Screening of "Witnesses" and conversation with the authors of the movie that received EU Award for Investigative Journalism.

The documentary film “Witnesses”, which was awarded with the EU award for investigative journalism in Serbia in 2015, was presented in Novi Sad on October 29th. After the screening, the authors Ivana Lalić Majdak and Miloš Teodorović spoke with the audience about their experiences on the project and the situation on the media scene in Serbia.

The film “Witnesses” deals with the position of the protected witnesses in court proceedings related to the crimes committed in Kosovo. The willingness of people from the police, army and paramilitary groups to speak out about the crimes in which they participated or which they witnessed, was never encouraged, but instead these people have been exposed to threats and blackmails.

Ivana Lalić Majdak shared with the audience experiences from the journalist investigation, including months-long refusals of the representatives of public institutions to participate in the film, as well as the poor response of the media for the film broadcasting. Miloš Teodorović expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that for many crimes no one is still held responsible, and that these processes are not treated as news by the media outlets. The authors agreed that journalists should not give up on the profession, because there had been much worse times for the media scene in Serbia than these, when journalists were losing lives, but they struggled and were bolder.

The award is established by the European Commission, DG Enlargement, following the EU Enlargement strategy, which recognizes the strong need to ensure freedom of expression in the media, and for support to investigative journalism to monitor the reform processes and to keep the historical momentum toward the EU accession. The EU award for investigative journalism aims at celebrating and promoting outstanding achievements of investigative journalists and improving the visibility of quality investigative journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey.

The awarding process in Serbia is managed by the Novi Sad School of Journalism.