Throughout March Balkansmedia.org will present and celebrate just a few out of million women in media that are everyday breaking the barriers and paving the road for the younger generation of female journalists and media workers. In partnership with Lejla Ahmedspahić, one of the illustrators who worked on the project #ŽeneBiH we created six illustrations of amazing media workers in the Balkans in order to introduce you to women in media from your countries and countries from the region, and to share hope with younger generations of media workers that they are not alone, and that they have support and a foundation to build upon.
First one we present is Vildana Selimbegović.
Vildana (Fuad) Selimbegović was born in Travnik in 1963 and graduated from the Gymnasium in Travnik and the Faculty of Political Science in Sarajevo, with a degree in Journalism Studies.
She worked in Sarajevo’s Večernje Novine in the period of 1988-1994, and from 1994 to 2008 she held multiple positions within the magazine Dani, working as Editor, Assistant to Editor-in-Chief, Executive Editor, Deputy Director and on two occasions Editor-in-Chief (2000-2003, 2005-2008). She was named Journalist of the Year twice (1997 and 2001) in Woman 21 selection , and in 1998 the European Union and United States Government honored her for her contribution to the development of democracy and respect for human rights. Since October 2008, she has been the Editor-in-Chief of Oslobodjenje. In 2015, she was awarded the SAIS Award for Investigative Journalism in the USA. In 2017 she received an award from the Italian association Giavere for her contribution to respect for human rights, and in the same year she was named Journalist of the Year in BiH.
