It’s a small, cozy room on the 6th floor of Belgrade Media center, and right in the center. The bright, white walls and newness of the building contrast with the dullness and age that characterize Belgrade walls. The clear and transparent setting  holds great promise for the sequence of the conference taking place on Thursday 18th June, 2009.

Gradually, journalists  begin to enter the notably relaxed atmosphere, discussing the latest reports they had covered or the latest conferences they had attended. This noisy crowd is made up of 25 to 30 people, from a broad span of the national media, either newspapers, radio, or TV channels as well as the foreign media  ( Radio free Europe, or a National TV channel from the republic Srpska entity, part of Bosnia and Herzegovina ). There are also NGOs representing women and children, a representative of the United Nations department and one from Belgrade municipal office of public prosecution. Silence eventually falls as attitudes steady, cameras get ready to film, and  atmosphere changes perceptibly due to the seriousness of the topic, about to be addressed by the three invited speakers.

VDS was proud to welcome Doctor Mirjana Dokmanovic, an international lawyer, journalist, researcher and lecturer on human rights and women’s rights, as well as the President of the Women’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Serbia & Montenegro. We were also happy to have Doctor Zeljko Nikac, both a Deputy Police chief and Professor because his presence added a field dimension, with the latest data available and a great deal of experience in the armed domestic violence field. From VDS, both Jasmina Nikolic, whom you should by-now be familiar with, and Vesna Nikolic Ristanovic, professor in criminology at Belgrade University and director of VDS, were present. 

Guns. Violence. Women… Pens scribble away, and many questions are raised to our interlocutors, journalists and activists showing a great interest for the subject. The conference officially ends amid stage whispers. Many TV and radio stations request more details, get closer to the podium to obtain personal interviews from our speakers, and pens go on scribbling away…. What a formative experience for the novice journalist I am, to see basic tips on how to compile various sequences to make reports as lively and appealing as can be

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4-hLTvVDes

Of course, we’re not the only ones to be proud of the work accomplished during the global week of action… and you may be interested to go and see what others have done, in Argentina, Canada, Congo,  El Salvador, India, Liberia, Macedonia, Mexico, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the US…. A various range of events, a wide variety of countries… because every action counts! For more details, please visit http://www.iansa-women.org/node/172