Velma Saric is a researcher, journalist, peace-building expert and human rights defender from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Velma is the Founder and President of the Post-Conflict Research Center and the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Balkan Diskurs. As a researcher and producer she has worked on numerous publications and films about the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, including Uspomene 677, In the Land of Blood and Honey by Angelina Jolie, and I Came to Testify and War Redefined from the PBS series Women, War & Peace. Velma is a Columbia University fellow as part of the Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability Fellowship Program. In addition, she is a fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Global Post’s GroundTruth Project.

Find Velma here:

Leila Bicakcic is one of founders and CEO of Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN), first investigative center to be established in the Balkans. Today, CIN is an independent media agency dedicated to investigating and reporting on corruption, organized crime and nexus between political elites and criminal circles. Leila is responsible for strategic and programmatic planning, fundraising, outreach and donor relations, overall administration and financial management. Prior to CIN, she worked for OSCE, UNICEF and the American Bar Association (ABA/CEELI), where she spent nine years as finance manager and trainer. A Sarajevo native, she studied basic physics and economics at the University of Sarajevo.

Reach out to Leila:

An Ashoka, Rotary World Peace and TED Fellow, Sanjana Hattotuwa has since 2002 used, studied and advocated Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to strengthen peace, reconciliation, human rights & democratic governance.

He founded in 2006 and till June 2020 curated the award-winning Groundviews, Sri Lanka’s first civic media website. From 2002-2020 he was a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. At CPA, Sanjana pioneered the use of social media for activism and advocacy, as well as digital security training for human rights activists since 2010.

He specialises in, advises and trains on social media communications strategy, web-based activism, online advocacy and grounded social media research.

Through the ICT4Peace Foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland, Sanjana helps strengthen information management during crises and programmes to address violent extremism online. For nearly a decade, this included leading the Foundation’s work with the United Nations.

Since 2008, he has worked in South Asia, South East Asia, North Africa, Europe and the Balkans to capture, disseminate and archive inconvenient truths in austere, violent contexts.

He is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand on the intersection of social media, political communication, violence generation and the realisation of Sri Lanka’s democratic potential.

Connect with Sanjana:

Fjori Sinoruka is an investigative journalist based in Albania, focusing on the misuse of public funds and human rights.

Topic: Illegal seasonal jobs in Greece
Story: Soon

Ani Sandu is a news anchor and editor at Europa FM, one of the most popular commercial radio stations in Romania. She is also a contributing reporter for the non-fiction quarterly, DoR. She previously worked for ten years at the Romanian Public Radio, as a news anchor and editor. From 2012 to 2014, she was the US correspondent for the country’s public radio, based in Washington DC. She has worked in the media since 2004, covering news and current affairs.

Topic: A Mother’s Plea
Story: Romanian Right Turns Finnish Custody Fight into Anti-Western Propaganda

Jeton Musliu is a journalist currently working as a news editor at the public broadcaster, Radio Television of Kosovo, RTK. He previously worked as an editor at the daily Tribuna, as a journalist for BIRN in Kosovo and for the daily newspaper, Express. Throughout his career, he collaborated with various international media and won several national and international awards in investigative journalism.

Topic: The migration of the dead
Story: Bringing Back the Bodies: The Balkan Immigrants Repatriated in Death

Predrag Momcilovic is a journalist and PhD student from the Serbian capital of Belgrade, where he focuses on ecology and political ecology, green technology, and public services. He also works as a journalist in Serbia and abroad, and is a member of the editorial board of the online portal, Masina.

Topic: Greenwashing of European Far Right
Story: Soon

Andjela Milivojevic is a Serbian investigative journalist, specializing in reporting about corruption and crime. For nearly ten years, she worked for the Centre for investigative journalism of Serbia and is now a freelance reporter for several media outlets in Serbia and Kosovo.

Topic: Serbian Bot Army
Story: The Castle: How Serbia’s Rulers Manipulate Minds and the People Pay

Una Hajdari is a freelance journalist focused on Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Her reporting is focused on topics such as the far-right, post-socialist identity and nationalism.

Topic: Far right meme kebab
Story: Soon

Jelena Djureinovic is a historian from Serbia and author of the book The Politics of Memory of the Second World War in Contemporary Serbia: Collaboration, Resistance and Retribution, which was published in 2019.
She works as a program coordinator at the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade.

