Danube for Peace Cities

Liaison is Ms. Sonja Romic Svec

Liaison is Ms. Sana Basic

the liaison will be Ms Nevena Brdaric

Liaison is Mr, Srdjan Peric

Liaison is Mr. Miomir Rajcevic

Mr. Rajcevic is also the coordinator of the multiple cities in Serbia establishing as International Cities of Peace.

   

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Email: brdaricnevenaa@gmail.com

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Darko Kovacevic:  darko.kovacevic@gmail.com

Bojana Juric: juricb985@gmail.com

Born 1974. in Subotica. Finished Gymnasium, studied informatics. Married, two kids. Lives and works as freelance writer, multimedialist, administrator, editor and winemaker. Books: „Njena tranzicija“ (Her Transition) (VBZ, 2008), „Vodič za lutanje kroz praistoriju, istoriju, prošlost, sadšanjost i budućnost Subotice“ (Guide for Wandering Through Prehistory, History, Past, Present and Future of Subotica) (Elektrika/NOAH, 2013), „Bratstvo gnevnih – roman o neodrastanju“ (Brotherhood of Wrath – A Novel About Not Growing Up) (NOAH , 2018), „Anatomija rakije“ (Anatomy of Spirit) (NOAH, 2020). Some movies: „Nevidljiva nacija“ (Invisible Nation), „Ulica Marka Oreškovića“ (Marko Orešković Street), „Zvuk ptica“ (Sound of Birds). Work on Subotica.info, local news and photography site established 2000 by Nikola Tumbas. Site archive has over 40,000 articles with more than half-million photos about places, faces and happenings in Subotica. Events at subotica.info are logged with text, photo gallery and (sometimes) audio and video, which is closest to the „true“ (no biased) picture. Tag system connects articles into related stories, which makes easier to browse through the history of some event, company or person. Subotica.info mostly covers issues of ecology, infrastructure, life and culture of major and minor ethnic groups in Subotica. The site helps and collaborates with other journalists from Subotica (both members of UNS and NUNS) with its photo/video sources and resourceful archive.

Bojana is a photographer, pacifist, humanist, country lover and organic gardener (beginner). Master degree in tourism. Member of Rotaract club Subotica since 2009. Working in printing company Cikos Stampa d.o.o. on procurement officer position.

A consensus on media and information literacy (MIL) as the impetus for addressing numerous contemporary challenges was reached among all key government ministries in Serbia. Their strong commitment to MIL development was demonstrated at UNESCO and European Commission-supported National Consultations on MIL policies and strategies, held in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade on 9 March.

“In the development of new Media Strategy, Ministry of Culture and Information will devote specific attention to further institutional development of media literacy,” said Nino Brajovic, State Secretary for information and media in the Ministry of Culture and Information in Serbia. He added that MIL is “one of the conditions for the enhancement of culture of information and dialogue in a society”.

Road map for MIL in Serbia
Consultations were led by Media Education Center (MEC), Ministry of Youth and Sport, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Ministry of Culture and Information, with support with the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Commission of the Republic of Serbia for UNESCO. The multi-stakeholder event discussed opportunities and gaps of national MIL policies and strategies.

Specific recommendations and a roadmap for MIL development came out of this meeting.

“In the context of speeches and discussions that came from ministry representatives, we can expect the positive outcome of these consultations in successful development of policy and strategy of MIL in Serbia,” said Miomir Rajcevic, Director of MEC. Throughout the sessions, many different mechanisms were explored for MIL as a key for development of critical thinking. Participants emphasized the current media and information context, challenged with global realities of fake news emerging mainly through social media by different information providers. The assessment of all information is becoming increasingly complicated for all generations.

“We have to educate people in the path towards critical and analytical assessment of information that is transmitted to us, because many things are often not true, or not acceptable for certain age groups. In that sense, we concluded at the consultations that IT education in schools must have a segment of media literacy,” said Mr Brajovic, from the Ministry of Culture and Information.

The discussion also highlighted the importance of citizen participation in MIL. Specifically, this was explored through the role of the Coalition of Information and Media Users in South East Europe (CIMU SEE), led by South East European Network of Professionalization of Media (link is external) (SEENPM). CIMU SEE is one component of the European Commission and UNESCO supported project “Building Trust in Media in South East Europe and Turkey”.
Sustainable public policies as foundation for MIL

National consultations are one of several important steps in the roadmap for MIL development in Serbia. Policy and strategy recommendations from the national consultations will be assembled jointly with cooperating ministries and reflected in the Position Paper.
“Policies are the foundation for MIL development. They are needed across the society. The public support for MIL needs to be articulated through strategic decisions grounded in specific policy solutions. They are needed at the national level, led by government and with multi-stakeholder participation,” concluded Alton Grizzle, UNESCO’s Programme Specialist, with direct responsibility for MIL.

