BIRN doesn’t just publish wide-ranging journalistic coverage, but also in-depth research and reports on key subjects affecting South-East and Central Europe.
During 2025, BIRN produced a strong set of evidence-based research on digital rights, transparency and media governance across the region. BIRN’s Digital Rights Violations Annual Report 2025 documented a deteriorating digital rights environment in Central and Southeast Europe – highlighting trends such as AI-enabled abuses, increased surveillance and gaps in protection on social media platforms.
BIRN also published the regional study Surveillance and Censorship in the Western Balkans (WB6), mapping patterns of surveillance, pressure on freedom of expression and needs for stronger safeguards and oversight.
On transparency and governance, BIRN issued the Freedom of Information Annual Report 2024. Based on research carried out in April-May 2025, it examined institutional accountability and documented the practical barriers that journalists face when seeking public-interest information.
BIRN also contributed monitoring and research around democratic processes and media freedom, including a report on Albania’s Parliamentary Elections 2025, media-monitoring reports and BIRN Albania’s Annual Report 2024 tracking media freedom and journalists’ safety in line with EU standards. Building on BIRN’s engagement with the Global Index on Responsible AI, we also continued to provide evidence and contribute to policy debates as the Index prepared its next edition.
Electoral challenges
A crucial part of BIRN’s reporting in 2025 was coverage of in countries across the region – in the case of Kosovo, more than one within the calendar year. People in Europe’s youngest state went to the polls in February, and then again after a long period of political deadlock in December.
Our Bucharest correspondent closely followed the remarkable electoral drama in Romania, which entered 2025 amid an unprecedented crisis after the Constitutional Court annulled the first round of the presidential vote over alleged foreign interference in support of far-right candidate Calin Georgescu.
The polls in May then saw Romanians elect centrist politician Nicusor Dan as their fifth post-communist president, defeating another far-right opponent whose platform risked straining ties with the European Union and NATO.
In Croatia, President Zoran Milanovic made history, getting re-elected in January with almost 75 per cent of the vote – the best result ever achieved by a presidential candidate in the country. As in Romania, however, populist far-right sentiment was rising in Croatia, as it was elsewhere in Europe in 2025.
There was also a landmark election result in Albania, where Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party secured an unprecedented fourth term in office, sweeping aside an embattled opposition to strengthen his hold on power. BIRN provided in-depth coverage of the controversial electoral campaign and the disputes that simmered in the aftermath of Rama’s victory. In 2026, we will continue to report on the latest developments as Albania seeks to progress further towards European Union membership – as well as the news that matters elsewhere across the region.
