BIRN Bosnia & Herzegovina

What BIRN Bosnia & Herzegovina does

BIRN Bosnia & Herzegovina (Udruženje Balkanske istraživačke mreže Bosne i Hercegovine), founded in 2004 and headquartered in Sarajevo, is a non-governmental, non-profit investigative-journalism organization operating under Bosnian civic-association law as the BiH branch of the regional BIRN network. Its editorial output runs through the Detektor.ba portal — daily news, analysis, investigations, interviews, and court monitoring — supplemented by weekly and monthly television programming (Detektor TV / TV Justice, Detektor Magazin), explainer and fact-check formats (Detektor objašnjava, Detektor Disinfo), and documentary film production.

The organization's core technical asset is a portfolio of curated databases rather than a single product: a war-crimes case archive of every proceeding before the BiH State Court since 2005, plus databases of official government vehicles, terrorism verdicts (covering Albania, BiH, Montenegro, and North Macedonia), hate-speech mapping, court-established facts about the war, an interactive mass-graves map, and a missing-children database launched in October 2025. These are primarily human-curated, searchable public-record repositories integrated into Detektor.ba's web platform, with multimedia and newsletter distribution layered on top. To date, BIRN BiH journalists have tracked over 600 war-crimes cases and published over 12,000 reports.

Commercially, BIRN BiH operates as a grant-funded NGO rather than a revenue-generating business. All content is distributed free to the BiH public; funding flows from project-based grants and donations from international donors including the European Union (e.g., the Izliječimo zdravstvo healthcare-corruption project), the Democracy Fund (court-established-facts database), the OSCE Mission in BiH (documentary co-production), and various journalism awards. The customer base is therefore a dual audience: citizens and civil-society end-consumers of the journalism, and institutional partners/donors that fund the programming.

Name

BIRN Bosnia & Herzegovina

Legal name

Udruženje Balkanske istraživačke mreže Bosne i Hercegovine

Website

https://detektor.ba

Company type

Private

Founded year

2004

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

BIRN Bosnia & Herzegovina is a Sarajevo-based non-profit investigative journalism organization that runs Detektor.ba, monitoring war-crimes cases, transitional justice, and corruption through reporting, TV programming, documentaries, and a suite of specialized public-record databases, serving the citizens of BiH and funded by international donor grants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Sarajevo

HQ country

Bosnia & Herzegovina

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Project Grants and Donor Funding: As a non-governmental media organization, BIRN BiH operates primarily through project-based funding from international donors and development organizations supporting transitional justice, media freedom, and anti-corruption initiatives

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

BIRN BiH operates Detektor.ba, an investigative journalism platform providing reporting on war crimes, transitional justice, corruption, and human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It produces original news articles, weekly video programs (Detektor TV, Detektor magazin), explainer videos, fact-checking content (Detektor Disinfo), documentary films, and maintains multiple specialized public-interest databases including archives of war crimes cases before the State Court, government vehicle procurements, terrorism verdicts, hate speech mapping, mass graves, and missing children.

Product overview

BIRN Bosnia & Herzegovina operates Detektor.ba as its core media platform, complemented by multiple video programs including Detektor TV (weekly justice-focused show), Detektor magazin (monthly magazine), Detektor objašnjava (educational explainers), Detektor Disinfo (fact-checking), and Dokumentarni filmovi (documentary films). The organization also maintains a suite of specialized databases including the Baza službenih automobila (government vehicles database), Baza presuda za terorizam (terrorism verdicts database), Sudske činjenice o ratu u BiH (court facts database), Mapiranje mržnje (hate speech mapping), and Mapa masovnih grobnica (mass graves map). Together, these products form an investigative journalism ecosystem combining reporting, video content, and data-driven accountability journalism.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Detektor TV: Television segment featuring weekly program dedicated to justice issues and war crimes coverage
• Detektor Magazin
• Detektor Disinfo
• Detektor objašnjava

