Launch: January 2014
Partners: Human Rights House of Zagreb, The Association of Journalists of Macedonia, and The Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina
Supported By: European Union Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), The Center for Independent Journalism Budapest (CIJ), Rising Voices, the National Endowment for Democracy, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, European Union small grants programme “Protecting Media Freedom and Freedom of Expression in the Western Balkans”.
Official Website: www.balkandiskurs.com

As a response to the lack of transparent, objective and accurate media in the region, PCRC established Balkan Diskurs—a unique media outlet that aims to disseminate the voices of Bosnian youth and PCRC’s international youth volunteers. The specialized platform focuses on providing a pan-ethnic space to young writers to express their opinions and perspectives on pressing issues as well as their ideas related to how BiH can achieve positive social change in various sectors.

Balkan Diskurs now has over 150,000 readers and has published over 1000 articles. Balkan Diskurs was awarded the 2017 Intercultural Achievement Recognition Award by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs.

The work featured on the Balkan Diskurs online platform connects themes across bor­ders and provides fresh and independent views on issues that matter to people in the Western Balkans. This platform is dedicated to challenging stereotypes and providing viewpoints that cannot be found in other media. Balkan Diskurs has built strong republication partnerships with Global Voices, Insight on Conflict, Index on Censorship, and Warscapes that facilitate the international distribution of articles published on our platform.

“Balkan Diskurs gives my voice an opportunity to be heard, and allows me to tell the stories that others remain quiet about; to present my town in a different, more real light. For me, that opportunity is priceless.”

Lejla Bečar, Balkan Diskurs-trained Youth Correspondent