{{Short description|Serbian investigative journalist}} {{Infobox person | name = Brankica Stanković | native_name = Бранкица Станковић | native_name_lang = sr | image = Brankica Stanković.jpg | image_size = 250px | alt = Brankica Stanković | caption = {{small|Stanković at the 2009 Jug Grizelj Award ceremony in January 2010.}} | birth_date = {{birth-date and age|October 1975}} | birth_place = Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) --> | death_place = | death_cause = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = Journalist | years_active = 1996—present | employer = B92 | known_for = ''Insajder'' }} '''Brankica Stanković''' ({{lang-sr-cyr|Бранкица Станковић}}; born October 1975) is a prominent Serbian investigative journalist reporting on topics of crime and political corruption 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jutarnji.hr/svakog-dana-cekam-osvetu-mafije--i-kcer-sam-rodila-uz-zastitu-policije-/1134101|title=EKSKLUZIVNO Brankica Stanković govorila je dok je Srbija šutjela... I zato je već 1416 dana pod policijskom zaštitom (''"Exclusive: Brankica Srankovic Spoke While Serbia Was Quiet... and That Is Why She's Been Under Police Protection for 1416 Days"'')|date=20 October 2013|website=jutarnji.hr|publisher=Jutarnji list|access-date=19 December 2013|language=Croatian}}</ref>
==Early career== Stanković was born in Belgrade, Serbia (then SFR Yugoslavia) in October 1975.<ref name="B92 profil">[http://www.b92.net/lica/bio.php?nav_id=211519 Brankica Stanković] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511154821/http://www.b92.net/lica/bio.php?nav_id=211519 |date=2018-05-11 }} profile on B92 official site</ref> After high school graduation, she enrolled a private acting school, but quit after two years.<ref name="B92 profil"/> She began her career as a journalist for radio and television company RTV Studio B in 1996, where she spent a year.<ref name="B92 profil"/> In 1997, she switched to Radio B92, where she has been working ever since.<ref name="B92 profil"/> During the 1990s, B92 was a prominent pro-democracy news broadcasting company, opposed to the corrupt regime of then-president Slobodan Milošević.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0-Dd1-Rg4bUC&pg=PA90 |last=Mitchell|first=Laurence|title= Serbia 4, Bradt Travel Guide Series|access-date=8 October 2013|year=2013|publisher=Bradt Travel Guides|location=Chalfont St Peter, England|isbn=9781841624631|page=90}}</ref> 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''.<ref name="B92 profil"/> She also worked as a foreign correspondent for Sveriges Radio and German Westdeutscher Rundfunk.<ref name="B92 profil"/>
==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 political corruption 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).<ref name="archives">[http://www.b92.net/insajder/arhiva/ Insajder archives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708231930/http://www.b92.net/insajder/arhiva/ |date=2019-07-08 }} on B92 official site. Retrieved 8 October 2013.</ref> The first season of ''Insajder'' was about the political aspects of the assassination of Zoran Đinđić.<ref name="novosti">{{cite web|url=http://www.novossti.com/2009/12/brankica-stankovic-novinarka|title=Brankica Stanković, novinarka ("Brankica Stanković, journalist")|last1=Munjin|first1=Bojan|date=31 December 2009|website=novossti.com|publisher=Samostalni srpski tjednik/nedeljnik Novosti|access-date=8 October 2013|language=Serbian}}</ref> 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 Dragan Jočić. Later episodes investigated such topics as: the Customs Mafia case, high-profile cigarette smuggling, and secret transfers of state money to Cyprus.<ref name="novosti"/> This led to the arrest of former Director of Customs Bureau Mihalj Kertes.<ref name="novosti"/> Other episodes investigated corruption in RB Kolubara, links between politicians and football hooligans and other extremist groups, corruption with privatization of state-owned companies, corruption in RTB Bor<ref name="B92 profil"/> and many other major cases of political corruption and crime.<ref name="archives"/>
