The establisher of the Foundation Dusko Jovanovic and co-owner of the daily Dan Mrs Slavica Jovanovic, attended and spoke at the gathering of Bavarian Journalists Association. The gathering, held at the Jewish community in Munich, saw as speakers: the president of Central Council of Jews Mrs Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Bavarian State Chancellery minister Thomas Kreuzer and the chairman of the Association of German journalists Mr Michael Konken.
Mrs Jovanovic thanked in her speech the former chairman Mr Wolfgang Stöckel for everything he and the Bavarian Journalists Association have done for providing freedom of the media in Montenegro.
- I could speak for hours about the relation between our newspapers, your association and its first man, but I will give just one example. Our printing house didn’t have electricity and water connection. I believe we were the only company in Europe in the 21st century that had worked with a help of power generator, without using the electricity. They helped us - the electricity flowed through our machines and Mr Günter Gabsteiger pressed the switch. It was small, but for us the major victory in 14 year long fight- Mrs Slavica Jovanovic said.
After the statement that one media had worked on power generators, the audience broke into applause in amazement. Mrs Jovanovic spoke with guests about the support for further work of Dan and the Foundation Dusko Jovanovic.
Director of Bavarian Media Academy, Mr Martin Kuntz offered the Foundation cooperation in the form of education of journalists at their prestigious Academy.
The newly elected chairman of Bavarian Journalists Association, Mr Michael Busch told Dan that as a German journalist, he couldn't understand the situation and the reality in which Montenegrin journalists work because something like that was inconceivable in Germany. When talking about the murder of Mr Dusko Jovanovic, attacks and pressure on media, Busch said that journalist in Germany were spoiled and they couldn’t put themselves in the shoes of their Montenegrin colleagues.
He emphasized that the members of the Association clearly underlined the importance of respecting the media freedom during talks with Members of the European Parliament.
- As the successor of Mr Stöckel, I promise I will raise the issue of freedom of the media in Montenegro with the members of the European Commission- Busch announced.
During her visit to Munich Mrs Slavica Jovanovic was a guest of editor-in-chief of the Bayernkurier Mr Peter Hausman, who worked as a state secretary for information and spokesman for the German Government when Helmut Kohl was in office. He agreed that criticizing the media for creating affairs was the main issue that today’s journalism was facing which “is a fallacy because journalists don’t create affairs- they write about them”.
- There is a big difference between Montenegro and Germany. In Montenegro a man should be more courageous to work as a journalist. – Mr Hausman added.
Mrs Jovanovic told Mr Hausman that she had established the Foundation Dusko Jovanovic which in 2011 awarded the First International Prize for Investigative Journalism and on 27th May 2014 three annual prizes.

Nenad Veljovic

To support talented journalism

During her stay in Germany, Mrs Slavica Jovanovic visited director of Southeast Europe Association which has around 900 members Mr Hansjörg Brey. Brey complemented the Foundation for its work so far and gave full support for future projects.
Mrs Jovanovic also met director for the European Integration and legal help in the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSS) Mr Bernard Ril. He talked about the department for talent support and a possible exchange of journalism students as well as professional journalists.

No democracy if the ruling party steals votes

The future collaboration and presentation of the Foundation Dusko Jovanovic across Germany were the focus of the meeting between Mrs Jovanovic and honourable Chairman of Bavarian Foreign Affairs Association Dr. Horst Mahr.
- I am looking forward to our future cooperation and I am sure we will, to the mutual satisfaction, realize the projects which will contribute to the development of journalism. – Mahr said.
In addition to their interest in the Foundation and freedom of the media, the collocutors also wanted to know about the political situation in Montenegro.
- Dan will always support the government elected in free, democratic and fair elections, without stealing the votes. Only that way we can be part of the democratic society – Mrs Jovanovic said.