NUNS and U.S. embassy award investigative journalism prizes

BELGRADE - The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) and the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade have awarded annual prizes for investigative journalism in the electronic, print and online media categories.

The award in the category of electronic media (radio and television) went to Vesna Radojevic and Andjela Milivojevic of TV Mreza and the Center for Investigative Journalism in Serbia (CINS).

This year's laureates in the category of print media are Aleksandar Djordjevic and Slobodan Georgijev of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) Serbia.

The award in the field of online media was given to Dragana Pec, Dino Jahic and Jasna Fetahovic of CINS.

The prizes, worth USD 1,200, were handed to the laureates at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade by U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Michael Kirby.

Kirby expressed his satisfaction that a package of measures relating to Serbian media has been studied in Brussels and that Serbia’s Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has shown the resolve to place it before Serbian MPs as soon as possible.

These pieces of legislation, however, do not deal with the greatest challenge for the media - lack of money, Kirby said, expressing the hope that the situation in journalism will improve and that the media will be able to earn enough money and support themselves on their own.

NUNS President Vukasin Obradovic said that investigative journalism is a reliable indicator of democracy in our society and that, contrary to “tabloidization,” investigative journalists are trying to prove that there is more to journalism than just “cheap sensationalism.”

“The quality and number of reports assures us that we are on the right track,” said...