CIVIL has been awarding prizes for three years now, for the most successful in citizen journalism, within the framework of the Civic Lenses project.

“It’s about stories of citizen journalists from throughout the country, who through their texts, photos and videos speak of the everyday life of the citizens. This project is about transparent and responsible political processes. With their own video camera, camera or cell phone they manage to capture all possible situations concerning the abuse of power, the problems they are facing in the communities where they come from, concerning events, processes and attitudes of those in the structures of power, which are not in accordance with the law and democratic standards”, stated Xhabir Deralla from CIVIL at the very beginning of the awarding ceremony.

On Thursday, August 9, CIVIL awarded five more prizes for the most successful stories in citizen journalism. The first prize went to citizen journalist Julijana Ortakovska for the video Violent behavior of a teacher at the “Cheerful Children” kindergarten in Gevgelia, which caused for the competent institutions to react immediately.

The second prize went to Suada Muratova this time, for the story Dislocation of the illegal stands at Bit Pazar. Marin Gavrilovski is the winner of the third prize for the reporting from the protests in Skopje, where there were nationalist chanting and incidents, while the two fourth-place prizes went to Anila Ejupi for the video the NATO-party, where Risto Vrtev from the group Arhangel during his performance sent out a message to the citizens Don’t let bullies kick you out of home and to an anonymous citizen journalist for his video story Set down, set down bright sun…pensioners singing in public transportation bus.

The project is supported by the foundation National Endowment for Democracy

B. Jordanovska