23.01.2009.

130 years of miitary press marked

On Friday, 23rd January a ceremony celebrating 130 years of ODBRANA magazine and 24 January, the Day of ODBRANA magazine, was held in the House of Guards in Topcider. The ODBRANA magazine chersihes the traditions of “Ratnik” military paper established in 1879 by Minister of the Army Jovan Miskovic. The ceremony was attended by Defense Miknister Dragan Sutanovac, The Acting Chief of SAF LTG Miloje Miletic, the top management of MoD and numeorus guests from cultural and public life as well as media representatives.

Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac on this occasion stated that Jovan Miskovic would be very pleased if he could se how successful ODBRANA magazine was in preserving the tradition he set up.

- - Not only have we managed to preserve the magazine, but we have alos managed to develop a new form of communication which keeps abreats with the new technological society. “Odbrana represents our wish to communicate with the memebrs of the army and the public. I believe that we have successfully presnted Odbrana as one of the most renowned magazines dealing with the defense system.

He reminded that there had always been many of those who took every opportunity to point out the problems and not the achievements and did not seek solutions while the new management, as Sutanovac added, was offering solutions with the support of Odbrana magazine.

Minister highlighted that this was a crucial tool for restoring the reputation SAF once had before the civil wars in the Former Yugoslavia. The Minister said that he would continue to insist on the media attention and support garnered through Odbrana magazine.

The number of visits to our website has reached a quota of 4000 hits a day which makes over a million and a half hits a year, and no ministry or a state institution has achieved anything similar.

The Chief of the Public Relations Department Navy Captain Petar Boskovic siad that these magazines dealing with the military cherish a long standing tradition and have a continutiy. He stated that the reputation of Odbrana magazine can be seen in the number of citations in other media. Boskovic said that the desk of Odbrana magazine would continue to work on promoting the activities in the defense system.

Furthermore, this was an occasion to award the “Ivan Markovic” award for best media coverage of the defense system to Sandra Manidc, the reporter from B92 channel, for a TV show “Women in the army” broadcast as part of the B92 series “B92 investigates”.
The best journalist of Odbrana magazine is Radenko Mutavdzic, deputy editor-in-chief, while the retired General Milosav Djordjevic, was proclaimed as the best contributor to the magazine.

The traditional “Best SAF athlete of the year” award went to Liutenant Sasa Petrovic , member of the Special Brigade, state champion in shooting. The best team are “Nebeske vidre”.

Special award for a special contribution to the development of military sports went to General Vidosav Kovacevic, the Head of the Military Academy. The second special award went to Warrant Officer Goran Todorovic, the recorder in parachute jump among paraplegics.

Lt. Col. Slavoljub Markovic, the Director and the editor-in-chief, presented the acknowledgments to units and institutions Odbrana magazine cooperated with.

The following units, institutions and companies were acknowledged: Air Force Command, the Military Museum, The Center for Military Documentation and Library Activities, 64th logistics battalion, Military Movie Making center Zastava film, Stanislav Binicki ensemble and NNS System company.

Answering the question of the reporters regarding the meeting with his Iraqi colleague, Minister Sutanovac said that one of the main goals of his visit was to make sure that all the clauses in the contract signed between our defense industry and Iraq were being fulfilled. Sutanovac also conveyed the good impressions of his Iraqi colleagues regaridng this contract. The Minister of Defense of Iraq said that soon the Iraqi Government would take over the control over the whiole territory of Iraq and that for the economic growth of the country, it would be good to have strong security ties.

Future cooperation would be based, as Sutanovac said, on the areas of defense and the interior affairs, as wel as on the infrastructure of projects. He expects the Prime Minister of Iraq to soon come and visit the Serbian PM Mirko Cvetkovic.

As to the relations between NATO and Serbia, minister said that the contacts at the level of Chiefs of Forces had been discontinued 6 months ago, and the Ministry hd tried to point out that this could cause a big problem in the public and international relations. He reminded that the Presidet of Serbia Boris Tadic had already announced the possibility of increasing the number of troops due to the current situation in the region and Kosovo, which is recognized as a challenge and even as a risk. Kosovo lacks, as Sutanovac stated, strong crime police which would portect the safety of all citizens, while Kosovo is by no means endangered from the outside. The process of cancelling the Ground Safety Zone had nothing to do with the current situation.

As for the future Chief of General Staff, Minister said that our army had several good generals who could readily assume this responsible function and that he was waiting for the President’s decision with regards to this issue. He also added that he was pleased with the current relations in the defense system.

As for the possibility that a woman be appointed as Defense Minister, Sutanovac said that considered this to be a very normal thing as there are ladies who are very apt at managing large systems.