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Renate Flottau
reported on the war in the Balkans as a Spiegel magazine editor for many years, gaining particular renown for her "War Diary".
2nd Prize goes to Renate Flottau
The Council of Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig has awarded the 2nd "Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media" 2001 to Belgrade correspondent of SPIEGEL magazine Renate Flottau. The award is endowed with 15,000 deutsche marks.
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| Renate Flottau |
From the jury's decision
Through her work Renate Flottau has illuminated issues which are both alien and distant to most people in Germany. She has aroused sympathy for the fate of Balkan people and accompanied a development that led to the fall of the Serbian regime with strong personal commitment. By her example she showed that the freedom of media lives because of the commitment of those who believe in it - wherever they may live.
The personal risk is the prize she is willing to pay for truth. But this was the only way to accomplish, what only few succeeded in on the Balkans: writing authentic reports nourished by her own opinion and her knowledge of the countries, their people and their suffering.
Biography of Renate Flottau
- born on 29 December, 1944; grew up in Munich
- traineeship at Fränkische Landeszeitung in Nuremberg; after that she worked for several newspapers and magazines including Das deutsche Sonntagsblatt and Stiftung Warentest
- 1979 she moves to Hessischer Rundfunk (Hessian Broadcasting)
- early 1980s: moves to Belgrade
- 1984: her husband Heiko Flottau moves to Cairo, Renate Flottau stays in Belgrade and reports for ZDF (Second German Television)
- 1986: Balkan correspondent of SPIEGEL magazine
- operating an own blog since 2013: Flottau.wordpress.com
- still lives in Belgrade
Select prizes / honors
- 1998: Rudolf-Vogel-Medal of the Southeast European Association
- 1999: 3rd Prize of War Correspondents in Bayeux
- 2000: Egon-Erwin-Kisch-Award for her Kosovo Diary