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On December 16, the book Power struggle: Meeting Global Energy Challenges in Balkans was promoted at the Media Centre in Sarajevo. The book represents a compilation of texts, written by journalists awarded with the Balkans Fellowships for Journalistic Excellence in 2008.
Investigative articles published in this book, are dedicated to the issue of production, use and lack of energy in the Balkans, as well as the political implications of such a situation.
Lavdim Hamidi, journalist with “Zeri” daily newspaper from Kosovo, won this year’s first prize for journalistic excellence, with the amount of Euro 8,000. The second prize was given to Aleksandra Stankovic, correspondent on B92 television from Belgrade, while Bosnian journalist Mirsad Bajtarevic, from BH Radio 1, won the third prize.
“I wrote an article on wind energy. This is a story about the inability of foreign institutions to develop a project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, although some people are interested in it,” Bajtarevic said, calling upon all journalists to apply to these types of contests in the future, “as they represent an ideal opportunity for investigative work”.
In the course of this investigation, Bajtarevic was mentored by Srecko Latal, one of the BIRN Balkan Insight editors, who said that this was a rare opportunity for journalists to focus on some subjects which they want to investigate further.
“It was my pleasure to work with Mirsad, because he was knowledgeable about the subject,” Latal said.
The fellowship programme was initiated by Robert Bosch and Erste Foundations, which want to support raising the professional quality of journalists in the region, in cooperation with BIRN.
Additional details about the book and the journalistic excellence stipend programme can be found at: http://fellowship.birn.eu.com.