Products and services

• Detektor.ba Main news portal of BIRN BiH providing daily investigative journalism on war crimes trials, transitional justice, corruption investigations, digital rights, foreign influences, and human rights issues for the Bosnian public.
• Detektor TV Weekly television show covering justice-related topics including war crimes trials, corruption investigations, and transitional justice issues.
• Detektor magazin Monthly magazine-style television program featuring in-depth investigative reports and analyses.
• Detektor objašnjava Video series explaining complex topics related to judicial processes, political events, and social issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Detektor Disinfo Fact-checking and disinformation investigation series examining misinformation and manipulation in media in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Dokumentarni filmovi Documentary films produced by BIRN BiH covering topics such as war crimes, transitional justice, journalism safety, and social issues.
• Baza službenih automobila u BiH Database tracking government vehicle procurements, institutional fleets, and maintenance costs across Bosnian institutions.
• Baza presuda za terorizam Database containing information about all domestic terrorism verdicts in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, including foreign fighters.
• Sudske činjenice o ratu u BiH Interactive educational database of court-established facts from the war in BiH, documenting verified judicial findings from war crimes proceedings.
• Mapiranje mržnje Database tracking hate speech and mapping hatred online in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Djeca nestala u ratu: Baza podataka Database documenting children who went missing during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Mapa masovnih grobnica Interactive map documenting mass graves from the Bosnian War, created in collaboration with Balkan Insight.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 600 war crimes prosecution cases documented and tracked
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• OSCE Mission in Bosnia and HerzegovinacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 December 2021BIRN BiH produced documentary film 'Novinarstvo nije zločin' (Journalism is Not a Crime) in cooperation with the OSCE Mission in BiH. The film deals with physical and verbal attacks on journalists and the insufficient prosecution of attacks on media workers.
• Transparency International Bosnia and HerzegovinacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBIRN BiH partnered with Transparency International BiH and Centers for Civil Initiatives on the 'Izliječimo zdravstvo' (Let's Cure Healthcare) project, an EU-funded initiative combating corruption in the healthcare sector.
• Centers for Civil Initiatives (CCI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in the 'Izliječimo zdravstvo' project alongside Transparency International BiH, implementing activities in 15 healthcare institutions.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Balkan Insight: Regional English-language news platform produced by the BIRN network covering the Western Balkans. Overlapping regional coverage and shared network with BIRN BiH, though serving a broader pan-Balkan audience.
• BIRN (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network): Regional parent network of which BIRN BiH is the Bosnia and Herzegovina member. Operates the broader Balkan Insight platform and coordinates cross-border investigative journalism across Southeast Europe, of which BIRN BiH is one national chapter.
• ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists): Global investigative journalism consortium coordinating cross-border accountability investigations. Comparable as a larger, established investigative journalism network, though operating at significantly greater scale and global scope than BIRN BiH.

Direct peers

• KRIK (Crime and Corruption Reporting Network): Serbian investigative journalism organization covering crime and corruption. Highly comparable organizational model to BIRN BiH: small editorial team, grant-funded, focused on accountability journalism and court-monitoring in a Western Balkan context.
• The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: UK-based grant-funded investigative journalism organization producing cross-border accountability reporting. Comparable non-profit investigative journalism business model with donor-funded operations and database-driven reporting.
• RISE Project Romania: Romanian investigative journalism platform. Comparable as an Eastern European investigative reporting outlet covering corruption and rule-of-law issues with a similar non-commercial, accountability-driven editorial mandate.
• OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project): Global investigative journalism network focused on organized crime and corruption. Comparable as a cross-border, grant-funded investigative reporting organization that maintains databases and produces accountability journalism similar to BIRN BiH's court monitoring work.
• Forbidden Stories: International investigative journalism consortium that continues the work of threatened journalists. Comparable mission-driven, grant-funded investigative reporting model focused on accountability stories that would otherwise go untold.
• CINS (Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia): Serbian investigative journalism center producing data-driven and court-monitoring reporting. Directly comparable to BIRN BiH in mission, regional context, and grant-funded media-model approach.

Others

• Reporters Without Borders (RSF): International press-freedom advocacy organization. Adjacent rather than directly competing: focuses on journalist safety and press freedom advocacy, which aligns with BIRN BiH's documented coverage of attacks on media workers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/BIRN_BiH
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCarMUeViwPB7rCKc1eBfvbw
• Facebookfacebook.com/Detektor.ba
• Instagraminstagram.com/birnbih
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/birn-bih

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Subsidiaries7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about BIRN Bosnia & Herzegovina