Murky Serbian Media Sector Masks Monopoly Risk
Balkan Insight investigation into crisis-hit TV station Avala shows how cracks in regulation threaten media diversity.
Kosovo’s Smugglers Mourn End of Golden Age
BIRN’s undercover reporter reveals how fortunes made daily by smuggling goods from Serbia into Kosovo have dried up.
Net Closing In On Fugitive Balkan Criminals
Just one year ago no Balkan country extradited their own nationals, allowing criminals with multiple passports to hide out in neighbouring countries. But as states are now signing extradition treaties, lawbreakers will find they have fewer safe havens.
Serbian Justice: Open to Negotiation?
The release of a convicted murderer-turned-police informer prompts fears Serbia has returned to practices of the past, such as shielding criminals from justice, when it serves Belgrade’s interests.
Rough Justice for Balkan Rape Victims
Convicted rapists in Montenegro and Serbia routinely receive minimal jail terms of around three years, while their victims face years of trauma and distress. Yet in other European countries like the UK, the average sentence is eight years.
Serbian Privatisation: Criminals Still Cashing In
Eleven years after embracing capitalism, Belgrade has cancelled almost 30 per cent of all privatisation deals because of corruption or mismanagement. Yet the system remains open to abuse.
KEK Signed Deal with ‘Illegal’ Supplier
State power company signed deals for 1.7 million euro with a Serbian firm after learning that it was not authorised to supply the contracted parts, Balkan Insight can reveal.
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Serbia Makes Uneven Progress on Integrating Minorities
From Sandzak to Southern Serbia, Belgrade is failing to turn its verbal pledges into action when it comes to guaranteeing ethnic Albanians and Bosniaks fair levels of state sector employment
Revealed: Vukovar Croats Were Tortured in Nis, Serbia
More than 400 Croatian civilians and soldiers were imprisoned in a camp in Nis, southern Serbia, during the war in Croatia, where at least one person died.
Serbian Church Accused of Sex Abuse Cover-up
A powerful alliance of Orthodox clergy, judicial officials and politicians may have succeeded in shielding clerical child abusers from justice.
KLA Ran Torture Camps in Albania
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.
Smugglers Find Haven in Kosovo's North
Ethnic tensions in Kosovo’s northern region, bordering Serbia, create an ideal environment for traders to smuggle goods into Europe’s newest state – to the detriment of local businesses.
Kosovo Armed Groups in the Shadows
Several separate groups of ethnic Albanian fighters operate in Kosovo, with unclear sources of funding, while the security forces are keeping them under close watch.
Close to Belgrade, Far from Sarajevo
One of Sandzak’s leaders has astonished supporters and critics alike with a remarkable political U-turn.
The Wrong Sort of Business Boom
Geography, market forces and inadequate police resources have all conspired to make smuggling one of Sandzak’s biggest commercial successes.
