Pavkov reported extensively on the bad living and working conditions that the Vietnamese nationals were forced to endure. One of the managers at the construction site even tried to intimidate her crew when they were leaving the site one evening.
The UNS presented her the Laza Kostic annual award for the news and report category. A jury said that Pavkov was the first TV journalists to report on the living and working conditions of the Vietnamese workers in the northern city of Zrenjanin and singled out her journalistic ability to get the truth and emotions out of the people she interviews, bringing reactions at home and abroad.
“This was a big surprise for me. I learned that I won the award before I was told that I had been nominated. I can’t say that I’m not very, very happy about this because this was a story that was important to me, not just professionally but also at a personal level and what I see as a huge success is that it had an effect,” Pavkov said. She recalled that she first saw the Vietnamese living quarters in November, adding that the conditions they lived in could be described as those of slaves.
“I couldn’t even guess what would happen over the next few days. Among other things, the story echoed both at home and abroad and in the end it found itself on the agenda of the European Parliament. The most important thing is that at this moment, more than a month after the story broke, those 400 Vietnamese are now living in much better conditions,” Pavkov said.