 

To contact or support this initiative:

miomir.rajcevic@mediaeducationcentre.eu

Miomir Rajčević

 

The first historical record about the city is from 1340. The city was administered by the Kingdom of Hungary until the 16th century, when it became part of the Ottoman Empire. During the establishment of Ottoman authority, local Hungarian population left from this region. During the Ottoman administration, the city was populated mostly by ethnic Serbs. It was called “Sonbor” during Ottoman administration and was a “kaza centre” in Sanjak of Segedin at first in Budin Province till 1596, and then in Eğri Province between 1596 and 1687.

In 1665, a well-known traveller, Evlia Celebi, visited Sombor and wrote: “All the folk (in the city) are not Hungarian, but Wallachian-Christian (Serb). These places are something special; they do not belong to Hungary but are a part of Backa and Wallachia. Most of the inhabitants are traders, and all of them wear frontiersmen clothes; they are very polite and brave people.” According to Celebi, the city had 200 shops, 14 mosques and about 2,000 houses.

According to the 1843 data, Sombor had 21,086 inhabitants, of whom 11,897 were Orthodox Christians, 9,082 Roman Catholics, 56 Jewish, and 51 Protestants. The main language spoken in the city at this time was Serbian, and the second largest language was German. In 1848/1849, Sombor was part of the Serbian Vojvodina, a Serb autonomous region within Austrian Empire, while between 1849 and 1860, it was part of the Voivodeship of Serbia and Times Banat, a separate Austrian crown land.

According to the 1910 census, the population of Sombor was 30,593 people, of whom 11,881 spoke the Serbian language, 10,078 spoke the Hungarian language, 6,289 spoke the Bunjevac language, 2,181 spoke the German language.

In 1918, Sombor became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). Between 1918 and 1922 it was part of Backa County and between 1929 and 1941 part of Danube Banovina. Since 1944, Sombor was part of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina of the new Socialist Yugoslavia and (since 1945) socialist Serbia. Today, Sombor is the seat of the West Backa District of Vojvodina, Serbia

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Stari Becej is a town and municipality located in the South Backa District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The town has a population of 25,000, while the municipality has 37,000 inhabitants. It is a multiethnic town, predominantly inhabited by Serbs and Hungarians.

The town was mentioned first during the administration of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1091 under Latin name Bechey and later in 1238 under Hungarian name Becse. Name probably originated from Bechey family that had possessions in this area. In the 15th century (from 1419 to 1441) the town was a possession of the Serbian despot Djuradj Brankovic. In the end of the 15th century, army of the Kingdom of Hungary led by Serbian despot Vuk Grgurevic defeated the Ottoman army near Becej. In 1551, an Ottoman army led by Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic conquered the town. Becej was administered by the Ottomans between 1551 and 1687 (nominally to 1699) and was part of the Sanjak of Segedin.

In the end of the 17th century the Ottoman administration was replaced by Habsburg one and settlement was populated by ethnic Serbs from Banat who ran away from the Ottoman Empire. Between 1702 and 1751, the town belonged to the Tisza-Maros section of the Habsburg Military Frontier. After the abolishment of this part of the Frontier in 1751, many Serbs that lived in the town emigrated to Russia (notably to New Serbia and Slavo-Serbia). They founded a new settlement with name Becej in New Serbia.

First Serb elementary school in Becej was opened in 1703 and it is one of the oldest schools in Vojvodina as well as the first elementary school among Serbs. Hungarian elementary school was opened in Becej in 1765, while Jewish elementary school was opened in 1882.

Since 1918, Becej was part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and subsequent South Slavic states. Today, Becej is town in Serbia.

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The area of Novi Sad was inhabited since the distant past – the found remains of old settlements date back to the Neolithic period (5000 BCE). Before the middle ages, the region was inhabited by different tribes, including Celts, Romans, and Huns. Slavic tribes (including Serbs) settled the region around Novi Sad mainly in the 6th and 7th century. The region was under the medieval Kingdom of Hungary in the 11th and 12th century and afterwards under the Ottomans from 1526 until 1687, when Habsburg Monarchy took over the control.

