BIRN Source is a comprehensive database of the documents behind BIRN's groundbreaking investigations. It offers a two-way platform for journalists, editors and the general public to promote transparency and accountability across the Balkans. BIRN Source utilizes OCR technology so that documents in multiple languages are searchable.
This is a preliminary version of BIRN Source, and improvements will be made regularly to improve the functionality and interface. BIRN Source has been produced as part of “A Paper Trail to Better Governance” project being carried out with the support of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the operational unit of Austrian Development Cooperation. The goal of the project is to hone investigative journalism in the Balkans, to hold officials to account, and to improve the implementation and use of freedom of information laws.
Controversial Bosnian businessman Damir Fazlic, a fixer with powerful friends in Washington DC and the Balkans, requested $1m ‘investment’ for Albania’s Democratic Party in order to secure a lucrative telecoms contract, allege his former US-based business partners. The allegations have emerged in a cache of documents obtained by BIRN from the US firm Meridian Telecommunications LLC. Among the trove of information is the minutes of a crucial meeting from September 2006. Fazlic, a close associate of the then Albanian prime minister, Sali Berisha, is reported to have told his US partners they needed to make the payments because ‘though the current PM is set for another three years, we really need the right local govt people to win. This helps that cause before the end of the year elections.” Read the story here: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/albanian-telecoms-deal-cost-1m-to-buy-off-politicians-claim-us-businessmen
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