Journalist Dejan Anastasijević passes away

BELGRADE, (Patria) - BBC Serbian editor Dejan Anastasijević passed away on Wednesday after a long and serious illness, the weekly "Vreme" announced.

"'Vreme' will forever remember Dejan as one of the most beloved people in the editorial office, as well as a top professional of world rank," the weekly stated on its website, reports the Patria agency.
He was a long-time journalist for the Belgrade weekly "Vreme", the American magazine TIME, and the Tanjug agency from Brussels.

Dejan Anastasijević was born in Belgrade in 1962. He worked for several foreign media houses, and at Radio B92 he edited the cult show "Oblačić u stripu" (A Little Cloud in a Comic Strip).

In October 2002, Anastasijević was the first Serbian journalist to testify before the Hague Tribunal against the former President of Serbia, accused of war crimes, Slobodan Milošević.

In April 2007, a bomb exploded on the window of his apartment. Another bomb, which was also planted, did not explode. This case has not been solved to this day.

He received the Nieman Fellowship for journalism from Harvard University in 2002, two awards from Serbia for journalism (from the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia and the Dušan Bogovac award), as well as the Dutch Oxfam Novib/PEN award for advocating for human rights and freedom of expression in 2008.

The time and place of the memorial service and funeral will be announced later.