A report by the Regional Anti-corruption Initiative and Blueprint for Free Speech shows that Southeast Europe is among most active regions in the world in developing, passing and implementing whistleblower protection laws. Leadership by governments and NGOs has been the key to these advancements, together with growing public support and guidance from regional and international […]

The courts, corruption and organized crime remain the EU’s main concerns in the Western Balkans, the Commission’s latest progress report shows. The European Commission released on Tuesday its long-awaited progress report for the Countries of the Western Balkans. While stressing that progress has been made in the past year, key reforms still need to adopted concerning […]

The Court of BiH handed down a final and binding sentence to a former police commissioner of Una Sana Canton for corruption and drug trade. The Appeal Panel of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) sentenced to 11 years in prison Ramo Brkić, a former police commissioner of Una Sana Canton (USK), while Senad […]

Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta has resigned. Pressure has been piling on Ponta for the last month. In October 2015, he lost the Social Democratic Party (PSD) leadership to Liviu Dragnea amid a tax fraud scandal and became the country’s first sitting premier to stand trial for corruption. The final straw appears to have been […]

Thousands of people marched towards government headquarters in Bucharest late on Tuesday (November 3), demanding cabinet resignations as the death toll from a nightclub fire at the weekend reached 32, with dozens more in hospital in critical condition. The fire broke out on Friday night at a rock concert in the club, Colectiv, when fireworks […]

During Jerko Ivanković Lijanović’ four-year term, the FBiH Ministry of Agriculture has allocated 2.8 million KM to persons and firms connected to the minister’s family. No agency has called it a conflict of interest or called for a sanction. The Lijanovićis loaned out a complex of industrial and business buildings at Visoka Glavica near Široki […]

The use of ‘soft’ censorship by the government poses a threat to genuine press freedom in Serbia, a new report says. Ivan Tasovac, Serbia’s Minister of Culture and Information. |Photo: Beta The Serbian government’s use of “soft” censorship remains a threat to press freedom, a report issued on Thursday by the World Association of Newspapers […]

The leader of Moldova’s pro-Kremlin party “Our Party”, former businessman Renato Usatîi, was released from custody Sunday.Several high-profile hearings coincided with a visit to Bulgaria by the director general of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Giovanni Kessler, who criticized the country yet again for not taking enough concrete actions to tackle corruption. Giovanni Kessler, the […]

People have been demonstrating for almost a month in Podgorica, but despite the opposition’s slogans about democracy, many say they’re angrier about unemployment and low wages. Montenegrins who have been protesting for weeks for the resignation of veteran Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic’s government took to the streets led by an opposition which is calling for […]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina paid out 110,038 KM in retirement severance to nine persons, including former ambassador Nerkez Arifhodžić.   Arifhodžić took severance in the amount of 3,628 KM in August 2006. Six years later, in July 2012, the BiH Presidency appointed him the BiH ambassador in Rome, Italy. He […]