The settlement was declared a “free royal city” by the Habsburg empress Maria Theresa in 1748, and it gained its present names Novi Sad, Újvidék, and Neoplanta, meaning “new plantation” in Serbian, Hungarian, and Latin, respectively. For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, this was the largest Serb-inhabited city in the world, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of World War I in 1918, when it became part of Kingdom of Serbia. During World War II, it was under Hungarian occupation.

After the World War II, the city went through rapid industrialization and its population more than doubled in the period between World War II and the breakup of Yugoslavia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Devastated by bombardment that lasted 78 days during the Kosovo War of 1999, Novi Sad was left without any of its three Danube bridges, and with significant damage to its infrastructure including communications, water, and electricity. Residential areas were cluster-bombed several times while its oil refinery was bombarded daily.

Novi Sad has mostly recovered from the 1990s and it has grown strongly since 2001, shifting its economy from industry-driven to the tertiary sector. It is home of the national headquarters of numerous banks, third largest insurance company in Serbia, and major energy companies. Novi Sad is also a growing information technology center in Serbia.

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Veliko Gradiste, SERBIA

In the foothills of the Carpathian and Homolje Mountains at the confluence of the blue Danube and the gold-bearing Pek, lies Veliko Gradiste. It is, above all, a beautiful little town with wide streets, and multitude of flower gardens, always green lawns and nicely arranged terraces. With its beautiful Danube quay and the old bazaar, it is a feast for the eyes and a balm for the soul, and the Silver Lake with its wood of white acacias is a health factory. At a distance of 114 km from Belgrade, Veliko Gradiste lies on the Iron Gate road, and as Veliko Gradiste’s territory starts in Ram, this area is called the entrance to the Djerdap gorge.

GRADISTE! The legend says that a long time ago a cart loaded with various goods arrived in town. Asked whether he really had to come every day, the trader laconically answered “I have to, this a big town requires. That’s how the town got its name. It has a nice entrance, clean streets, an old bazaar preserved from Turkish times, a well-stocked market, a beautiful spacious square, a centennial park with monuments to the soldiers of World Wars I and II and a monument to Vlastimir Pavlovic Carevic, a beautiful paved esplanade from the town to the Silver Lake, beaches on the Danube and the Pek. The beautiful town center – Grain Square with the district office (municipal building), the library which harbors a permanent exhibition of sculptures by Milan Besarabic, and the high school. And above all a rich cultural and entertainment life from May until September.

It has been reported that, in ancient times, navigating the Danube in search of the Golden Fleece, the Argonauts and their legendary Odysseus passed by Ram reaching the magical place where the blue and silvery reflection of the Danube mixes with the gold of Homolje. Here they stopped, enchanted by the beauty of the Danubian Nymphs. And precisely here, at the estuary itself of the Pek, the so much sought-after golden fleece was located.

Times passed and the Romans built their fortress Pincum here, an important stopping place on the imperial road. The Roman emperor Hadrian rewarded it with special money that was minted here. Here the Turks as well had their own castle. And so, for centuries, this town, appealing to all, was the venue of numerous nations and their cultures, reminding everybody that here the Danube shines like silver

Subotica was, for the first time, mentioned in written documents in 1391 as Zabatka. Since then it has changed more than 200 names. The most characteristic names were: Szent-Maria, Maria Theresiopolis, Maria Theresienstadt, Szabadka and Subotica. It became a settlement of greater significance after the Tatar conquests at the beginning of the 13th century. Then, those who had survived from the nearby villages were brought together at the strategically chosen place, the elevation then surrounded by water, on which the Franciscan church stands today. It was the ideal place for the people of the plain to defend themselves against the conquerors. For a long time, at the border of the two clashed powers, Hungarian and Turkish, the settlement did not grow. Subotica began to develop as a town only after it had lost its military significance.

In 1779 Subotica got the status of the Free Royal City that brought greater autonomy and privileges to the town and also attracted entrepreneurs: craftsmen and traders from Middle Europe. In the second half of the 19th century, after the railway came to the town (1869), the trade of agricultural and cattle products abruptly developed. The industrialization came into the town at the end of the 19th century. Subotica became a modern Middle European city.

After the WW I, Vojvodina provinces were united with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians (Treaty of Trianon in 1920) and in 1929 Subotica was affiliated to the new state, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Since then Subotica has not changed its name but the country has – five times. During WW II, Subotica shared the ill-fate as the rest of Europe. Reconstruction of the country and economic growth followed until the turbulent times in the 90s.