Brankica Stanković ( sr-cyr, Бранкица Станковић; born October 1975) is a prominent Serbian investigative journalist reporting on topics of

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

and

political corruption Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influen ...

in Serbia. She is the main writer of the investigative television news programme ''Insajder'' (Serbian for "Insider") produced by the B92 television between 2004 and 2015, and by Stanković's own news production company since 2016. Her reports led to much controversy, and she routinely receives death threats. For that reason, she has been placed under 24 hours police protection since December 2009.

Early career

Stanković was born in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

(then

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

) in October 1975.Brankica Stanković
profile on B92 official site After high school graduation, she enrolled a private

acting Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode. Acting involves a broad range of sk ...

school, but quit after two years. She began her career as a journalist for radio and television company RTV Studio B in 1996, where she spent a year. In 1997, she switched to Radio B92, where she has been working ever since. During the 1990s, B92 was a prominent pro-

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

news broadcasting News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either video production, produced local programming ...

company, opposed to the corrupt regime of then-president

Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...

. During her early career, she was the editor of B92 radio news programming, and was a screenwriter for such weekly programs as ''Jutopija'' and ''Apatrija''. She also worked as a foreign correspondent for

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio Aktiebolag, AB (; "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio programming, radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a television ...

and German

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (; "West German Broadcasting Cologne"), shortened to WDR (), is a German public broadcasting, public-broadcasting institution based in the States of Germany, Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a const ...

B92

In 2004, B92 television launched a program called ''Insajder'' (''Insider''), with Stanković as chief editor. It is an investigative TV program whose aim is to expose

and political crime in Serbia. Since 2004, nineteen seasons of ''Insajder'' were broadcast, two each year, with each season containing between two and nine episodes, 82 episodes in total (as of October 2013).Insajder archives
on B92 official site. Retrieved 8 October 2013. The first season of ''Insajder'' was about the political aspects of the

assassination of Zoran Đinđić Zoran Đinđić, the sixth Prime Minister of Serbia, Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, was Assassination, assassinated on Wednesday 12 March 2003, in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia (1992–2006), Serbia. Đinđić was fatally shot by a sni ...

. While working on this topic, the ''Insajder'' crew found out that after Milorad Ulemek, Đinđić's assassin, was arrested, he was not taken to the police custody, but to the office of then

Minister of Internal Affairs An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

Dragan Jočić. Later episodes investigated such topics as: the Customs Mafia case, high-profile cigarette smuggling, and secret transfers of state money to

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. This led to the arrest of former Director of Customs Bureau Mihalj Kertes. Other episodes investigated corruption in RB Kolubara, links between politicians and football hooligans and other

extremist Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied shar ...

groups, corruption with

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

of state-owned companies, corruption in RTB Bor and many other major cases of political corruption and crime. After reporting on the criminal records of many football hooligan leaders and their links with mafia and politicians in 2009, Stanković received multiple death threats from hooligans. The most infamous incident occurred on 16 December 2009 during the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

football game between

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; ), often referred to in English as Partizan Belgrade, is a Serbian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Belgrade. It forms ...

and

FC Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

when a group of hooligans supporting FK Partizan stabbed with knives an inflatable doll representing Stanković. During the incident, hooligans chanted "You're like a serpent, you'll follow Ćuruvija, Brankica the whore", referring to the death of

Slavko Ćuruvija Slavko Ćuruvija ( sr-Cyrl, Славко Ћурувија, ; 9 August 1949 – 11 April 1999) was a Yugoslav and Serbian journalist, newspaper publisher. His murder on 11 April 1999 in Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia provoked international outrage and wi ...

, another prominent investigative journalist who was assassinated in 1999. Belgrade's

appellate court An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appel ...

sentenced three hooligans to

suspended sentence A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...

s of 10 to 12 months in October 2013 for making death treats to Stanković. Miloš Radosavljević Kimi, the leader of the "Alkatraz" hooligan group was separately sentenced to 16 months in prison in 2010. In 2013, B92 published Stanković's autobiographic book titled ''"Insajder: My Story"''. (). In 2014, she was awarded the Courage in Journalism Award given by International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF).

Insajder.net

In 2016, Stanković quit job at B92 in order to launch her own news

production company A production company, production house or production studio is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television show, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and video ...

and investigative internet portal Insajder.net. Her company continued producing the "Insajder" programme for B92 television (renamed "O2 television" in 2017). Insajder.net also produces several other TV programmes ("Insajder debata", "Insajder bez ograničenja") broadcast in syndication by N1 television and TV Prva.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stankovic, Brankica Journalists from Belgrade Investigative journalists Serbian women journalists 1975 births Serbian television presenters Serbian women television presenters Living people