Živković Samardžić, one of the Serbia’s leading full-service independent law firms, participates proudly in a project implemented since 2011 by the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia and currently supported by the Civil Rights Defenders, aiming to provide journalists with legal assistance in cases that raise important points concerning freedom of expression and safeguarding or advancing media freedoms.
Dragana Sotirovski, journalist and a head of public service broadcaster’s RTS bureau in Niš, southern Serbia, who is one of the project’s beneficiaries and whom Živković Samardžić lawyers represent in the proceedings following her reporting on nepotism and abuses in the special hospital for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of nonspecific pulmonary diseases “Sokobanja”, was awarded the Milan Pantić Award for Journalistic Courage. The award is named after Serbian journalist who was killed on 11 June 2001, following numerous threats received for articles he had written on crimes and trials from Jagodina, city he lived in.
Kruna Savović, Živković Samardžić Technology, Media and Telecommunications Senior Associate congratulated Dragana Sotirovski on the award and said: “Representing media, journalists and their associations was always a part of this firm’s DNA. Yet, we are so humbled and grateful for the opportunity to advise on landmark freedom of expression cases and assist journalists as professional and courageous as Dragana Sotirovski is.”