In Serbia, 2025 was the year when protesting students rejected collaboration with the country’s civil society NGOs - but at what cost? Twenty-one-year-old Jovana Pongracic is a third-year student of ...

People across Serbia have lost their jobs after supporting student-led protests against the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, or for refusing to attend government-backed counter-rallies. For 16 years, ...

In giving a clear victory to Albin Kurti’s Vetevendosje, Kosovo’s voters delivered a strong message – the months-long political stalemate must end so the country can move forward. As the dust settles ...

A BIRN investigation finds evidence that systemic flaws in Romanian military procurement mean many local units are awarding big contracts to questionable companies, potentially compromising national ...

From mass protests and fragile peace talks to pressure on opposition parties and the jailing of journalists, Turkey had another politically troubled year. Riot police use teargas to disperse ...

Armed drones are becoming a favoured means for Balkan countries to boost their military muscle and regional clout – but even though they are unlikely to trigger a war, their unchecked spread brings ...

Companies in Bosnia are developing drones that could potentially be used by the country’s military, BIRN can reveal, even as Sarajevo buys six discounted Bayraktar drones from Turkey. In early July, ...

Despite political tensions sparked by high-profile corruption cases, Klodjan Braho tells BIRN that his main priority will be to guarantee Albanians that “no one is above the law”. Supporters of the ...

Veterans of the Dutch UN peacekeeping battalion deployed in Srebrenica remember how they were left powerless to prevent the genocide of Bosniaks by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995 - and how the ...

A bilingual Serbian and Arabic speaker went from translating for migrants and refugees to smuggling them over borders and taking down rivals with the help of police officers on his payroll. This post ...

Research into verdicts handed down by the Hague war crime tribunal and domestic courts in the former Yugoslavia shows previously unresearched links between wartime sexual violence and trafficking - as ...

Thousands of women participated in the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and a few have been convicted of brutal crimes, but female fighters’ role in the Balkan conflicts is often overlooked. This post ...