists and using violence against them amid angry protests and rioting about the results of last weekend’s parliamentary elections. Both civilians and Moldovan and Romanian journalists have been affected. Here is a list of some of the violations of the freedom of the press taking place in the country at the moment:

- 2 people were killed: Valeriu Boboc and Ion Ţibuleac (photo)

- Damian Hancu a French student (Lyon) was arrested because he spoke with swedish journalists and translated for them on the street. Listen to his testimony here (in English) or watch and listen to him here.

- On April 11, it was reported that a second body of a 22 years old, participant in the protests, was discovered. He was dropped at the central hospital in Chisinau, he shows visible signs of brutality.

- 200 young people have been arrested, one died during the clashes. The arrested had no access to a lawyer and were brutally beaten.

- April 10, the foreign affairs minister in Chisinau called TVR corespondent Cornel DEDIU and gave him a letter to announce him that his accreditation in Moldova was withdrown. DEDIU (the same who was arrested for several hours on the streets of Chisinau earlier) didn't take the letter, because it was not signed nor stamped. the officials in Chisinau confirmed for romanian AGERPRES that they withdrown DEDIU accreditation.  

- Oleg Brega, a journalist with the Internet TV station Jurnaltv.md and free speech activist involved in organising peaceful demonstrations, was attacked by five men, some wearing uniforms, while filming on 8 April in Chisinau. Brega and another journalist, Vasile Costiuc, were arrested the day after. Costiuc was released but Brega was still being held on April 10, where his apartment was also searched.

- The editor of the Jurnal de Chisinau newspaper, Rodica Mahu, was arrested in the morning of April 10 by four men in plain clothes from the Department of Special Missions who claimed she was “gathering and evaluating information in order to attack a government building.” She was freed later that same day.

- Cameraman Constantin Rogodantev of the ProTV Chisinau television station was attacked on April 9 by masked policemen who smashed his camera.

- Ion TERGUTA, coresp for Antena 3 in Romania, was arrested on April 9 and held for 6 hours, without access to a lawyer nor to cell phone.

- Among the many Romanian journalists to be targeted was Cornel DEDIU of the Romanian public television channel TvR, who was arrested today as he was about to introduce a report live for the 1pm news programme.

- Interior ministry officials threatened to jail or shoot Romanian journalists Evgenia Kironaki, Mihai Valentin Buzduga and Gabriel Colac. In the end, they were deported. Peru Terguta, a journalist who is the Romanian correspondent for Romania’s Antena 3 TV station and who also works for Moldova’s TV 7, was forced to leave the country under OSCE escort after receiving phone calls announcing his imminent arrest.

- Since April 8th another journalist has been in hiding because she was tipped of that she was going to be arrested. She is wanted by police for organizing a flashmob that degenerated into violent clashes because of agitators

- A total of 23 Romanian reporters and photographers working for Romanian and international news media have been denied entry to Moldova since violent demonstrations took place in protest against the official results of the 5 April parliamentary elections, according to which the ruling Communist Party won 50 per cent of the votes.

- The international media whose journalists were denied entry included Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, EPA and Reuters. Among the Romanian media to be affected were Evenimentul Zilei, Jurnalu National, Ziua and Realitatea TV. The journalists were repeatedly turned back at various border crossings including Galati and Oancea on administrative pretexts although the real reason was probably their Romanian nationality. Journalists from other countries were allowed into Moldova from Ukraine.

- Access to several independent news websites is blocked and most infoportals in Moldova have been jammed or not working at all. The same for cell phones and internet connections.

- Meanwhile, the state-owned broadcast media have mainly been putting out entertainment programmes and cartoons, with very little coverage of the protests in the capital, Chisinau.

- Legal proceedings were also being brought against several of the organisers of lightning demonstrations in which thousands of protesters took part.

- Romanian journalists are still banned to enter moldova, those who tried even by plane were returned with the first flight back to Bucharest or Timisoara. There is one team of journalists working incognito in Moldova

- On April 14th the EUobserver reported that EU diplomats are trying to verify the abuses, read more here.

Historical background
The already very tense relations between Moldova and Romania have worsened in recent days. Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin accused Romania of being behind the protests in an interview for the Russian news agency Interfax and Romania’s ambassador has been declared persona non grata. President Voronin has threatened to use force if the anti-communist rioting continued in the capital.

A former Soviet republic that has been independent since 1991, Moldova is Europe’s poorest country. The OSCE said that overall the 5 April elections met international standards but several individual OSCE members questioned this evaluation. The opposition is demanding a recount.

A landlocked country between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova has had an unresolved territorial dispute since 1992, when the easternmost region of Transnistria, with an area of some 4,000 sq km, declared independence with support from Russia. The election result has revived tension between Moldova’s pro-Russian and pro-Western factions, between those nostalgic for the Soviet past and those who want to join the European Union.

