Die Pressefreiheit auf dem Prüfstand  - Für das Projekt voiceofthebalcans.com haben Journalisten aus Deutschland, Frankreich, Serbien, Bosnien-Herzegowina und Montegnegro die Pressefreiheit untersucht. Ich war mit meiner Gruppe in der serbischen Hauptstadt Belgrad, wo wir unter anderem den Illustrator Bob Zivkovic getroffen haben.

by Anke Werner, Saša Grujović, Aldijana Imamovic

Belgrade, the capital of Serbia is the land of rich history, great basketball, questionable media , and great comics. Few years ago the most respected US magazine about comic books, The Comics Journal, wrote that "Belgrade is definitely the comic strip centre of Eastern Europe".

There we met Dobrosav "Bob" Živković. He was born in 1962 in Pirot in Serbia and as a little child he started painting drawings. Today, he lives in Belgrade and is the illustrator of more than hundred books, who were translated into over 40 languages. We talked with him about the media situation in Serbia, but first, get to know Bob by a drawing:

We met Bob in a little vegetarian café in the center of the city. Get to know Bob and watch here the "Making of" his personal painting:

Like with a lot of other people in Belgrade we talked to Bob about media freedom. Here is it how he sees the situation of journalists in Serbia:

Don't forget to hear what Bob says about it...

When it comes to media freedom, Bob thinks that illustration has a certain power. The last painting he did for us is:

Watch another "Making of" of media freedom in Bob-Balkan-style:

For Bob drawings and words are just different techniques of informing. But with a different outcome:

Serbian illustrator Corax ruined Milosević. Marko Somborac is the first one talking about things that need to be said, braver and stronger than any journalist. There is no journalist who can do it better. It's boring for me to read text on 3 pages. Man, do it in 3 boxes and he is smarter, better, more simple. He says it with drawing. Bob Živković

More about Bob on his website.