Dragan Petrovic
, a long-time Serbian journalist and a long-time
valuable collaborator of the ANSA Agency
, known in his country and also appreciated in Italy for his constant professional commitment, died in Belgrade from the consequences of the coronavirus.
Petrovic, who was 69, passed away yesterday in a Covid hospital in the Serbian capital, where he had been hospitalized since January 5.
Graduated in political science, he had already started working for Radio Belgrade as a student, where he spent most of his activity dealing with foreign policy, especially the Balkans.
Among other things, it followed the dramatic events of the Bucharest uprising which in December 1989 marked the fall of the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu
.
With Radio Belgrade Dragan Petrovic won three editions of the prestigious Ondas Award, considered the Oscar of radio broadcasts in Serbia.
At the beginning of the nineties, in dissent with the editorial policy during the government of Slobodan Milosevic,
Petrovic was forced to leave Radio Belgrade along with most of the other journalists of the station.
Since then he began his long relationship with ANSA, remaining a pillar of the correspondence office in Belgrade for 30 years.
He closely followed the Balkan wars with the disintegration of Yugoslavia and memorable are his testimonies from the Serbian capital under the NATO bombings in spring 1999, which led to the end of the Kosovo war.
Passionate about opera, Dragan Petrovic was in love with Italy, where he returned as soon as he could.