Ljiljana Smajlović

Ljiljana Smajlović

Ljiljana Smajlović (Serbian Cyrillic: Љиљана Смајловић) (née: Ugrica) (born 22. january 1956. in Sarajevo, Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia) is a Serbian journalist.

Early life

Ljiljana Ugrica was born into a middle class Serbian family from Sarajevo to mother Danica (nurse, and a ranked member of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA)) and father Mirko (member of JNA's civil service). After finishing high school in her hometown followed by a degree at University of Sarajevo's Faculty of Political Sciences, she received a scholarship for additional studies in Cleveland, Ohio, and then in a French lycée in Algeria. During 1972-1973 she travelled as an exchange student to California through a scholarship provided by American Field Service, where she lived with a host American family for about a year, and attended high school.

Career in journalism

Smajlovic's first job was at Sarajevo's Oslobođenje daily where she gradually advanced to the post of political section editor and later Brussels correspondent. In 1992, after the breakout of war in Bosnia, she moved to Belgrade where she got a job at Vreme weekly magazine. In 1994, she received a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and moved to United States for a year, continuing to write for Vreme as a foreign correspondent.

She specialized in international relations topics, developing an esteemed reputation, which led to Slavko Ćuruvija offering her a job as foreign editor at his upstart bi-weekly magazine Evropljanin in 1998.

Following the tragic end to Ćuruvija's life, Evropljanin ceased publication forcing Smajlovic and other journalist to look for work. She got a job at NIN initially as the Hague Tribunal commentator and later as weekly columnist.

In October 2005 Smajlović became editor-in-chief at Politika daily, replacing Milan Mišić. She was the first woman in the esteemed newspaper's century-long history to hold that job.

On January 21, 2006, she wrote an opinion piece for LA Times criticizing both the NATO and the Serbian government for failing to arrest Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, respectively.[1]

Since September 2007, Smajlović is a panelist on the weekly current-events discussion programme called U mnoštvu dokaza on TV Avala.

Her October 2008 firing from the post of Politika's editor-in-chief caused a controversy and allegations of political meddling from the Serbian ruling party DS.

During spring 2009, Smajlović became the president of Serbian Association of Journalists (Udruženje novinara Srbije).

Other endeavours

Smajlovic consulted for International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) Serbia media project. This American NGO focuses on independent media, initiatives for women, support for US scholars, and local alumni programming.

On November 12, 2008, it was announced that she's being considered as a candidate for the position of Serbian ambassador to Canada.^[1] On November 20, 2008, the post was officially assigned to another person.^[2]

Personal

She was married to a man of Bosniak ethnicity with whom she has a son.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ljiljana Smajlović

• IREX in Serbia