Investigative Reporting Laboratory (Irl)

IRL (acronym of Investigative Reporting Lab) aims to increase the impact of journalism and restore confidence in free journalism by publishing investigative stories. "We are the only newsroom specialised in covering cross-border organised crime and corruption, and we have collaborated on mutual stories with at least 30 organisations from Central Asia, Russia, Europe, Africa, India and the United States," the co-founder, Saska Cvetkovska, said.

The team has won many national and international awards, including in 2021 the Nikola Mladenov award from the Macedonian Institute for Media for a series of stories connected to Covid-19. In 2022, it published a more exhaustive investigation for treating patients with Covid-19 in the private hospital Zan Mitrev, which initiated an inquiry by the Macedonian authorities.

In 2021, the team won the first award from the Journalists' association and UN for the story Conspiracy against the air. In 2019, IRL Macedonia won the EU investigative journalism award for North Macedonia's for their story Urban assassins.

The organisation provides a unique space for female and youth voices to participate in investigative stories and to take editorial decisions. The average age of the team is 28.5 years old, and 70% of the staff is female, with 100% of the managing staff being female.

Cvetkovska emphasises that IRL Macedonia investigations have been solely based on citizens' reports in the past year.

According to her, the organisation has the youngest audience in the country. "IRL Macedonia's audience is 75% of people under 35, representing a unique case in the Western Balkans media industry. We have fostered direct public action: more than 25,000 citizens have written letters to various top-level officials to demand legal actions related to various wrongdoings exposed in our reports," she explained.