Balkan Investigative Reporting Network

❗ Only 1 DAY left until the deadline for applying for the regional training on gender-sensitive reporting and digital violence against women and girls 👉 https://birn.eu.com/news-and-events/apply-now-regional-training-on-gender-responsive-reporting-and-digital-violence-against-women/

Selected fellows will receive:

🔹 A journalism prize to support story production,
🔹 Individual editorial mentorship from experienced BIRN editors and journalists,
🔹 Ongoing technical support from the Kosovo Women’s Network on issues related to technology-facilitated violence against women,
🔹 Opportunities for peer exchange throughout the mentorship period.

🔙 Here is a quick look back at day 5, which took place on Friday, August 21.

Legal pressures, geolocation and visual investigation were on the agenda, and the experts’ topics also included Freedom of Investigation requests and environmental reporting.

BIRN Summer School 2026 – Day 5: Legal Risks, Geolocation, FOI, Visual Investigation, Environmental Journalism - BIRN Legal pressures, geolocation and visual investigation were on the agenda on the fifth day of BIRN Summer School. The experts’ topics also included Freedom of Investigation requests and environmental reporting.

📢 Hurry up and apply by August 26 for the regional training on gender-responsive reporting and digital violence against women!

The training will be held on September 10 and 11. Accommodation, meals and travel costs for selected participants from the Western Balkans will be covered by BIRN.

❗ Learn more: https://birn.eu.com/news-and-events/apply-now-regional-training-on-gender-responsive-reporting-and-digital-violence-against-women/

🤝 Austrian Development Agency European Commission UN Women

Apply Now: Regional Training on Gender-Responsive Reporting and Digital Violence Against Women - BIRN Follow the Evidence. Report Ethically. Support Women’s Voices.

Today was the final day 6 of 2026! 🎉

🌱 The panel discussion, “How to Identify Strong Environmental Stories in Local Communities?” was moderated by Gordana Andric from BIRN. Journalists Katerina Topalova from North Macedonia, Dragan Gmizic from Serbia and Wojciech Oleksiak from Poland shared their experience in identifying and developing local environmental issues into strong investigative stories.

🌍 The day continued with a session led by Diego Arguedas Ortiz, a journalist, editor, and media trainer specialising in climate change and climate journalism.
Diego led two sessions focused on strengthening environmental investigations: “Looking Under the Hood: Where Is the Money Going?”, followed by “How to Cover Heat: Ideas, Principles and Examples of Good Investigations.”

🧑‍🏫 During the day, Blake Morrison, lead trainer, together with BIRN investigative journalists Gordana Andric, Sasa Dragojlo and Besar Likmeta, worked with all 30 participants to help them turn their story ideas into strong and well-developed pitches.
Participants refined their ideas and presented their final pitches one by one to a jury for evaluation, drawing on the skills and knowledge gained throughout the BIRN Summer School.

⭐ Thank you to all who participated - the top expert trainers and especially the participants, for whom BIRN organized its Summer School of Investigative Reporting for the 16th time.

Until next year and some other destination! 🤗

Day 5 of !

Legal pressures, geolocation and visual investigation, Freedom of Investigation requests, as well as environmental reporting were some of the experts‘ topics of the day.

❗ Bojana Paneva, Senior Associate, Karanovic & Partners / Commercial Law Firm, spoke to participants about reporting under legal pressure.

🕵️‍♂️ Azem Kurtic, Balkan Insight journalist, held a session on geolocation and visual investigation. Kurtic presented a case study in which the location was detected based on a single photo.

📜Ana Petruseva, BIRN Macedonia Director, explained the importance of Freedom of Information (FoI) and how journalists can use the FOI to strengthen their investigative reporting.

🦩 Besar Likmeta, Editor in Chief, BIRN Albania, introduced the Flamingo Revolution to participants and explained the importance of environmental journalism in the middle of a protest.

🌍 Fossil fuels, food systems and pledges: a primer to climate investigations was the topic of the final session, held by Diego Arguedas Ortiz, climate journalist and media trainer.

We have a final day of this year's Summer School ahead of us!

The is slowly approaching its end, but the trainers still have a lot of knowledge and experience to share with the participants.

Let's look at some of the highlights of day 4!

BIRN Summer School 2026 – Day 4: Engaging Citizens, Fact-Checking and Investigating Pollution - BIRN The experts’ sessions during Day 4 of the BIRN Summer School covered the importance of fact-checking, the basics of policy-oriented investigative reporting and how to use citizen engagement tools for investigations.

Day 4 of !

📜 Alex Anderson, BIRN consultant, held the first session on policy-oriented investigative reporting. Anderson presented different reporting styles and some of the examples from his personal experience.

💻 The day continued with a session about BIRN’s audience-engaged ECR tool. Ana Petruseva, BIRN Macedonia Director, and Karla Junicic, Engaged Citizens Reporting Programme Coordinator, BIRN Hub, explained to the participants what this tool is, how it can be used, and some of the investigations that were produced thanks to this tool.

🕵️ Felicia Crețu, Editorial fact-checker, CU SENS Media Project, guided journalists through the fact-checking process and shared many useful tips and tricks on what to pay attention to.

🌎 The final session was on reporting the environment, how to investigate pollution, and the risks and impacts on public health.
Blake Morrison, Lead Trainer and Investigative Projects Editor at Reuters News, discussed his investigation into the impact of pollution on children, a topic that was not sufficiently investigated in the United States at the time.

There are only two more days left, so stay tuned for more updates!

During the third day of the , journalists learned more tools to keep them safe in the real world and participated in sessions on policy-oriented investigative reporting and the art of interviewing. 🎤

BIRN Summer School 2026 – Day 3: Journalists’ Security, Investigations’ Impact and the Art of Interview - BIRN Journalists at the summer school learned more tools to keep them safe in the real world and participated in sessions on policy-oriented investigative reporting and the art of interviewing.

The third day of started with the session on digital security in the real world.

📱 Led by Sharbil Nammour, Media Safety Advisor and founder of Vallaris Solutions, a consultancy company specialised in working with media in risk assessment and safety planning. The session explained all the ways they could be attacked online, and what journalists could do to protect themselves as much as possible.

🎤 Jeta Xharra, BIRN Kosovo Director, explained why some investigations spark change, and others don’t, through her personal experience. She presented the TV series with local mayor candidates she worked on during the local elections in Kosovo in 2007, which led to a 40% rise in consumers paying electricity bills.

The second part of the day started with the lead trainer, Blake Morrison’s, session on interviews.

“You have to show confidence in your own skills. You have to think about how you’ll present yourself, and play out the many possibilities”, stressed Morrison.

🚑 The third day ended with Sharbil Nammour’s scenario-based exercises and live problem-solving. Nammour showed how to help someone and save lives during unexpected situations, such as riots and protests, and how to provide first aid when choking and bleeding occur.

Three days down, three more to go!