By Milos Djorelijevski ,
13:45,
Monday, 02 June 2008
Beta
The Argus Project is about fighting corruption and organized crime in Serbia. It is being present through an interactive website (www.portalargus.org) intended for everybody who believes that these negative social phenomena are conducive to the isolation of Serbia and pose an obstacle to the development of civil society.
Argus is an endeavor of the Beta News Agency funded by a donation from the European Agency for Reconstruction with the aim of encouraging professional media development in Serbia. The EU is backing the project via the Media Fund and the Support to Professional Media Development Program, managed by the EAR and implemented by Press Now. The Argus website does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. The Beta News Agency takes full responsibility for all information available on the website.
The site features news from Serbia, the Balkans, and throughout the world on combating corruption and organized crime, analytical and in- depth articles addressing these problems, interviews, opinion pieces, and editorials by experts. The interviews and articles, three each month, will be posted in both Serbian and English. In the blog section, public personalities known for their activities against corruption and organized crime, will present their views.
The Argus website also offers an archive featuring several hundred news reports and articles related to corruption and organized crime, as well as the efforts of non-government organization and institutions involved in dealing with these problems. In addition, there is a selection of laws, both from Serbia and the Balkan countries.
The trial of a criminal group accused of cigarette smuggling during the 1990's and headed by one of the wealthiest individuals in the region, Stanko "Cane" Subotic, began on May 19 before Belgrade's Special Court. (0)
So far, the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg has passed 17 verdicts against the Serbian state, resulting in somewhat over EUR71,000 being paid out to citizens from the state budget. (0)
In theory, non-government organizations and the media are supposed to be a major driving force in the fight against corruption by directing attention to crooked officials, among other things. In reality, however, Serbian media outlets mostly do nothing more than carry reports on corruption that has already been discovered, while doing nothing in the way of analysis and investigative journalism. (0)
