In opening the Forum, Serbian Prime Minister, Mirko Cvetkovic said that “censorship and pressures on media in Serbia are no longer tolerated", and added that "journalists are free to investigate and publish information". Making reference to the Strategy for the Development of Public Information by 2016, Cvetkovic said that the government aimed to harmonise the entire legal framework with the European regulatory standards. CEI Secretary General, Amb. Gerhard Pfanzelter, stressed that “freedom of expression and of the media is one of the fundamental pillars of our democracies and the European Union”. Therefore, the CEI is particularly committed to freedom of expression, especially considering the fact that journalists and media play a crucial role in ensuring access of citizens to ideas and information.
SEEMO Secretary General, Oliver Vujovic, recalled that "there is still much work to be done in the field of press freedom and oppression of journalists”. Therefore, events such as the SEEMF could offer a valuable platform for exchanging experience and debating upon possible improvements.
During the Forum, the CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism was presented by CEI Secretary General, Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter. This year's winner is the Polish journalist Wlodzmierz Kalicki who has been remarkably active in investigative reporting. His investigations mainly focused on seeking art works belonging to Poland's cultural heritage, which were stolen either during the WWII or in recent years. His last success in investigative journalism was his tracking down, in Germany, of a famous painting entitled ”A Jewish Woman with Oranges”, by the Polish nineteenth century artist, Aleksander Gierymski. Kalicki was unable to attend the awarding ceremony and sent a message underlining that “investigative journalism was and is still one of the most important areas of journalism” that “reveals violations and human rights abuses all round the world”.
A special investigative journalism diploma was presented to Artan Hoxha (Albania) for his brave and professional coverage of police brutality during Albania’s January 2011 anti-government protest and penetrating documentaries on some of the wildest gangs in gangland Albania in the 1990s; to Dijana Subotički (Serbia) forher work on investigative stories along the news and reports, covering failures, missuse of power and corruption at local and regional level, but also as a message to journalists working on investigative stories at local level; to Matej Šurca and Blaž Zgaga (Slovenia),authors of the first of the book trilogy “In the name of the state”, for their investigative work on arms trade in Slovenia in 1990, based on consistent research of the arms dealings, supported by numerous documents and verified by credible sources as well as on a cross border investigative cooperation, which is an added value to the whole story.
for more information: fabro@cei-es.org
