Bosnian Journalist Drazen Huterer had been awarded the inaugural Jiri Dienstbier Journalism Fellowship, a partnership between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and RFE/RL to promote free media in the Balkans.
Huterer will spend nine months with RFE/RL’s Balkan Service, both in the Sarajevo bureau and at RFE/RL’s Prague headquarters, building on his skills with experienced RFE/RL journalists. By contributing daily content for radio and web and assisting with video production, Huterer will learn by experience with the unique opportunity the fellowship affords.
Before beginning his fellowship, Huterer worked as an investigative journalist for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). While with IWPR he wrote a feature on the nearly-abandoned Serb village of Ledici in Southeastern Bosnia, where the two remaining residents explained what happened when the village was attacked by Bosniak forces in 1992 and all of the residents were either killed or forced to flee.
Huterer has also reported on illegal construction in Sarajevo, where developers regularly ignore urban plans and other zoning norms to the detriment of local residents, even causing landslides. In his piece titled “Sarajevans Mourn The Lost Legacy Of The 1984 Olympics,” he told the story of the great optimism and pride Sarajevans attached to their Olympic park, which is now in a state of decay after the war, having never become the winter sports destination they hoped it would be.
“This program has made me love journalism even more,” said Huterer. “I am very grateful for this opportunity.”
The fellowship is named in memory of former Czechoslovak Foreign Minister, journalist, and dissident Jiri Dienstbier for his outstanding work in the fields of journalism, foreign policy, and human rights, and RFE/RL’s mission of promoting more just and open societies through journalism. The aim of the fellowship is to help position fellows as standard-bearers of the profession and leaders in their communities, on-line, on air, and in the world.