EU TV and state owned media like tv, print and radio are using propaganda against protesters, saying that the protests are an attempt coup d'etat financed from Romania. newspaper Comunistul called an info portal (unimedia.md) "fascist". however, media reports, photos and videos are showing the involvement of police and secret service in the violent riots at the beginning of last week. the flag of EU was put on the building of the Parliament and Govenment building by youngsters assisted by uniformed police man.

Read OSCE's press release here.

By Altin Raxhimi, Michael Montgomery and Vladimir Karaj

09 April 2009 The Kosovo Liberation Army maintained a network of prisons in their bases in Albania and Kosovo during and after the conflict of 1999, eyewitnesses allege. Only now are the details of what occurred there emerging.

A run-down industrial compound with shattered windows and peeling plaster in Kukes, Albania, was used to hold dozens of civilians, mainly Kosovo Albanians suspected of collaboration, but also Serbs and Roma captive there, beaten and tortured.  Some were killed, their remains never recovered.  The men who allegedly directed the abuses were officers of the KLA.

At least 25 people were imprisoned in Kukes, witnesses say. Amongst them were three Kosovo Albanian women. In the camp at least 18 people were killed, while others were later rescued by NATO troops.

It appears that Kukes housed one of a number of secret detention centres in Albania and Kosovo, and that prisoners were transferred from one facility to another.

Even after the NATO interventions, a camp was maintained in Baballoq/Babaloc in Kosovo, holding around 30 Serb and Roma prisoners, whose current whereabouts are unknown. Other camps in Albania may have held Serbs kidnapped in Kosovo after the war, according to four sources.

The names of several alleged perpetrators have been known to UNMIK for some time. One of them is still holding a high position in the Kosovo judiciary, Balkan Insight understands.

Yellow Mercedes of Death
These grave allegations about the Kukes camp, in the north west of Albania, are based on interviews with several sources: two eyewitnesses – one former inmate and one member of the KLA,  records from a cemetery in Albania and UN documents that we have gained access to, which detail the testimonies of people ill-treated in Kukes.

Together, they paint a portrait of a brutal prison regime that is at odds with the claims of former KLA leaders, who say they adhered to international human rights conventions and never detained civilians.

The abuses in Kukes may not have been isolated events. According to former KLA fighters who talked to us, as well as independent testimony provided to UN investigators, the KLA maintained a loose network of at least six secret jails in the dozen or so bases they operated in Albania and the two they had in Kosovo during and after the 1999 war. 

Part of the funding for the research behind this article was provided by SCOOP.

Read the whole article here.

Scoop-supported reporter Edik Baghdasaryan, one of Armenia’s most intrepid and distinguished investigative reporters, has authored a new book entitled “Investigative Journalism: The Armenian Experience”.

Posted on April 13, 2009

The book, published by the “Investigative Journalists”, a non-profit organization that Mr. Baghdasaryan and a group of colleagues formed in 2001, is a compendium of the author’s decade long experience as an investigative journalist in Armenia. Mr. Baghdasaryan draws on his finely tuned reporter’s instinct to get to the crux of stories, political, economic and social, that have been at the forefront of the news in Armenia.

“Investigative Journalism: The Armenian Experience”, is a primer for all those wishing to pursue a career in investigative journalism in Armenia as well as for general readers who wish to get a behind the scenes look at the pitfalls and problems confronting the purveyors of investigative journalism in Armenia today. Read more here.

Posted 11.04.2009
By Maya Metskhvarishvili

According to different surveys, every 5th family in Georgia depends on money transfers from abroad. In January 2009, amount of money transferred from Greece to Georgia reached 3.4 million dollars. It is worth mentioning, that the amount of money transferred from Greece is growing each year (with 16.2 million dollars transferred in 2006 and 22.5 million dollars transferred in 2007). This means that number of illegal labor migrants from Georgia to Greece is increasing. This is because Georgia has no labor agreement signed with Greece.

According to the Social Integration Department, Ministry of the Interior of Greece, 13 791 Georgian citizens have permission to living in Greece. According to the World Bank there are 62 174 citizens of Georgia living in Greece. The International Organization for Migration says that there is no precise statistic concerning the number of the citizens of Georgia in Greece. Most of the Georgians living there are illegal mingrants. Therefore, they are not registered in any official data bases. Their number is growing every day. Ways of getting to Greece illegaly is being perfected from day to day.

On of the ways of getting illegally out of Georgia to live in another country are the socalled Graphios, i.e. offices (often Greek) which help people come from Georgia to Greece.

Business of Graphios
It is Thursday today. A number of double decker buses are parked in line in Chavchavadze Street, Kutaisi. A lot of people are crowding around the buses: some of them are sending parcels, others are seeing off their family members to Greece. Tamriko, 47, has a husband and two student children. They are all unemployed.

