Center for Investigative Reporting - Bosnia-Herzegovina

The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) is a non-profit investigative center that writes about problems in BiH including corruption and organized crime. It is based in Sarajevo but covers much of the former Yugoslavia. Its stories appear in many local media including Oslobodjenje, Vecernji list, Blic, Start, and other publications. Its staff of 10 reporters have reported on corrupt energy traders, prime ministers who get free apartments, stolen privatizations, cigarette and drug smugglers, diploma mill universities and other corrupt practices. CIN's work has led to arrests, firings, investigations and even jailings.

It was formed in 2004 under a grant by USAID and is funded by various government and non-profit sources as well as some commercial revenues [http://www.cin.ba/about/?cid=97,1,1] . CIN stories use international standards for investigative reporting and it tries to avoid unnamed sources and other practices common in regional media.

The center also was a founding member of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a regional consortium of investigative centers, journalists and news organizations [www.reportingproject.net] .

Awards

CIN has won a number of awards including the 2007 Online Journalism Award for investigative reporting at a small website for its work on food safety [http://journalists.org/2007conference/archives/000887.php] . In 2007 it also won the BiH Transparency International award for journalism integrity. It won the Media Plaque for Excellence in Reporting in the 2007 Vecernji list awards.

CIN and its OCCRP partners along with SCOOP won the first Global Shining Light Award in 2006 for reporting under duress for its stories on energy traders. CIN, along with its partners in Romania, Bulgaria and Albania showed that while energy traders were getting sweatheart deals from the government and making tens of millions of dollars and adding very little to the economy, pensioners and the working poor were barely able to pay their energy bills and were often living in darkness. [http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2007/01/c3277.html] .

External Pages

1. [http://www.cin.ba Center for Investigative Reporting]

2. [http://www.reportingproject.net Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project]

--------References

1. http://www.cin.ba/about/?cid=97,1,1

2. http://www.reportingproject.net

3. http://journalists.org/2007conference/archives/000887.php

4. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2007/01/c3277.html