This post is also available in: Bosnian
At the ceremony in Limassol, Cyprus, Tahmiscija received third prize in the category Outstanding Contribution to Peace for the articles Focus on War Crimes Verdicts Leaves Victims Feeling Disappointed and More Than Ten Million for Monuments in the Decade Lost to Memorialisation and Reparations.
Accepting the award, Tahmiscija said that as the only journalist from Bosnia and Herzegovina — or the Balkans more widely — it was a great honour to attend the event along with finalists from all over the world, and it was a particular honour to win third place.
“This recognition and award are not just personal; they represent the courage of people whose stories we tell and the responsibility we carry as journalists,” she said. “I am grateful to everyone who has supported my work, and I believe this is additional encouragement to continue reporting on topics that contribute to peace and unity.”
Tahmiscija also pointed out that journalism has the power to build understanding, keep the truth at the centre and give a voice to those who need it most, with the hope that such topics will have more and more space in the media.
In her award-winning journalism, Tahmiscija reported that more than 1,100 people have been convicted of war crimes since the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina but that victims and families have ultimately ended up disappointed. This is due to prosecutors refusing to file charges against higher-ranking perpetrators, the fragmentation of complex investigations, slow trials, a lack of strategy in their approach, politicisation and a lack of support for witnesses.
In her second award-winning text, Tahmiscija reveals how more than 5.5 million Bosnian marks have been allocated from local budgets in recent years for the construction and maintenance of monuments to civilian and military war victims, bringing the total amount spent on memorialisation to more than 10 million Bosnian marks in the past decade. She questioned how much this and other public spending has truly helped to create a systematic approach to transitional justice processes and to ensure an approach that remains focused on victims and their families.
Both stories are part of Detektor’s series or articles dedicated to transitional justice issues.
The Fetisov Journalism Awards also have categories for Contributions to Civil Rights, Outstanding Investigative Journalism and Excellence in Reporting on Environmental Protection Issues.
This year’s jury consisted of Ricardo Gutierrez, Julianne Schultz, Kaarle Nordenstreng, Milica Pesic, Pravit Rojanaphruk, Tony Sadownichik, Torry Pedersen, Zaffar Abbas and Eva Merkacheva.
The awards promote universal human values such as honour, justice, courage and nobility through examples of outstanding journalists around the world, noting that “their service and dedication contribute to changing the world for the better”.
The category for Outstanding Contribution to Peace rewards a series of texts with anti-war themes that have made an important contribution to peacebuilding and promoting the idea that human life is of the greatest value. According to the Fetisov website, the nominated stories focused on issues of international disarmament, reduction or ending of national or international conflicts, and support for national and international communities that maintain peace.
Tahmiscija has been a journalist at Detektor since 2014. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the Fetisov Journalism Awards for a series of articles on transitional justice processes and the rights of victims of war crimes, as well as their families in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
She received the Srdjan Aleksic Award in 2020 in the Nominees Chosen by Journalists category for articles about the challenges facing marginalised groups in Bosnian society. In 2022, she received special recognition from UNICEF for her contribution to the promotion and protection of children’s rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As part of the Detektor team, she also received the European Press Prize Special Award for 2020 for “efforts and success in securing justice for war crimes victims”, for long-term professional and continuous reporting on the most sensitive topics.
In 2022, Detektor journalist Haris Rovcanin received second place in the Fetisov Journalism Awards in the category for Outstanding Contribution to Peace. That was for a series of four articles, two of which were co-authored by Albina Sorguc, who was part of the BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina team at the time.
