Coinciding with the World Press Freedom Day, celebrated on May 3, the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) on Monday presented their annual awards for 2020 on Tuesday. Reporter Ivan Pandzic of the 24 sata daily newspaper won the Journalist of the Year Award, while N1 television's Ana Mlinaric won the Television Journalism Award.

Mlinaric won the award for “calm and professional” live reporting from St. Mark’s Square in Zagreb – the location of both the government and parliament buildings – in October, in the aftermath of a shooting in which a policeman had been wounded. She had also reported live from the town of Petrinja in December when a devastating earthquake which killed six hit the area.

After receiving the award, she thanked everyone for their dedicated teamwork.

“It’s especially nice when the profession rates your work as the best in the past year. We were initially surprised by the situation we were in, but that’s something that doesn’t leave you much room to think… I’m very pleased to get this, this award came for reporting live in an extraordinary situation. It’s a huge honor,” Mlinaric told the gathering.

Five other awards were handed out for stellar achievements in various genres, including radio, text, web, news photography, and investigative journalism.

The award for investigative journalism – and the overall Journalist of the Year award – went to Ivan Pandzic of the 24 Sata daily, for penning a series of articles on the so-called Janaf Affair which revolved around the CEO of state-owned oil pipeline Janaf, Dragan Kovacevic, and his private club which he ran during the coronavirus restrictions. In 2020 Pandzic also wrote about the fallen soccer moguls Mamic brothers, and other high-profile corruption scandals.