During the awards ceremony on October 9th in Belgrade, awards were handed out for last year’s best investigative stories. The Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) was awarded first place for the article “CINS Inside SNS’s Call Center: Hostess Agency, Vote Buying, and Millions in Cash”, authored by Ivana Milosavljević, Teodora Ćurčić, and Vladimir Kostić.
Jury member Perica Gunjić provided an explanation for their decision:
“This investigative report is a convincing example of journalism that has significantly impacted the perception of the electoral process in Serbia. The so-called undercover investigation was conducted carefully, while respecting ethical and professional standards, which is particularly challenging in such investigations, but was carried out to perfection. The reporters expertly navigated numerous ethical dilemmas and risks, particularly those pertaining to journalist safety. The story provided unprecedented evidence of organized electoral corruption and vote buying during the election campaign in Serbia.”
The jury added that this was an example of “exceptional professional standards that could be studied in journalism schools, particularly when it comes to undercover journalism,” describing it as “a local mini Watergate.”
The jury, consisting of Ljubica Gojgić, journalist at RTV Vojvodina and editor/host of the show “Pravi ugao”, Perica Gunjić, editor-in-chief of the Cenzolovka portal, and Tamara Filipović Stevanović, General Secretary at NUNS, selected 20 stories (out of 36) for the final awards shortlist. The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Serbia (BIRN) authored three of the four stories that received awards.
Second place went to Gordana Andrić and Aleksandar Đorđević for the article Fake Payments, Fictional Lectures: How Millions of Euros for Vulnerable Groups Ended up in the Pockets of Others.
This year, two stories tied for third place: Anđela Milivojević’s “I Was Powerless”: Confessions of Women and Girls Across Serbia About the Horrific Consequences of Revenge Pornography and Radmila Marković’s Belgrade – A Paradise for Illegal Construction and Dubious Legalizations: BIRN Uncovers Nearly 500,000 Questionable Square Meters.
The organizers have said their aim is to draw attention to and promote the exceptional achievements of investigative journalists in Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, and Turkey, in addition to Serbia, and to increase the visibility of quality investigative journalism in these countries.
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