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.<ref name="enovine">{{cite web|url=http://www.e-novine.com/srbija/vesti/32948-Pretnje-smru-Brankici-Stankovi.html|title=Pretnje smrću Brankici Stanković (''Death Threats to Brankica Stanković'')|date=17 December 2009|website=e-novine.com|access-date=19 December 2013|language=Serbian}}</ref><ref name="b92doll">{{cite web|url=http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2009&mm=12&dd=17&nav_id=398913|title=Navijači "Alkatraza" prete smrću (''"Alcatraz" Fans Make Death Treats'')|date=17 December 2009|website=b92.net|publisher=B92|access-date=19 December 2013|language=Serbian}}</ref> The most infamous incident occurred on 16 December 2009 during the UEFA Europa League football game between FK Partizan and FC Shakhtar Donetsk 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",<ref name="novosti"/> referring to the death of Slavko Ćuruvija,<ref name="b92doll"/> another prominent investigative journalist who was assassinated in 1999. Belgrade's appellate court sentenced three hooligans to suspended sentences of 10 to 12 months in October 2013 for making death treats to Stanković.<ref name="rtssentence">{{cite web|url=https://www.rts.rs/page/stories/ci/story/134/%D0%A5%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0/1412330/%D0%A3%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B5+%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B5+%D0%B7%D0%B0+%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%9A%D0%B5+%D0%91%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B8+%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B.html|title=Условне казне за претње Бранкици Станковић (''Suspended Sentences for Threats to Brankica Stanković'')|date=8 October 2013|website=rts.rs|publisher=Radio Television of Serbia|access-date=19 December 2013|language=Serbian}}</ref> Miloš Radosavljević Kimi, the leader of the "Alkatraz" hooligan group was separately sentenced to 16 months in prison in 2010.<ref name="b92kimi">{{cite web|url=http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2010&mm=08&dd=04&nav_id=449762|title=Prva presuda zbog pretnji Brankici (''First Sentence for Treats to Brankica'')|date=4 August 2010|website=b92.net|access-date=19 December 2013|language=Serbian}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.slobodna-bosna.ba/vijest/1320/hrabro_lice_srpskog_novinarstva_16_mjeseci_zatvora_za_prijetnje_brankici_stankovic.html|title=HRABRO LICE SRPSKOG NOVINARSTVA: 16 mjeseci zatvora za prijetnje Brankici Stanković (''THE BRAVE HEART OF SERBIAN JOURNALISM: 16 Months in Prison for Threats to Brankica Stanković'')|date=13 June 2012|website=slobodna-bosna.ba|access-date=19 December 2013|language=Bosnian}}</ref>
In 2013, B92 published Stanković's autobiographic book titled ''"Insajder: My Story"''. ({{langx|sr|"Insajder, moja priča"}}).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.b92.net/kultura/vesti.php?nav_category=272&yyyy=2013&mm=10&dd=03&nav_id=760994|title=Brankica Stanković: "Insajder, moja priča"|date=3 October 2013|website=b92.net|access-date=19 December 2013|language=Serbian}}</ref> In 2014, she was awarded the Courage in Journalism Award given by International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF).<ref>{{cite web|title=2014 Awardees|publisher=IWMF|url=http://www.iwmf.org/category/2014-awardees|access-date=30 June 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529074756/http://www.iwmf.org/category/2014-awardees/|archive-date=29 May 2014}}</ref>
==Insajder.net== In 2016, Stanković quit job at B92 in order to launch her own news production company and investigative internet portal Insajder.net.<ref name="mondo-portal">{{cite web | url=https://mondo.rs/Info/Drustvo/a881827/Pocinje-da-radi-portal-Insajder.net-Brankice-Stankovic.html | title=Počinje da radi portal Brankice Stanković | publisher=Mondo | date=6 March 2016 | access-date=5 May 2020 | trans-title=Brankica Stankovic portal starts operating}}</ref><ref name="blic-portal">{{cite web | url=https://www.blic.rs/vesti/drustvo/brankica-stankovic-pokrecem-svoj-internet-portal/qfx3k3r | title=Brankica Stanković: Pokrećem svoj internet portal | publisher=Blic | date=14 October 2015 | access-date=5 May 2020 | trans-title=Brankica Stankovic: "I am launching my own portal"}}</ref> 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<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/brankica-stankovic-protiv-navijackog-a-za-odgovorno-novinarstvo/27712674.html | title=Brankica Stanković: Protiv navijačkog, a za odgovorno novinarstvo | publisher=Radio Free Europe | date=3 May 2016 | access-date=5 May 2020}}</ref> and TV Prva.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.espreso.rs/vesti/politika/195879/poceo-je-intervju-koji-je-cela-zemlja-cekala-vucic-izasao-na-crtu-brankici-pocelo-je-ostro | title=BRAT MI ISPLAĆUJE STAN U ŠVAJCARCIMA, NIKADA NIŠTA NIJE UKRAO! Vučić izašao na crtu Brankici, ovaj intervju čekala je cela Srbija! | publisher=Espresso | date=3 November 2017 | access-date=5 May 2020}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
{{IWMF awards}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stankovic, Brankica}} Category:Journalists from Belgrade Category:Investigative journalists Category:21st-century Serbian women journalists Category:21st-century Serbian journalists Category:1975 births Category:Serbian television presenters Category:Serbian women television presenters Category:Living people