Published: on 29.4.2025

Last weekend, on 25 and 26 April 2025, several members of the editorial staff took part in the 31st edition of the nationwide journalism competition in Zvolen. This year, 64 high school and college magazines, 15 online projects and 65 male and female journalists entered the Stúr's Pen competition.

 

They write openly about the aspects that young people experience

In the category of university magazines, the jury this year evaluated eight periodicals across a variety of disciplines - from pharmacists to students of medicine, veterinary medicine or chemical and food technology to journalists from Bratislava, Ružomberok, Nitra and Trnava.

Our atteliér won the Golden Štúr Pen. "This year we evaluated it as the best university magazine thanks to its eye-catching graphics, good selection of topics, which the editorial staff processes into several genres. The journalists in it write openly about aspects that young people are currently dealing with and experiencing," the jury explained. It was made up of Jozef Bednár, Gabriela Kajtárová and Katarína Sabová.

The quality is equal to that of professional media

However, the magazine does not only have a print edition, our students and students capitalize on their knowledge and skills on various platforms. Atteliér also has a high-quality website and, in addition to written texts, is conceptually dedicated to the creation of podcasts. Both platforms, the website and the podcasts, were evaluated as the best by the jury consisting of Filip Struhárik, Eva Frantová and Tomáš Ulej.

In the category of online journalism, the projects atteliér.sk and Podcastt won first place. "Both of them are the best university media in Slovakia in the long term and their quality is equal to that of professional media," said the evaluators.

Last year, our magazine also won several awards and the finalists of the competition met with the then President Zuzana Čaputová. In a post on her social network, she stated that there is no free media without democracy and democracy cannot function without free media, writes teraz.sk. According to her, journalistic work contributes to Slovakia remaining a free and democratic state.

Sexism in the game business and a grandmother with Alzheimer's

In the category of journalistic contributions by university students, the atteliér is also represented. The third place went to Branislav Fábry, a third-year student in the Mass Media Communication programme, and the Literary Fund prize to Natália Vencelová, a second-year student in the same programme.

"I submitted two entries with a play theme. One dealt with the problems of the Slovak gaming industry, the other with sexism among gamers. The jury was intrigued by the fact that a man wrote about a feminist topic," Branislav told us. The jury appreciated that the author was able to handle global topics from the gaming business in his texts on a level, which he looked at through the lens of his former or current classmates and local employers.

Natália earned the jury's appreciation for her extremely honest text about living with her grandmother diagnosed with Alzheimer's, which she wrote without self-censorship or embellishment. " We also specially appreciate her determination to overcome her introversion in everyday situations, which she also described in her entry," the jury reasoned.

In addition to the collective award for the magazine, Júlia Ďurčeková, editor-in-chief of Atteliér, also received the TV Markíza Award, which is a summer internship with senior editors at the television station. The award was presented by reporter Gabriela Kajtárová.

Both TV Markíza and STVR covered the Štúrovo pero competition over the weekend. The complete results are available on the website of the Volen Library, which is the organizer of the competition.

We congratulate all the awarded students, as well as the teachers who prepare them for journalistic practice, and wish them much further success in journalism.