Written by MHM Admin

Reporter, Lavdim Hamidi, from Kosovo, has won first prize in this year's Balkan Fellowship for Jounalistic Excellence, sponsored by BIRN, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network for his piece about alleged mismanagement in Kosovo's energy sector.

Lavdim Hamidi

The Kosovan journalist, Lavdim Hamidi, has won first prize in this year’s Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence for his article Power Games Delay Escape from Poverty.

Members of the Fellowship’s Selection Committee recognised the quality of Lavdim’s reporting and investigative elements in his story about alleged mismanagement in the energy sector in Kosovo. In his article, Lavdim, aged 26, revealed alleged corruption mechanisms, which it is claimed is severely damaging the Kosovo economy.

The investigation took Hamidi four months to complete. "It gave me the opportunity to travel in the region and in EU countries in order to research comparisons in the field of energy", he said.

Hamidi, who works for the daily newspaper Zeri in Kosovo, covering the economy, receives an award of €8,000 to spend on professional development.

Runners-up were second-place Aleksandra Stankovic, from Serbia who works for Dash and whose report was entitled Wealth Dooms Wild Frontier, and Mirsad Bajtarevic from Bosnia, whose report, Winds of Change Blow Past Bosnia, came third.

Awards were presented at a seminar in Vienna, attended by all 10 fellows, selection committee members and programme partners.

The seminar also marked the launch of a book featuring all fellows’ articles. Power Struggle: Meeting Global Energy Challenges in the Balkans will be distributed in the coming weeks at events to be held throughout Southeast Europe, and will also be available online and free for republishing in German, Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romanian and Serbian as of December 15th.

Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence is an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and Erste Foundation, implemented by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN.

Each year 10 journalists from South East Europe are competitively chosen to receive funding and professional support to conduct their own research project.

Call for applications for 2009 Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence Programme will be launched on January 15th.