Branka Stankovic
Program Participant
Click here to listen to a clip from Branka's interview with Peter Graves.

Branka Stankovic

Branka Stankovic is the director of the television program “Insider,” a highly influential bi-monthly documentary show at the independent Radio and Television station B92 in Serbia. She came to Washington in January for an ICFJ media training program and sat down with Peter Graves, Executive Vice President at ICFJ, to discuss her visit to the United States and her experiences as a journalist covering organized crime, corruption and war criminals.

Graves asked Stankovic what it was like to work at B92 during the troubled times between 1996 and 2000, when the station was eventually banned and had to broadcast via satellite through London. B92 was taken over “by a group close to the government in April 1999,” according to their website.

“All of our transmitters were turned off and shut down,” Stankovic said. “At that time the TV station was operating from the people’s apartments and homes.”

While trying to broadcast, B92 employees found themselves working under high-pressure conditions.

“It was very dangerous to walk down the street, especially if you had any marks, if you were wearing any marks that you were coming from B92 or had anything to do with that studio,” she said. “People considered that we were taking bribes from foreign governments.”

ICFJ was one of the international donors that supported the station during those uncertain times but Stankovic said that at B92 she never felt foreign pressure to take a certain position or to report from a biased perspective. “If I ever felt something like that I would not have worked for B92,” she said. “You could always feel like being able to express your own opinion.”

ICFJ continues to support media organizations in the Balkans by inviting colleagues like Stankovic to continue their professional development here in the United States and by creating a forum where they can discuss their ideas and experiences with American journalists.

“I really find it to be a great exchange experience. And I also found out about many new things that can be applied by the media in Serbia,” she said. Stankovic was particularly interested in learning about the ombudsman institution and in discussing investigative techniques from a different perspective.

Stankovic’s program “Insider,” is one of the most watched shows in Serbia and has become a force for social change. After the assassination of the prime minister, a decision made in the lower courts allowed for the release of “a major war criminal group from any responsibility,” she said. “Our program caused…the Supreme Court to later on turn down the decision passed by the lower courts and put it back for further trials.”