Balkan Service

Since 2000, RFE/RL’s Balkan Service, known locally as Radio Slobodna Evropa, has covered economic issues, corruption, Russian influence, migration, and minority issues in post-war Balkan society. 

The Service covers election irregularities in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, and the mass exodus of Bosnians from Bosnia and Herzegovina due to an increasingly unstable political climate, demographic problems, and rising poverty.  

An investigation revealed Russian attempts to circumvent Western sanctions by using a Serbian company to import dual-use goods in support of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  

Radio Slobodna Evropa reporters uncovered Russian attempts to influence Serbia’s parliamentary and local elections by placing an alleged spy expelled by the European Union in the observation mission of the OSCE.  

In-depth reporting revealed attempts by China to expand influence in the region through infrastructure projects in Montenegro as part of its Belt and Road Initiative and surveil Serbians and migrants via Chinese technology. 

The Service’s Beneath the Surface podcast series tells the stories of Bosnia’s LGBTQ+ community and discusses domestic violence issues. 

Burden, a documentary film produced by the Balkan Service, contrasts how Bosnia has dealt with the aftermath of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide and how Rwanda deals with its own legacy of genocide in 1994. 

Radio Slobodna Evropa’s forensic unit works to investigate the dark web and uncovered fraudsters  who sold Americans fake Donald Trump debit cards.