Topic: Greenwashing of European Far Right
Story: Soon

Velma Saric is a researcher, journalist, peace-building expert and human rights defender from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Velma is the Founder and President of the Post-Conflict Research Center and the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Balkan Diskurs. As a researcher and producer she has worked on numerous publications and films about the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, including Uspomene 677, In the Land of Blood and Honey by Angelina Jolie, and I Came to Testify and War Redefined from the PBS series Women, War & Peace. Velma is a Columbia University fellow as part of the Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability Fellowship Program. In addition, she is a fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Global Post’s GroundTruth Project.

Find Velma here:

Leila Bicakcic is one of founders and CEO of Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN), first investigative center to be established in the Balkans. Today, CIN is an independent media agency dedicated to investigating and reporting on corruption, organized crime and nexus between political elites and criminal circles. Leila is responsible for strategic and programmatic planning, fundraising, outreach and donor relations, overall administration and financial management. Prior to CIN, she worked for OSCE, UNICEF and the American Bar Association (ABA/CEELI), where she spent nine years as finance manager and trainer. A Sarajevo native, she studied basic physics and economics at the University of Sarajevo.

Reach out to Leila:

An Ashoka, Rotary World Peace and TED Fellow, Sanjana Hattotuwa has since 2002 used, studied and advocated Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to strengthen peace, reconciliation, human rights & democratic governance.

He founded in 2006 and till June 2020 curated the award-winning Groundviews, Sri Lanka’s first civic media website. From 2002-2020 he was a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. At CPA, Sanjana pioneered the use of social media for activism and advocacy, as well as digital security training for human rights activists since 2010.

He specialises in, advises and trains on social media communications strategy, web-based activism, online advocacy and grounded social media research.

Through the ICT4Peace Foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland, Sanjana helps strengthen information management during crises and programmes to address violent extremism online. For nearly a decade, this included leading the Foundation’s work with the United Nations.

Since 2008, he has worked in South Asia, South East Asia, North Africa, Europe and the Balkans to capture, disseminate and archive inconvenient truths in austere, violent contexts.

He is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand on the intersection of social media, political communication, violence generation and the realisation of Sri Lanka’s democratic potential.

Connect with Sanjana:

Fjori Sinoruka is an investigative journalist based in Albania, focusing on the misuse of public funds and human rights.

Topic: Illegal seasonal jobs in Greece
Story: Soon

Ani Sandu is a news anchor and editor at Europa FM, one of the most popular commercial radio stations in Romania. She is also a contributing reporter for the non-fiction quarterly, DoR. She previously worked for ten years at the Romanian Public Radio, as a news anchor and editor. From 2012 to 2014, she was the US correspondent for the country’s public radio, based in Washington DC. She has worked in the media since 2004, covering news and current affairs.

Topic: A Mother’s Plea
Story: Romanian Right Turns Finnish Custody Fight into Anti-Western Propaganda

Jeton Musliu is a journalist currently working as a news editor at the public broadcaster, Radio Television of Kosovo, RTK. He previously worked as an editor at the daily Tribuna, as a journalist for BIRN in Kosovo and for the daily newspaper, Express. Throughout his career, he collaborated with various international media and won several national and international awards in investigative journalism.

Topic: The migration of the dead
Story: Bringing Back the Bodies: The Balkan Immigrants Repatriated in Death

Predrag Momcilovic is a journalist and PhD student from the Serbian capital of Belgrade, where he focuses on ecology and political ecology, green technology, and public services. He also works as a journalist in Serbia and abroad, and is a member of the editorial board of the online portal, Masina.

Topic: Greenwashing of European Far Right
Story: Soon

Andjela Milivojevic is a Serbian investigative journalist, specializing in reporting about corruption and crime. For nearly ten years, she worked for the Centre for investigative journalism of Serbia and is now a freelance reporter for several media outlets in Serbia and Kosovo.

Topic: Serbian Bot Army
Story: The Castle: How Serbia’s Rulers Manipulate Minds and the People Pay

Una Hajdari is a freelance journalist focused on Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Her reporting is focused on topics such as the far-right, post-socialist identity and nationalism.

Topic: Far right meme kebab
Story: Soon

Jelena Djureinovic is a historian from Serbia and author of the book The Politics of Memory of the Second World War in Contemporary Serbia: Collaboration, Resistance and Retribution, which was published in 2019.
She works as a program coordinator at the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade.

Topic: Greenwashing of European Far Right
Story: Soon