New at Transitions Online

Announcement:  JOB OFFER

CEE Bankwatch Network is looking for an Executive Director.

The Executive Director will be responsible for the further
development and implementation of the strategy of the network
devised by its 17 member groups, to oversee the overall
management of the organisation, to represent Bankwatch
towards public institutions and funders, and to lead and support
staff based in several countries. Executive Director heads the
Management Team and reports to the Executive Committee.
The deadline for applications is 15 December 2019. MORE

Announcement: Call for participants

Foreign Correspondent Training Course: Going on Assignment in Prague

Broaden your knowledge, experience and expertise by signing up for our
summer journalism course which is taking place in Prague July 11 – 26, 2020.

A great introduction to international reporting, this course teaches participants how to carve out a place in a changing, but still fascinating profession and make it work financially. Course participants were trained by highly experienced foreign correspondents and completed a real-life reporting assignment under their guidance that generated an invaluable clip for an early-career journalist. Trainees also learned an essential skill in a profession that increasingly values multimedia proficiency.

Around the Bloc – 9 December
In the news: long jail terms for former Kyrgyz dignitaries; no prison for
Russian student; WWII and the Jewish legacy in Poland; protests in
Belarus; and a long career in Bulgarian theater.

Around the Bloc – 6 December
Headlines from around the region: Hungarian minority rights in
Ukraine; Russia warns NATO; Nigerian students deported from Croatia;
feminist art in Bishkek; and Khodorkovsky as reluctant muse.

Around the Bloc – 5 December
Regional highlights: Berlin-Moscow spat intensifies; Belarus
and Russia; Central Asian migrants in Sweden; Romanian
inmates; and Mongolian horses.

30 Years After: How a State Dies
Brain drain and population loss are crippling the EU’s eastern
countries, and the epidemic could spread westward. From Hospodarske noviny. By Martin Ehl, 4 December 2019

Around the Bloc – 4 December
TOL’s regional news roundup: new foreign agents in Russia;
Gorby and Pizza Hut; Milan Kundera the Czech; Croatian and
Slovenian wine; and HIV on the Ukrainian frontlines.

Around the Bloc – 3 December
Today’s regional roundup: Poland honours hero; politics in
transition in Azerbaijan; the EU and Crimea; Estonia’s kids ace
PISA test; and Russian apps for Russian phones.

Society: Experts Sound Alarms over Istanbul Earthquake
Preparedness

Warnings persist that little has been done to combat
overcrowding, strengthen buildings, and develop contingency
plans – in fact, the government has done the opposite, they say. By Ufuk Ceri, 3 December 2019

FROM THE TOL ARCHIVE – EDITORS’ PICK

Time to Put Havel on the Slovak Map
Thirty years have passed since the playwright president led
a revolution for all of Czechoslovakia, and yet there is no solid
monument to his achievements in Slovakia.
By Rick Zednik
21 October 2019

A Very Expensive Academic Exercise
A court tells us that an independence declaration is not illegal.
But does that make Kosovo a state?
By Tihomir Loza
29 July 2010

Bishkek Blitzes Corruption
Kyrgyz leaders are facing off with a weak judiciary and other obstacles in an anti-corruption campaign that has some independent analysts cautiously optimistic.
by Askar Erkebaev
18 July 2012

From Small Things
A Tajikistani couple work to keep the art of miniature painting alive in a country where it once flourished.
14 April 2014