From: news@cc.swarthmore.edu (USENET News System)
Subject: YUGOMEDIAWAR: THE CASE FOR V.O.A.?
Originator: vuksan@ginger
Organization: Swarthmore College
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 01:46:58 GMT

****************************************************
The following text has been written by:
Ivo Skoric, 103 St Marks pl, New York, NY 10009, USA
telephone:(212) 995-5601 e-mail: iskoric@igc.apc.org
****************************************************

@6 YUGOWAR: A WAR BETWEEN TV NETWORKS; THE CASE FOR V.O.A.?
 
There is a consensus that media war in former Yugoslavia preceded
and in great deal procured the real war. One of the achieved goals
of the war is a total breakdown of the direct communication between
the warring sides. There are no roads, no trains, no telephone or
fax lines, no airlines, no mail between Croatia and Serbia. One
can't listen to Croatian radio or watch the Croatian television in
Serbia. One can't listen to Serbian radio or watch the Serbian
television in Croatia. Rare newspapers and magazines somehow find
their way between two sides, but are read mostly by marginal
intellectuals (that are far, far away from centers of power).
Croatian and Serbian governments hold an iron grip on their
respective media. So, the only truth a Croat will learn about the
Serbs is the "truth" Croatian government wants to say; and the only
truth a Serb will learn about the Croats is the "truth" Serbian
government wants him to know. Essentially, this is an
implementation of the idea from Orwell's "1984" nine years later.
School books are rewritten, histories are rewritten...
Everything is done by the book. And, ah, of course, war will never
end. Orwell would be very proud.
 
"The people of Serbia and Croatia desperately need dispassionate
news. Independent journalists whose voices are now being silenced
could provide it if the U.S. and its allies help extend the reach
of the few remaining objective television and radio stations, or
set up new ones offshore to broadcast news throughout the former
Yugoslavia." - said the editorial in the New York Times on November
7, 1992. The same idea was later repeated in the other U.S. media.
Nobody mentioned that THERE ARE offshore stations able to broadcast
news throughout the former Yugoslavia, and they are U.S. owned.
What I am asking is WHY they were not put to a better use?
 
I am not talking here about CNN. CNN is a global program in
English, and anybody who is rich enough to have a satelite dish in
former Yugoslavia knews English and gets his news from CNN. That's
about 0,1% of people. But, most of the other 99,9% of people can
afford a small shortwave radio to listen programs in Serbian,
Croatian, Bosnian, Slovenian, Macedonian and Albanian languages
broadcasted over the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. Those
radio-stations were made to spread the propaganda of American
government to Eastern Europe, and now, after cold war is over -
they should either be shut down, or put to some new uses. To
provide the people of former Yugoslavia with the nonpartisan
dispassionate objective news would be an extremely good use for
those stations, IF the American government is really committed to
peace in former Yugoslavia as it repeatedly says.
 
The problem is that VOA and RFE produce dull old-fashioned radio
program that only people, who came off their productive age long
time ago, listen to. Guys in trenches all over former Yugoslavia
probably never heard for VOA - as VOA probably never heard of the
word D.J. Ironically, VOA, which is supposed to be a propaganda for
the American culture, sounds more like the program is done by
Moscow's aparatchiks.
 
Some people in Croatian opposition tried to establish an
independent radio station - Radio Free Rijeka. Project is supported
by Council of Europe, but Croatian government (FCC counterpart
institution) does not approve frequency. Branko Horvat, an
economist who headed an Initiative for Democratic Yugoslavia
(untill such an initiative became obsolete), argues that such a
project would only be viable under some sort of international
institutional protection. Everybody agrees and supports, nobody
HELPS, nobody DOES anything.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia,soc.culture.croatia,alt.society.revolution,alt.politics.europe.misc,soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna