NUNS has announced a competition for the regional journalism award "Gordana Suša" for television journalism for the year 2025.

The "Gordana Suša" Journalism Award was established to preserve and maintain the memory of one of the best Serbian and Yugoslav television journalists and to support the ideals for which Gordana Suša uncompromisingly fought throughout her career: an unconditional professional and fair approach to reporting, the struggle for media freedoms and human rights, tolerance among all national and social groups, anti-war activism, as well as the fight for professional standards and the safety of journalists.

The previous award winners are Hrvoje Krešić (Nova TV Zagreb), Ivana Dragičević (N1 Zagreb), and Maja Nikolić (N1 Belgrade).

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia, in cooperation with media partner organizations from the region, awards the annual "Gordana Suša" Award to female and male journalists from the former Yugoslavia for:

– exceptional achievements in television journalism;

– independent, professional, and responsible journalism, in accordance with the universal ethical journalism code, and in the service of the public interest and media freedom;

– journalism that represents and respects the interests and specificities of all citizens, regardless of their ethnic, religious, or gender identity;

– understanding, cooperation, mutual respect, and solidarity among journalists, media, and media associations in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

CONDITIONS OF THE COMPETITION

Individuals, editorial teams, associations, and informal groups, as well as members of the "Gordana Suša" Award jury, can nominate female and male journalists for the award.

Female and male journalists cannot apply directly to the competition.

The application includes a justification for the nomination (up to 4,000 characters), links to video contributions that illustrate the work of the nominated journalist, or portable video media (CD, flash drive, etc.) containing video content. The video content accompanying the nomination must not be older than one year from the date of the competition announcement.

The nomination deadline is January 12, 2026.

The decision on the award of the "Gordana Suša" Award will be made by a professional jury composed of journalists and media experts from the region.

Questions regarding the competition procedure can be submitted no later than January 11, 2025, to the email address: program@nuns.rs.

The application can be sent via the application form available at this link: https://forms.gle/pDboWg4dzsdd8Wzh7 and to the email address: program@nuns.rs (in the email subject, please write: “Gordana Suša Award 2024”).

Since this is a regional competition, the candidate's contribution should be submitted in their native language.

The Regional Journalism Award for Television Journalism "Gordana Suša" for 2024 will be awarded on February 2, 2025.

The competition for the Regional Journalism Award "Gordana Suša" for television journalism is announced based on Article 63 of the Statute of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Rules on Awards and Recognitions of NUNS, and the decisions of the Executive Board of NUNS from June 10, 2022, and October 7, 2022.

GORDANA SUŠA (1946-2021)

Gordana Suša was born on February 2, 1946, in Belgrade. She began her journalism career during her studies at the Second Program of Radio Belgrade and then at Television Belgrade, where she quickly became a recognizable television personality, one of the most reliable and respected journalists and editors of the former Yugoslavia, due to her talent, personal qualities, and strong professional integrity.

The universality of her professional engagement was reflected in all television formats, from reporting and editorial work in central news programs to authorial shows.

Because of the professional standards she believed in and consistently adhered to, including the fight against warmongering propaganda and hate speech in the late 1980s, she was forcibly removed from the screen due to the rising nationalist trends.

In early 1991, she moved to Jutel, a newly established television of the then Federal Government, located in Sarajevo, which comprised leading journalistic names from all Yugoslav republics and attempted to be an integrative media factor in a country where the leading republican television centers spread nationalist propaganda.

The collapse of the country where she was born, lived, and worked did not change her professional views in any way. She merely changed the media in search of media spaces that placed professional ethics at the center of their editorial policies.

She continued to work at the daily newspaper Borba and was among the founders of the daily newspaper Naša borba, launched after the state brutally occupied the original Borba.

Her further path was marked by tremendous courage – in 1993, she founded the production company VIN – Video Weekly, whose product was an outstanding television magazine of the same name, which remained a valuable video testimony of the darkest and most depressing period of recent history in these areas.

Gordana Suša was also among the founders of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia in 1994 in Belgrade and later served as the president of NUNS from 1999 to 2002.

In one of her last interviews, in the NUNS Media Dossier in January 2021, she explained the role and significance of journalists:

“A journalist who respects the ethical code is by definition rebellious, as they follow professional principles and are obliged, I emphasize, to resist pressures to violate those principles. It is the journalist's duty to report accurately, objectively, completely, and in a timely manner on events of public interest… and from that everything else follows. The journalist is under the greatest pressures. If they yield once, they will always yield, and that is why I like to tell younger colleagues that they must have stable and strong psychophysical conditioning to effectively withstand pressures from politicians, editors, and media owners.”

Gordana Suša passed away on June 22, 2021, in Belgrade.