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Success Stories

28 November 2006  The reporting by BIRN staff during the March riots in Kosovo was praised by many institutions and was used as a balanced and accurate resource by several international media outlets.

Jeta Xharra, director of BIRN Kosovo gave first-hand reports to BBC Newsnight, BBC News24, BBC World as well as US National Public Radio, Deutche Welle, Radio France International and the Canadian Broadcasting Cooperation.

First-hand research from Obiliq, 5 km east of Pristina done as a reporter for IWPR was published as a front-page article.
An article on the March riots co-written by Xharra was published in the front page of the London based daily ‘The Independent’ on 19 of March 2004.

Impact of investigations and stories
An investigation by Era Gjurgjeala and Sebahate Shala looked at the extent to which the University of Pristina in Kosovo is beset with political interference was fully republished in the British weekly Observer online on July 28 2004.

The investigation on the spread of the Albanian National Army’s activities written by Jeta Xharra and Neil Barnett was also published in Jane’s Intelligence Review and the Economist.

Tanja Vujisic’s story which revealed how humanitarian aid meant to for displaced Serb families in Kosovo was instead being sold in markets led to the launch of an investigation by the Red Cross organisation in Serbia. See the story on http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200404_494_4_eng.txt
The story of the three trainees Lumnije Berisha, Dardan Bekteshi and Srdjan Antic about the survival of ethnically-mixed workplaces and villages which defy stereotypical images of a segregated society was then picked up by BBC Features.

Matt Prodger, the BBC correspondent was inspired to do the piece after having read the BIRN trainee story, which can be found here http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200410_520_2_eng.txt, said:

‘I myself owe something to the IWPR writers who last year produced a heartening story about Serbs and Kosovar Albanians working together at a brick factory near Kamenica. It was a fresh and original insight which challenged one of the main stereotypes of the region: that of intractable ethnic hostilities. As a result of their article, I filmed my own report on the same subject for BBC News and it was aired on BBC World TV in October 2004’
Matt Prodger On the broadcast of TV Debates

About 20 TV debates have been produced or co-produced by BIRN Kosovo staff in cooperation with UNMIK Department for Public Information, Radio Television Kosova, RTK and KohaVision, KTV. About 80 political leaders, public officials, experts and civil society activists as well as over 100 audience members participated in the debates.

This is what other people had to say about the debates:

"This was the most interesting electoral debate so far. The moderator was really moderating the debate, challenging the participants with concrete questions, which was not the case in previous electoral debates on KTV and other Kosovo-wide TV broadcasters, i.e. RTK and TV21"
OSCE's Media Monitoring team

"I praise KTV and especially the [BIRN] moderator of Visions of Kosovo for having the courage to hold such transparent conversations, for revealing everyday issues and for making them comprehensible to everyone in our society,"
Youth of Kosovo Municipalities

"I made sure to finish work and go home in time to watch the debates simply because they were done in a western style, with real challenging questions, different from the ones we see every day on TV,"
Enver Buqaj, who leads the Finnish human rights programme

Ramiz Kelmendi, dean of the journalism faculty at Kosovo university, said he would cite the show when teaching students how political debates should be conducted.

Besa Domi, a 22-year-old student from the faculty of mass media communication, said the IWPR-sponsored programmes were a topic of a discussion in her class.

“My colleagues and I were struck by the just and fair handling of these debates.”
Besa Domi

Xharra was subsequently invited to appear on a more popular show from Albania, Shqip, produced by the TOP Channel TV, where she debated with guests such as Bajram Rexhepi, Kosovo prime minister, Veton Surroi, leader of the ORA citizen list, Ramush Haradinaj, leader of Alliance for the Future of Kosovo and Lutfi Haziri, representative of the Democratic League of Kosovo.

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