Based on the decision of the five-member jury, the winners of the Regional Journalist Award “Srđan Aleksić” for 2024 are Teofil Pančić, in the category “For Courage”, Vanja Stokić and Ajdin Kamber in the category “For Contribution to the Community”, portal 021 in the category “For the Media”, and, posthumously, Bojan Tončić, winner of the Special Plaque for Long-Term Professional Engagement.
This year, the awards will be presented on December 14 in Novi Sad.
The Regional Journalist Award “Srđan Aleksić” is given for professional and socially responsible media reporting that results in concrete benefits for people and communities (contributes to reconciliation, protection of human rights, inclusion of marginalized and vulnerable groups, gender equality, rule of law, culture of dialogue, fight against hate speech and fake news), and for demonstrated journalistic courage.
The jury unanimously decided that the award “For Courage” should go to Teofil Pančić, a long-time journalist and columnist from Novi Sad.
“Through his texts and overall public engagement, Teofil consistently promotes the values of humanism, humanity, solidarity, an open society, cultural and intellectual development in an innovative, highly intellectual, but concise manner, while simultaneously fighting against primitivism, nationalism, hatred and violence”, the nomination states.
In the category “For Contribution to the Community”, with a unique approach to people on the move, Vanja Stokić and Ajdin Kamber, from the eTrafika portal, stood out.
The jury members’ explanation states: “The nominated articles present the migrant story to readers and viewers from the personal perspective of people on the move, directly and disturbingly drawing attention to the cruel, uncertain and dangerous struggle for survival of people who are trying by all means to gain a chance for a decent life. Vanja and Ajdin have managed to create a disturbing testimony in an extraordinary way and faithfully convey the suffering of migrants”.
In the category “For the Media” this year, the portal 021 from Novi Sad stood out among the nominees. This local, city media outlet, despite all the difficulties, managed to resist media estradeization and remained independent and professional in its long-standing work.
From the jury’s explanation, we quote: “This is a very high-quality media outlet that covers a wide range of topics. In the general commercialization, they found a space where dominated stories about people and their everyday problems”.
In addition to the winners, journalists Nino Bilajac, Hrvoje Šimičević, Barbara Matejčić, Kristina Perić, Milica Babić and Svjetlana Đokić, and the portals Raskrinkavanje.ba and Cenzolovka were also ranked very highly this year.
This year’s competition for the Regional Award “Srđan Aleksić” received 32 nominations for 27 journalists and five media outlets, which were decided by a jury composed of: Ana Hegediš Lalić and Tamara Skrozza (Serbia), Boris Pavelić (Croatia), Vladan Mićunović (Montenegro) and Borislav Kontić (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
The Journalist Award is organized by: Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Banja Luka, Network for Building Peace, Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina, Montenegro Media Institute and Association for Promotion of Media Culture, Art and Tolerance “Lupiga – World Through Ordinary Eyes” from Croatia.
The award ceremony will be organized on December 14 in Novi Sad, as part of the event “Srđan Aleksić Days”.
