Associated Press. Aida started off the Balkan war as a citizen simply waiting in a milk line in Sarajevo in 1995. But through a series of incidents, she became a fixer for the Associated Press, then a journalist trainee, then a full-fledged journalist and finally the lead reporter in the Balkans conflict. Her journalism was forged under fire. But her formal bio is: Aida Cerkez is a writer, manager and editor with 20 years’ experience in covering the Balkan region for major international media organisations. She was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1962, and grew up in the former Yugoslavia and Germany. Aida Cerkez became chief of the Associated Press (AP) Sarajevo bureau in 1994, while the Bosnian capital was under siege. She assumed responsibility for the AP’s coverage of the on-going conflict in words and images, as well as managing logistics and security for more than and dozen local employees in three field offices, and for visiting correspondents. In 1995, Ms. Cerkez won the Associated Press’ Gramling Award for best managed media operation. As of 2009 Aida Cerkez is also in charge of planning AP regional television coverage. In 2005 Aida Cerkez joined the board of the New York University’s Centre for Investigative Journalism, based in Sarajevo.
Ilya Lozovsky is Managing Editor at OCCRP. Prior to joining the organization, he worked for Foreign Policy in Washington, where he edited and wrote for the magazine’s Democracy Lab channel. Ilya has also worked as Program Officer for Eurasia at Freedom House, providing emergency support to human rights activists and organizations across that continent. Ilya’s work – which mostly covers the problems of liberal democracy in the world today – has appeared in Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Haaretz, and other outlets. He was born in Moscow and emigrated to the U.S. in the last days of the Soviet Union, settling and growing up in the Boston area. He speaks Russian and German and holds an MA in political development from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Based in Sarajevo, Miranda Patrucic is an award winning investigative reporter and regional editor for OCCRP focusing on Central Asia, the Balkans and the Caucasus. Highlights of her work include exposing billions in bribes in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, uncovering hidden assets of Azerbaijani, Montenegrin and Central Asian ruling elites. She collaborated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on a project involving tobacco smuggling, the US$ 4 billion black market in endangered bluefin tuna, Swiss Leaks and Panama Papers and Paradise Papers. She is the recipient of the Knight International Journalism Award, the Global Shining Light Award, the IRE Tom Renner Award, the Daniel Pearl Award and the European Press Prize. She is much in demand worldwide for training journalists on how to investigate and uncover corruption, money laundering and how to follow the money.
Tom Trewinnard (UK) is Director of Programs at Meedan, a social technology non-profit working on the Check project to develop collaborative verification tools and open training curricula. He is a co-founder of Pop-Up Newsroom, which has led major collaborative reporting initiatives in the UK, US and Mexico since launching in 2017.
Tom has moderated panels and led workshops on digital journalism at Personal Democracy Forum, RightsCon, Stockholm Internet Forum, Prix Italia, Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and the European Journalism Center’s News Impact Summit (Doha).
Tom has worked extensively with journalists in some of the Middle East, Europe and Latin America’s leading newsrooms, as well as with citizen journalists from around the world, to research eyewitness media and lead training in verification skills. With Wafaa Heikal, Tom curates the verification and viral debunk newsletter The Checklist.
Based in Kyiv, Ukraine, Vlad is a staff reporter for Kyiv Post and regional editor for OCCRP. He reported from the frontline of the Kyiv barricades, and was a leader in the famous YanukovychLeaks campaign to make thousands of the former Ukraine President’s rescued documents available online. He worked on OCCRP’s Offshore Crime Inc. and Proxy Platform projects; the latter was shortlisted for the European Press Prize and the Outstanding International Reporting award. With OCCRP he investigated cigarette smuggling in the Ukraine-EU border area in Tobacco Roads, and participated in ICIJ’s Tobacco Underground, subsequently awarded the Investigative Reporters and Editors’ Tom Renner Award, the Overseas Press Club of America Award, and the Online Journalism Award for best web coverage of international affairs.
Hans Månson is the Program Director at SSE Riga Centre for Media Studies. He has dedicated his professional life to journalism and news, highlighted by an honorary visiting professorship in practical journalism at The Department of Journalism, Media and Communication at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The road to becoming editor-in-chief at one of the largest morning dailies, Sydsvenskan, Malmo, included managing positions at several large dailies and commercial and public service television newsrooms. Hans Månson has also been working actively since mid 1980´s to promote investigative journalism in his own newsroom as well as in general. Today he specializes in journalistic ethics where he published reports, books and columns.
His latest book published 2019 was labelled “ Who can you trust? About media accountability and the use of anonymous sources”
Hans has the overall responsibility for the content in the program. In addition to having recruited the lecturers, he occasionally moderate the lessons and contribute with experiences from media and journalism in Sweden.
Based in Belgrade, Stevan is editor-in-chief of Serbian investigative online portal Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK), an OCCRP member, and he has worked with OCCRP for nine years. He was also one of the founders of the investigative team at the Center for Investigative Reporting in Serbia (CINS) in 2008. From 2012 to 2015, Stevan was the editor-in-chief of CINS. Winner of Serbia’s top investigative awards, Stevan has investigated international cocaine smuggling across the Balkan route and corruption from football clubs to the highest echelons of government. His stories have been published and quoted all over the Balkans, and his work can be seen as pivotal in helping to discredit the former Serbian Government, proving links between key cabinet members and organized crime. He also trains international reporters on how to collect data and build the sources necessary for revealing shady dealings and the misdeeds of the powerful.
Paul has a career in computing and internet research and development that dates back to 1978
He joined the BBC in 1995 as an information researcher. As the internet grew in significance, Paul was able to blend his technical knowledge with the realities of his work in journalism. As a result, he was able to devise unique, innovative strategies that have led countless researchers to evidence they would never have otherwise found. His ideas continue to shape the way professionals conduct online research and investigation.
Paul currently heads up BBC Academy’s Investigation Support project. This sees him work within programme teams, solving issues related to investigation, whilst sharing vital new skills with those he works with.
He has worked with leading BBC programmes like Panorama, Watchdog, Inside Out, BBC News, BBC Online, local & national radio and the BBC World Service.
Aside from his consultancy work, Paul regularly delivers training in all the essential areas of digital and investigative work, from social media investigation to digital photography.
Karina Shedrofsky is a Balkans-based researcher with a specialization in tracking down individuals, companies and hidden assets in offshore tax havens.
Shedrofsky graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a major in Journalism and a minor in International Development and Conflict Management. She focused much of her college career on studying press freedoms around the world, with a special concentration on the MENA region and Azerbaijan.
Since joining Investigative Dashboard in July 2017, Shedrofsky has contributed research to a number of OCCRP projects, including the “Paradise Papers” and the “Daphne Project,” where she helped uncover the secret property holdings of Azerbaijan’s ruling family.
Prior to OCCRP, Shedrofsky worked for USA TODAY, where she covered health and trending issues impacting the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