“I called my neighbor who’s been living in Greece for 6 years. I begged her to get into my shoes and help me go to Greece. She advised me to contact the firm which is arranging my trip. She will pay money to them. Then I will work and pay her debt,” – Tamriko says. She knows roughly the road to Greece: “They say I will get to Turkey. I will hide in a bus for a couple of hours and get to Greece in secret.” Tamriko is not disclosing the name of the firm which is taking her to Greece: “If I get in trouble, I’m lost. I have no other option. That’s why I’m leaving,” – she says

In Chavchavadze street, Kutaisi, there are about 20 graphios. This is how people call firms (so called Greek offices), which help people go to Greece. On the record, none of them confirms that they participate in smuggling of people. That’s why we made an experiment: we visited a number of firms as clients and we visited others as journalists. To say the truth, representatives of the firms were far more outspoken with clients:

“I’m taking a group in two days. I still have a room for one person. If you are a real client, I will put you in that group and you’ll be in Greece in 3 days,” – Ira-Tour representative told us. As a real client, I asked questions concerning routes and I got a comprehensive answer: “I can hide you in a bus. We have a special hide-out in a boot with air-conditioning and everything. You’ll have to be there for 10-12 hours. You’ll get to Greece without a single problem. I have another option: we can go to Turkey and from Turkey get on a Greek island in a motor boat.” I asked him about guarantees: “There are no 100% guarantees for anything, but I can give you 90% guarantee that I will take you to Greece. Besides, you pay money to me only after you get in place. You are not losing anything. It will cost you 3 500 euros. Price is the same with everyone here, but if you are a real client, I can still offer you some advantages,” –he replied.

Next to this office is an office of Mobo-Tour. I came there as a journalist and I got scanty answers as expected: “No chance we take anybody illegaly. Our relatives have been living in a Greek city of Thessaloniki for 18 years already. They are sending invitations and our client submits that invitation to the Greek consulat. If a client gets visa, he pays money to us and goes to Greece legally. We concentrate most of our time on sending parcels,” – Otar Robakidze, a representative of Mobo Tour said.

Read the whole story in English here.

Read the original story in Georgian here.

This investigation was supported by Scoop and originally published in the newspaper "Akhali gazeti" ("New Paper") on 23rd of March 2009. The investigation was also published on the web-portal - www. regions.ge.  

Posted 11.04.2009  Solveig Gram Jensen

Scoop-manager Brigitte Alfter, on behalf of the Scoop project, states her support to the protests against the violations of freedom of the media and the disturbance of journalists work in Moldova the recent days.

 According to reports by the Independent Journalism Centre in Chisinau and by individual colleagues in the region, journalists have been detained, denied entry, have been physically attacked, threatened and their work has been hampered. This is not acceptable.

So far only Reporters without Borders, Amnesty International, The International Freedom of Expression Exchange and The Committee to Protect Journalists have made statements on the matter, whereas the EU and the OSCE remain silent.

The International Journalism Center, Chisinau, has sent out this appeal:
**Please send your organisation’s signature to campaigns(at)ifex.org before 10:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday 14 April. Please make sure to cc Doina Costin of IJC at mlu(at)ijc.md.**

(IJC/IFEX) - The following is an internal appeal by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC):
Declaration of media NGOs on the situation of the press in Moldova, including violations of the right to access to information and attacks on journalists

The undersigned media NGOs express concern about the degradation of the media situation in Moldova following parliamentary elections on 5 April 2009. This included the violation of the right to access information of public interest, and harassment of journalists.

On Monday 6 April, the day after parliamentary elections were held, protests erupted when the election results were announced amid claims from opposition parties that the poll had been rigged. Opposition leaders have backed the protests of thousands of people, saying the election result was fraudulent. They condemned the violence, but said the protests would continue. The peaceful protests have now turned into violent confrontations with police forces in many areas.

On 7 April, at least 18 journalists who were trying to travel from Romania to Chisinau were stopped at the border crossings of Galati-Giurgiulesti and Cahul-Oancea, according to Romanian sources. Then on 8 April, a BBC journalist was prevented from entering Moldova. Moldovan customs officials provided varying reasons why the journalists were stopped at the borders, in some cases demanding special medical insurance and accreditation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (MAEIE) in Chisinau, although normally only a foreign passport is required to cross the border between Romania and Moldova. Moreover, Moldovan legislation stipulates that foreign journalists require accreditation only for access to official information, and only if they wish to be accredited as a permanent correspondent in Moldova.

On the evening of Wednesday, 8 April, several reporters from the investigative newspaper "Ziarul de Garda" were harassed by police officers. Journalists had their arms twisted, and police threatened to destroy their cameras. On the same day, Oleg Brega, a cameraman for the Internet-based Jurnal TV, was beaten by several people in plain clothes who seized two video cameras. Also that night, PRO TV Chisinau cameraman Constantin Rogodantiev was assaulted by police forces behind a government building.

Moreover, on 9 April, Facebook and the social networking website Odnoklassniki.ru became inaccessible to users in Moldova. Also on 8 April, the server of the unimedia.md information portal was attacked several times. Other online resources were inaccessible in Moldova during this period, while at least two broadcasters