Twenty-five years since the death of journalist Željko Ružičić

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Željko Ružičić was born on 26 August 1948 in Prijedor. He attended primary school in his hometown and in Zagreb. He graduated from a classical grammar school, and after studying journalism in Ljubljana he completed the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo.

During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željko Ružičić was a voice of comfort, hope, but also defiance for the listeners of Radio Sarajevo...

Despite the constant slaughter of citizens on the streets and in apartments, Sarajevans tried to live their lives as normally as possible, sometimes out of spiritual need, sometimes out of sheer defiance.

From Radio Sarajevo and Radio Bosnia and Herzegovina came messages of strength, often humour, and most of all hope that evil would be defeated.

Ružičić died on this day, 2 February 1993. He was just one in a series of journalists killed on duty: Kjašif Smajlović, Ivo Šandeker, Salko Hondo (photographer), Saša Lazarević, Karim Zaimović...

There comes a time when we remember them with respect.