Albanian BIRN journalist receives CEI award

TIRANA, Sep 29 – Besar Likmeta, BIRN’s Albania Editor, received the CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism at the CEI Journalist forum held in Warsaw, Poland Sep. 24.
The award was presented by Central European Initiative Secretary General Ambassador Pietro Ercole Ago and South East Europe Media Organization Secretary General Oliver Vujovic.
The jury composed of prominent journalists, correspondents and editors from across Europe, examined a total of 26 nominations from 12 CEI Member States.
The jury took into account the personal risks taken in uncovering stories, the quality of reporting and the impact on society of the message conveyed, when making their decision and unanimously decided that the Award should go to Likmeta, for three investigative pieces: ”Albania Ignores Trade in Fake Degrees”, ”Wind Farm Threatens Albania Paradise”, and ”World Bank Demolished Albania Village”.
With this selection, the jury said that they intended to “promote the good investigative journalism carried out by a very young journalist and, more in general, to convey a signal of support to the development of investigative journalism in Albania, which is particularly significant for this country”.