The Chairman of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region Aleksandar Cotric was the one who presented Mr Jakovljevic with the award, stressing that the Serbs who have been living on the territory of modern Hungary for centuries are a tie between the two neighbouring countries and have greatly contributed to Hungary’s decision to strongly support Serbia on its road to European integration. The number of Serbs between the two latest censuses has grown by almost seven thousand, an achievement helped by the media of the Self-Government of Serbs in Hungary, the Serbian Weekly Newspaper, which contributed to the awakening and development of the dormant Serbian national consciousness in Hungary, said Cotric. He stressed that Dragan Jakovljevic had moulded the Serbian Weekly into an informative media reporting on the work of the Self-Government of Serbs in Hungary and other Serbian organisations, the Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian Grammar School Nikola Tesla in Budapest, and as a medium offering useful advice, service information, which educates, informs about the past and connects the people on the two sides of the border.
Dragan Jakovljevic thanked everybody for the award saying that it inspires him and the entire Serbian community in the northern neighbouring country, and that knowing that they have the support of the motherland, especially its supreme legislative body, is very encouraging.
The Serbian Weekly Newspaper has been published under their current name for five years now, since 7 May 2009, as the successor to the Serbian People’s Newspaper launched in 1991.
Dragan Jakovljevic was born Kragujevac, and has for many a year been living and working in Budapest. He was the correspondent of FONET news agency. He cooperates with the Serbian language radio in Hungary and the RTS diaspora news desk and is the author of a column on the B92 website. He has published a number of books and is the member of the Association of Writers of Serbia and the Journalists’ Association of Serbia.