Members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) radio community are being offered the opportunity to supplement their news and current affairs programmes with investigative journalism content produced by Swedish Radio (SR), with financing from the Euroradio Development Fund.

‘Fortress Europe’ is a four-part series of stories about Syrian refugees escaping their embattled homeland over the course of 2014.

• ‘The four friends’ tracks the progress of Yazan, Hatem, Muhanad and Mahmoud over nine months in search of ‘dreamland’ Europe
• ‘The trafficker’ transports audiences into the world of one of the top refugee smugglers in Turkey
•  ‘The family’ describes the plight of refugees who spent two months locked in a Polish detention centre
• ‘The missing doctor’ recounts the toll of Dr Shami, a field professional who has not been seen since Spring 2014

The package includes a series of manuscripts and audiofiles between nine and 37 minutes in length. One version has English speaker text and the other is blank to be filled with a language of Member choice.

Via a mobile app available in Swedish, English and Arabic, ‘Fortress Europe’ interactively explores their journeys using maps, short texts and audio clips.

EBU’s Head of Radio Christian Vogg says Members can use the stories in their existing form or combine audio segments to create or supplement their own content or programmes.  

“The focus of investigative journalism is often stories of regional or national interest,” said Mr Vogg. “This package, produced with a €20,000 grant from Euroradio Development Fund, demonstrates the potential of the Euroradio community to grow a reporting network that knows no borders. We hope other Members will be inspired to contribute to future collaborative efforts.”  

Contributors to Fortress Europe include Cécile de Kervasdoué (Radio France), Angela Robson (BBC) and Lisa Weiss (ARD/Bayerischer Rundfunk).