Team

Aida Trepanić, Journalist, BIRN BiH

Aida joined BIRN BiH in September 2020 as an intern and data journalist and has been working as a full-time journalist for Detektor.ba since July 2021. She is focused on public procurements, war crime trials, digital rights and corruption.

Irvin Pekmez, Journalist, BIRN BiH

Irvin joined BIRN BiH in December 2020. Although he is mainly focused on malign foreign influence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he also follows war crimes trials and other topics of importance in post-war BiH. He graduated with a degree in journalism from the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Sarajevo in 2010.

Katarina Zrinjski, Project Manager, BIRN BiH

Katarina has been working on projects promoting peacebuilding and reconciliation in the Balkans since 2010. As a project manager in the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina - BIRN BiH for the past nine years, she has broadened her knowledge and scope of work to security and corruption topics. She has expertise in project management in media sector and high analytical skills. In addition, she has participated in numerous conferences and seminars regarding international politics and communication.

Semir Mujkić, Editor in Chief, BIRN BiH

Semir is managing editor for BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina. He joined BIRN in April 2017 and has worked as a journalist and deputy editor for BIRN BiH website Detektor.ba where he is managing editor as of October 2019. He was awarded Second prize at EU Investigative Awards in 2019 for investigative series Corruption in Public Procurements; the Best multimedia investigation into corruption by Anticorruption network in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018; and a UNICEF prize for journalistic contribution for the protection and promotion of child rights in print media in 2016.

Nafisa Hasanova, Head of Research, GMR

Nafisa managed Media Ownership Monitor projects in Ukraine (2016), Serbia (2017), Albania (2018), Sri Lanka (2018), India and Pakistan (2019). She was also involved in the Journalism Trust Initiative, from the RSF team. Before joining RSF, Nafisa worked on the Transdniestrian Settlement Process for the Finnish Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) founded by the former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari. Prior to that she worked as policy officer for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia for APRODEV (now ACT Alliance EU), EU Central Asia Monitoring (EUCAM) for Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). Nafisa holds an MA in Intercultural Communication and European Studies from the University of Applied Sciences in Fulda, Germany. She completed a BA in English Philology at the Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages in Uzbekistan.

Sheley Gomes, Researcher and Project Assistant, GMR

Sheley is a project assistant and researcher currently working for the Media Ownership Monitor (MOM) on the Western Balkans. She is also currently a volunteer at Intervozes, the organization that implemented the Media Ownership Monitor in Brazil, where she previously worked as an advocacy consultant. At Intervozes she has also worked as a researcher in several projects regarding freedom of expression, fake news, media coverage, and media ownership. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Brasilia, a post-grad in Law and Government Affairs by the University Center of Brasilia, and is currently finishing a master’s degree in Media and Area (Central-Eastern European) Studies at Charles University in Prague.

Lea Auffarth, Head of Operations, GMR

Lea coordinates the implementation of the Media Ownership Monitor's editions, and manages some of them directly. Previously, Lea has worked for the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders, where she coordinated the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) and headed the development of its IT infrastructure. Other work on media transparency, literacy, and ethics include the ‘Media Ownership Monitor’ (MOM) and Lebanese Samir Kassir Foundation’s ‘Digital Rights Project’. Lea is a trained journalist and has worked with the German public broadcaster WDR as well as regional press. She holds a Master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from King’s College London.

Olaf Steenfadt, Global Project Director , GMR

Olaf Steenfadt heads the "Media Ownership Monitor" project and the "Journalism Trust Initiative" at the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders, RSF. For many years, he has been engaged as a consultant and coach in media development cooperation. Mandates of international organizations and NGOs lead him primarily to Southeast Europe and the Arab world. He previously worked for national German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF in various roles, including as a radio and TV presenter, investigative reporter, domestic and foreign correspondent, as well as in format development and corporate communication. Olaf is a member of the "High-level Expert Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation" of the European Commission and of the "Committee of Experts on Quality of Journalism in the Digital Age" at the Council of Europe. He teaches frequently at universities in Germany and Europe.

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina - BIRN BiH is a non-governmental organization based in Sarajevo that specializes in monitoring and reporting on war crime trials. The organization was founded in 2005 with the aim to provide the public of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) with objective and timely information about transitional justice processes taking place in the country as well as the region. In addition, BIRN BiH has an extensive network of partners and associates across BiH that advocate for greater judicial transparency and higher media standards.

Starting from 2015, BIRN BiH has developed a new sub-programme dedicated to monitoring and reporting from organized crime, corruption, and terrorism cases, but also monitoring work of judicial institutions in the country. Exercising the work with fully respect of all professional standards, and reporting objectively and independently, BIRN BiH has been recognized by many professionals and state institutional representatives as an organization capable to expand its field of work and continue to inform and educate public about judiciary issues.

More about BIRN BiH can be found on the BIRN website.

BIRN BiH's publication is Detektor.

The Global Media Registry (GMR) collects, compiles and provides – either publicly available or self-reported – datasets and contextual information on media outlets around the world.

In doing so, the objective is to enhance transparency, accountability and responsibility in the information space. Thus, the GMR facilitates better choices and decision making, both algorithmic and human, of all stakeholders. These may include every citizen and consumer, regulators and donors, as well as the private sector – for example advertisers and intermediaries (a. k. a. platforms and distributors).

By providing this public service as a social enterprise, the Global Media Registry contributes to the advancement of the freedoms of information and expression at large.

It was founded as a spin-off from the Media Ownership Monitor project, which it now operates as a non-for-profit LLC registered under German law.