Cross-border investigative project "HT Eronet" has been presented to more than twenty European investigative journalists in Brussels. 

HT Eronet investigative journalistic project has been financed by South East Media Observatory was presented today at Data Harvest Conference. 

Two of three co-authors, Bosnian journalist Esad Hećimović and his Slovene colleague Blaž Zgaga, presented their methods and findings, while Austrian journalist Herwig G. Hoeller was absent as he is reporting from dangerous South Ukraine region.

They revealed money-laundering ring which spans from Mostar through Sarajevo and Ljubljana to Gratz. Simultaneous publication of three stories of three authors, launched in three media from three countries led to formal beginning of criminal prosecution against three high-profile suspects in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“It is a classic story of international organized crime and money laundering through marketing funds of public companies,” claimed one of involved prosecutors of the case against Bosnian mobile telecom provider Eronet. But it took years to start an official investigation in Bosnia and Hercegovina. After the publication of articles in Bosnian weekly Slobodna Bosna and daily newspapers Dnevnik in Slovenia and Die Presse in Austria, prosecutors and judges in Sarajevo and Mostar finally agreed about the jurisdiction on the Eronet case. The investigation also started in Slovenia and Austria. Three journalists investigated the case in three countries and published three articles in leading newspapers and magazines about the Eronet case. (http://www.hercegovina.info/vijesti/vijesti/bih/slobodna-bosna-slucaj-eronet, http://www.dnevnik.si/objektiv/vec-vsebin/v-pricakovanju-mednarodne-pomoci, http://diepresse.com/text/home/panorama/welt/1553490)

 

Data Harvest Conference is one of the biggest and most significant events for European investigative and data journalists, which is held every year since 2011. More than hundred journalists from many European countries attend every year.