MIRSAD BAJTAREVIC
Journalist
Mirsad Bajtarevic is awarded the sixth Miguel Gil Moreno Prize for Journalism. The judging panel decided to award the Bosnian journalist for his concept of the reporter as a servant to society, as shown in his radio report “Srebrenica of our Heart”. The panel recognises his constant informative work dedicated to the stories of the characters and the victims, now more forgotten than ever. The judges also award his reaffirmation of the profession to which Miguel Gil dedicated so much effort and for which he risked so much.
Mirsad Bajtarevic, reporter for the public radio station, Radio BH1 in Bosnia Herzegovina, was born in Kranj, Slovenia in 1969. After the breaking up of former Yugoslavia he became a citizen of Bosnia Herzegovina due to his parents´ origins and his place of residence. He currently works in Sarajevo and lives in Kakanj. Bajtarevic began his work in journalism in 1993, reporting form the battlefield in central Bosnia for a local radio station in Kakanj (Bosnia). In 1996 he joined Radio Fern; a station funded by the OSCE and named the country’s best radio station in 2000. Later, Fern joined Radio Bosnia Herzegovina to create the public broadcasting station, Radio BH1. As a journalist he has reported on many of the country’s important events; throughout his career he has faced many challenges, amongst them the challenge of reporting from the Potocari Memorial Centre, where so far 2,440 victims of the Srebrenica genocide have been buried. Between the 9th and the 11th of July 1995, forces from the Srpska Republic Army killed more than 8000 civilians in Srebrenica, committing the worst genocide seen in Europe since the end of the Second World War. Since 2003, Bajtarevic has been awarded five times. The UNDP( United Nation Development Programme), the European Commission and the British Embassy have recognised his efforts with prizes for his work on issues of profound importance in Bosnia Herzegovina: AIDS, drugs, the problems of the higher education system after the war and the situation of the Romany population. Mirsad Bajtarevic has been a member of the Danish Network of Investigative Journalists (FUJ) since 2004 and in 2005 he was elected president of the Bosnia Herzegovina Radio and Television Union (BHRT).
(Left to right)
Gonzalo Jar, Responsible Cooperative Red Cross, Sandra Balsells, photo journalist, Fernando González Urbaneja, President FAPE, Mirsad Bajtarevic, Patricia Gil Moreno, Felio Vilarrubias, Foundation Secretary and David Trías, Publisher Plaza & Janés.
