Today the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) was presented the award Contribution of the Year to Europe, granted by the European Movement in Serbia, in cooperation with the European Movement International. Branko Čečen, in his capacity of director, received the award on behalf of CINS.
Since 2002, this recognition has been received by the individuals, groups of citizens or organizations who had significantly contributed during the previous year to the process of European integrations and promotion of European ideas and values, as specified on the website of the European Movement.
Rodoljub Šabić, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection and a winner of this award for 2012, explained the reasoning behind the jury’s decision to grant this year’s award to CINS.
In addressing the guests, Šabić specified that the CINS journalists “had shown that they were doing everything and giving everything the journalists can offer to help their country reform to a society in which human and civil rights present a priority, a society from which no one runs away and which belongs to European Union”.
He also said that CINS, as a member of the prEUgovor Coalition and of the National Convention on the European Union, had made a significant contribution to the promotion of European ideas in Serbia.
Receiving the award, Branko Čečen, the director of CINS, emphasized that, in the conditions in which independent journalists are exposed to mud-slinging on a daily basis, such a reward is an incentive for further work.
“Journalism has been suffering insults, degradation and has been prevented from performing its role. While in Europe we are recognized as people performing their job as professionals devoted to quality, in Serbia it is not only that we are labeled as foreign mercenaries or traitors, but the citizens of Serbia are deprived of the opportunity to get acquainted with our work. “
Last year Group 484 and Miksalište Refugee Aid Centre were granted award Contribution of the Year to Europe for their merits in providing shelter and aid to refugees. You can read about the previous laureates HERE.
Besides the contribution award for Contribution of the Year to Europe, in 2017 the CINS journalists have been awarded European Press Prize – European journalism award for investigative journalism, Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) and American Embassy’s award for the best online investigative story of the year, award for the best young investigative journalist, and the Balkan fact-checking award for Serbia.
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