23.01.2019.
Journalistic Awards of the Media Centre “Odbrana” for the Year 2018
At traditional ceremony of marking the Day of Media Centre “Odbrana”, on 24th January, a ceremonial presentation of journalistic awards “Ivan Marković” is going to take place as well as awarding special recognitions to mark 140 years of work of the military printing house and publishing of the first military magazine “The Warrior” in 1879.
The journalistic Award “Ivan Marković” is awarded for the best media coverage of the activities of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces. The aim of the award is to encourage the journalists who follow the activities of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces to cherish high quality of reporting in national printed and electronic media, and promotion and public verification of their work and cherishing memory of Ivan Marković, one of the most gifted military journalists and editor of the magazine “Vojska” who suddenly passed away in 2003 in the 43rd year of his life.
A five member panel decides the winner of the award “Ivan Marković”, and this time the panel consisted of: Colonel Mihajlo Zogović PhD, Head of Media Division in the Public Relations Department, Radenko Mutavdžić PhD, Head of the Internet Group in the Public Relations Department, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Počuč, Chief Editor of magazine “Odbrana”, Lieutenant Colonel Damir Halimović, Head of Public Relations Group in the Private Office of Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces and Major Milan Gujanica, Head of the Public Relations Group in the Army Command.
The panel decided that, among 19 received applications, the title of the best journalistic report should go to: live television coverage of the exercise “Century of the Victors 1918-2018”, which had been broadcasted on the First Channel of the Radio Television of Serbia, on 10th November 2018, signed by the team comprising: Veselin Grozdanić, Project leader and Chief director, Saša Barbulović, executive editor of the broadcast, Petar Milošaković, executive producer of the project and engineer Žika Miljković, Technical director of the project.The panel’s rationale states that the national television broadcasted eight hours of live programme. The exercises of the Serbian Armed Forces were covered on ten locations all over Serbia, with the participation of 8000 soldiers, 645 fighting systems and assets and 24 aircraft. The exercise “Century of the Victors” was conducted to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, and in honour and glory of the Serbian heroes who had won great victories and freedom for their Serbia.
The Radio Television of Serbia performed a true feat since it succeeded in presenting ten concurrent exercises of the Serbian Armed Forces, adjusting the work of their top professionals and engaging all available technical resources. It was a unique media event, just like the military exercise “Century of the Victors” was a unique exercise that had not been seen in these parts for a long time. The Serbian Armed Forces were presented as they were, a powerful, armed force with modern weapons, capable of protecting their state and their citizens from risks and threats of ever more turbulent world.
Such Serbian Armed Forces were presented in a new light owing to the television coverage of the Radio Television of Serbia. In order to achieve that, ten different TV system were set up, for every exercise and location separately. The entire project was coordinated and commented from a studio and central production in Belgrade. A special contribution was given by officers of the Serbian Armed Forces with their expert comments and by a team of the Military Film Centre “Zastava Film” with cameramen and editors who were part of the creative team of the Radio Television of Serbia.
For the broadcasting, they used all available mobile television units, links, satellite stations, emitters, complex communication systems, graphic stations for animated applications, equipment and capacities of local correspondents from all over Serbia. More than 20 reporters worked on the project, together with nine directors, 12 producers, 40 cameramen. More than 200 employees of the Radio Television of Serbia were engaged and 70 cameras.
All that with an excellent collaboration with the Serbian Armed Forces on the field, with units’ commanders who maximally accommodated the requirements of such a complex project. It was an honour to “fight side by side with the members of the Serbian Armed Forces”, the application of the coverage for the competition read, and the panel was pleased and honoured to proclaim the result of that joint action and activity of the Serbian Armed Forces and the Radio Television of Serbia the winner of the competition for the journalist award “Ivan Marković” for the year 2018.
On the occasion of the great jubilee - 140 years of the military print, the panel decided, among received journalistic texts for printed media, to select and award with a special recognition: THE TOPIC OF THE WEEK of the journal POLITIKA: “Nineteen years of the Kumanovo Treaty”, published on 10th June 2018, by Toma Todorović, Miroslav Lazanski and Milan Galović.
The texts of this theme block, on three pages of the journal “Politika”, bring known and some new data relating to the atmosphere and results of the Kumanovo Treaty, signed on 9th June 1999, which ended NATO aggression against FR Yugoslavia. The significance of these texts lies in the fact that they provide arguments that the military in Kosovo and Metohija “was not defeated”, “it did not capitulate”, but it “was relocated from Kosovo and Metohija with entire armament” in line with the decision of the state leadership.
The panel had in mind the topicality of the subject, taking in consideration that even 20 years after NATO aggression, the resolution of the “Kosovo issue” has not been reached. That is an important security issue of Serbia, and that is why dealing with this topic is in the focus of the interest. This was the reason why the panel, choosing from the last year’s production of printed media that had applied for the competition, singled out the texts of the journalists of “Politika” and decided to give them a special recognition to mark the 140th anniversary of military printing activity in Serbia, on which Toma Todorović, Miroslav Lazanski and Milan Galović leave their recognisable, analytical mark.
