After the fire that broke out in the residential building in Bač in October 2020, tenants were promised new public housing, but this has not happened to date. In a controversial and urgent procedure, the Municipality chose a company for the construction of apartments, and then kept pushing the deadlines for completion of works, CINS can reveal.

The jury that hands over the European Union (EU) investigative journalism awards has awarded first prize to CINS journalist Dina Đorđević for a series of articles on air pollution in Serbia. CINS journalists Teodora Ćurčić and Stefan Marković have received special praise for the database titled How Much Does an MP Cost?

The data CINS received from 21 healthcare institutions show how many vaccinated and unvaccinated people there are among the hospitalized and deceased COVID-19 patients.

Having landed at the Nikola Tesla Airport on a flight from Vienna, on July 15 this year, a passenger headed toward the exit with the sign NOTHING TO DECLARE. Passengers carrying goods not subject to customs duties pass through this exit every day. However, this passenger did not have the usual luggage with him. Customs officers discovered in his possession a painting called The Sentinel, by Paja Jovanović, bought for more than 140,000 euros, along with over 15,000 euros in cash. Although the media reported on this person as a mystery passenger, CINS reveals that the passenger in question is a Belgrade city administration secretary, Nikola Kovačević.

Dragan Šakić was born in the village of Brezjak, not far from Loznica, where he lived for more than 40 years. In this village with some 170 inhabitants, Dragan had a house spanning roughly 50 square meters, a farmstead and a bit of land. Today, all the Šakić family has left in Brezjak is the land, and they might end up selling it, too. They are just one of the families who have sold their property to Rio Tinto Sava Exploration, a Serbian subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group, which has been buying up land in this area since last year in order to build a lithium mine. However, the hefty sums of money the company has been offering for the purchase of houses and land over the past several months have caused a divide and a conflict between neighbors.

Newsmax Adria journalist Jelena Obućina is the winner of this year’s Stanislav Staša Marinković Award, given out by the Danas daily. CINS journalist Jovana Tomić was
shortlisted for the award, while the entire staff was lauded for its investigative stories.

Illegal construction in a protected area, cutting of floodplain forests on the banks of the Tisa and air pollution in Beočin – those are the topics of the three award-winning stories by participants in the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) school, created as part of cooperation with the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Government of Sweden.

Telekom Srbija paid Igor Mirović, the head of the Vojvodina government and member of the Serbian Progressive Party leadership, at least 192,000 euros for leasing office space in downtown Novi Sad, almost a third of it before the office was even opened. A prosecutor’s office conducted a long preliminary investigation on suspicion of illegality of the whole affair. CINS reveals problems in the procedure, as well as that in the process of leasing the space Telekom bypassed public procurement procedure.