In May, KROKODIL\u2019s literary residence hosted its 67th<\/sup> guest, Dragan Bursa\u0107, from Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Dragan, a columnist of Al Jazeera Balkans, was awarded with 2 prestigious awards this year, BiH Journalist of the Year<\/em> and the European Press Prize 2018<\/em>, respectively. He is the 67th <\/sup>guest of KROKODIL\u2019s literary residence. During the \u201eEvening with Dragan Bursa\u0107\u201c organised on 24th <\/sup>May in KC Grad, Dragan participated in a discussion with his colleagues \u2013 Brankica Stankovi\u0107, Dejan Anastasijevi\u0107 and Ilir Ga\u0161i \u2013 and interested audience.<\/strong><\/p>\n In societies of our \u00a0region, which all declare \u00a0themselves as open and democratic – \u00a0the condition of media freedom is rather demorilising \u00a0and is constantly decreasing . Not only professional journalist, but also intelectual elite and whistleblowers are all facing the threats issued by politicians, media agencies loyal to them, and the part of general public leaning towards conservatism and nationalistic cheering \u00a0that dominate public opinion.<\/p>\n The centres of power \u00a0spread their influence through the media, and subsequently \u00a0the society, thus also exerting \u00a0strong pressure on\u00a0 editorial policies, by cutting financial support or actively controlling and tabloidising the media. Although such environment forces some journalists to conscionously or unconsciously succumb to \u00a0auto-censorhip, many of them are still boldly probing and \u2013 \u00a0as much as it is in their power \u2013 pushing the boundaries of \u00a0media freedom.<\/p>\n That such kind of courage can cost one their life is a well-known fact.\u00a0 We are all aware that journalism is one of the most dangerous \u00a0professions. And it is \u00a0not only war reporters who are threatened, but also investigative journalists, who are unearthing connections between governing structures and behind-the-scenes power centres, and all those who in any way dare to challenge the established status quo<\/em>. So, what to do when your job can cost you your life?<\/p>\n Dragan Bursa\u0107 was born in the town of Biha\u0107 (BiH) in 1975. He completed his primary education in Bosanski Petrovac, where he also spent his childhood. He has a degree in philosophy. In 2000, Bursa\u2019 started his professional career at the Radio Banja Luka, but in 2007 he returned to column-writing, since when he has been working as a columnist of Al Jazeera Balkan\u2019s and BUKA online portal. In his work, Bursa\u0107 primarily focuses on themes pertaining to war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, dealing with the past, humanity in wars, etc. In March 2018, Bursa\u0107 was awarded with the most prestigious award the European Press Prize, in the category \u201eThe Opinion Award 2018\u201c, for his text \u201eThe third shooting of the boy called Petar from Konjic\u201c. \u00a0He received another award, Journalist of the Year, granted by the Association of Journalists in BiH, upon his arrival to KROKODIL\u2019s residence. Bursa\u0107 is also the recipient of UNICEF\u2019s award for journalism, as well as of \u201eSr\u0111an Aleksi\u0107\u201c award. He is living and working in Banja Luka. His stay in KROKODIL\u2019s literary residence is organised as part of the READING BALKANS project. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When a job can cost you your life About freedom of the media and position of journalists today In May, KROKODIL\u2019s literary residence hosted its 67th guest, Dragan Bursa\u0107, from Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Dragan, a columnist of Al Jazeera Balkans, was awarded with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krokodil.rs\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krokodil.rs\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krokodil.rs\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krokodil.rs\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krokodil.rs\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15552"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.krokodil.rs\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15555,"href":"https:\/\/www.krokodil.rs\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15552\/revisions\/15555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krokodil.rs\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.krokodil.rs\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krokodil.rs\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.krokodil.rs\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}