Recipients of “Dragan Janjic” Award Announced

Dragan Janjic (BETAPHOTO/Emil Vas)

Stefan Kosanovic and Dobrinka Kuzmanovic are the recipients of this year’s “Dragan Janjic” Media Literacy Award, which the BETA News Agency and the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) established last year, a June 30 press release said.

A jury made up of Marijana Matovic , Ph.D. of the School of Political Sciences, Sasa Mirkovic, Ph.D. of the School of Media and Communications, and Zlata Kures, BETA’s executive director, selected the winners from 22 papers.

Stefan Kosanovic won in the Student Award category, for an article titled, “Sports Psychologist Sasa Sredanovic Responsible for Impersonation.” The jury explained that in the fight “to encourage stronger media integrity and journalism based on facts, Kosanovic exposed a so-called sports psychologist who fraudulently presented herself in public.” Dobrinka Kuzmanovic won in the category “Professionals” for an article titled, “From Digital Natives to Digital Idiots – Youth and Digital Gaps.” The jury said Kuzmanovic received the reward after years of researching youth media literacy.

The awards were granted as part of a program called, “The New Literacy” conducted jointly by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Propulsion organization. The exact date of the awards ceremony is yet to be set. The “Dragan Janjic” award was established by BETA and the IJAS journalists to honor one of the founders of the news agency and the Association. Throughout his career as a journalist, Janjic constantly struggled to promote the professionalization of journalism, ethical standards and advancing the media landscape in Serbia.