30. 10. 2011

Two awards for ANEM TV series “Mirror of Power”

We are proud to announce that ANEM TV series "Mirror of Power" has won valuable awards in two recently organized contests for media pieces - the UNDP Serbia's contest for best media pieces - monitoring of public spending and the contest for the best media piece in the field of local self-governance, organized by the Council of Europe and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities. Jelena Aleksic, journalist of this ANEM TV series, is one of four award winners in the first contest for investigative media pieces on monitoring of public spending, while in the second contest, she and journalist Sandra Mandic have won the award for this series among total of six award winners in the category of the best national electronic media piece.

The awarded TV series "Mirror of Power" consists of 20 10-minute long programs, through which ANEM strived to contribute to a greater knowledge and education of citizens on the problem of corruption and its concrete forms of manifestation, as well as to encourage them to get involved in the fight against corruption and to strengthen the control over the work of the public office holders. Programs cover the specific stories from local communities in apprehensible and interesting form, aimed at wide audience and presented as a mirror of functioning of state and local self-government institutions, in which forms of corruptive behavior and possible sources of corruption could be recognized. The series was realized in cooperation with the production company "A-media", with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the Fund for an Open Society Serbia (FOSS). The series was broadcast on 26 ANEM regional and local TV stations across Serbia, in the period between December 2010 and April 2011.

The contest of UNDP Serbia, within which the journalist of ANEM series has won the award, was aimed at young journalists (up to 35 years of age), who prepared investigative pieces in monitoring of public spending, by which UNDP Serbia strived to encourage investigative journalism in this field and to contribute to drawing public attention to the issues of transparency and accountability in public spending, thus supporting the efforts in the fight against corruption. Out of 14 received applications, the expert jury composed of representatives of UNDP and journalists proposed by NUNS and UNS, selected four journalists for the award. The prize is a group study visit to a country with a strong media and journalism tradition and an advanced practice in investigative reporting, where the winners will get acquainted with the work of reputable media-support organizations and institutions that nurture cutting-edge investigative journalism practice and advocate highest professional standards.

The contest for the best media piece in the field of local self-governance, in the organization of the Council of Europe and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, is part of the Council of Europe's program - Strengthening local self-governance, whose aim is providing help to central and local government in Serbia in establishing more efficient system of local-self-governance. Among more than 60 received media pieces, the expert jury selected the best seven, whose authors have been awarded with the study visit to Strasburg and Paris, where they will visit renowned media houses and institutions of European Union based in Strasburg.

The awards to journalists for their work on the series "Mirror of Power" are not only confirmation of the quality of ANEM productions but also incentive for ANEM to continue to produce radio and TV series for its stations, namely the series through which it encourages investigative journalism, creativity of journalists and contribute to strengthening the role of media in democratization of the society.