"Don't trust anyone, not even us" was the slogan of Serbia's Radio B92 before police stormed the station and shut it down on April 2, 1999. Considered the last free and independent source for news in and from Yugoslavia, the outspoken rock station was founded by Serbian journalist Veran Matic in 1989 and had survived three other government shut-downs. But this time, with NATO bombs falling outside, Serbian police expelled B92's staff, and set the stage for the Milosevic regime to take over the station, turning the famously anti-war and anti-nationalist broadcaster into yet another official voice.

One possible, and frequently cited, reason for the takeover was a letter by Matic, published in The New York Times and France's Le Monde, protesting NATO's military intervention in Yugoslavia and criticizing the Milosevic government.

The original B92 staffers had already been using the Internet to broadcast their news reports and rock and roll, and they continued to do so after the takeover. Sympathetic stations around the world downloaded the newscasts and rebroadcast them locally. The ongoing battle to "Free B92" has been at the heart of an international campaign to support independent media in Serbia. Veran Matic and the team behind Radio B92 have now regrouped and are now broadcasting in Serbia, and online, under the name B2-92, though they are still fighting to get back the equipment seized in the takeover

Matic, who is the Chairman of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) in Yugoslavia, has been recognized around the world as a leader in the fight for media freedom. In 1993, he received the annual award of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

On February 10, 2000, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj held a press conference during which he accused independent Serbian journalists like Matic of complicity in the recent murder of Yugoslav Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic. Seselj insisted the reporters took money from "the Americans" to kill Bulatovic. During an exchange with a B2-92 reporter, Seselj referred to the independent media as "treacherous," calling the journalists "criminals" and "traitors." (Human Rights Watch has a transcript of the exchange.) Explicit threats in Seselj's remarks (e.g. "the gloves are off") have prompted an outcry from human rights activists and free-press supporters. In response, independent media in Serbia have initiated a boycott against Seselj and the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) he heads.

On Feb. 19, MediaChannel interviewed Veran Matic by e-mail about the state of independent media in Serbia. Do Seselj's threats bode new violence in the ongoing media war in this shattered country? Via the Internet, the base camp for the "Free B92" movement, Matic speaks out from Serbia.

(Veran Matic's comments were translated from Serbian by Goran Dimitrijevic.)

MediaChannel: How significant do you consider the recent threats by the Deputy Prime Minister? Is this a new stage in the continuing conflict between independent media and the Serbian government, or just a glaring example of the same thing that's been going on?

Veran Matic: We have been threatened in similar ways before. However, since last year, these types of threats have been followed by actual attacks on journalists. We are coming up on the first anniversary of the murder of Slavko Curuvija, publisher and editor of a high-circulation daily, Dnevni Telegraf, and an influential bi-weekly, Evropljanin. Just before Curuvija's brutal execution outside his own apartment building, he was condemned by the state-run press and state TV. Several months earlier both he and I were denounced as "NATO officers" by Deputy Prime Minister Seselj. But this is the first time that the authorities have addressed individual journalists directly. At the news conference, Seselj said (to a Radio B2-92 reporter, specifically) "We will execute you." Now it is literally impossible to predict whether those threatened will remain alive by the time this interview appears in public. Some of our colleagues temporarily keep their whereabouts secret, but criticism of government activities has not been reduced — we can even say that it has been increased, due to the collaborative actions of all independent media. This is a new stage, because independent media are becoming more influential in the public, and the regime has no other way out but to provoke new conflicts inside the country itself. Such actions of the regime are always preceded by hate speech calling for violence and terror ... Journalists are again selected as the first targets, because the independent media have shown themselves to be the most vital segment of the resistance against the madness of the regime. Political parties and coalitions are constantly being established and dissolved; the independent media are the only ones who have shown continuous strength.

What is the status of the press regulations? What can you as a journalist do or not do in your work?

The Public Information Act in Serbia is one of the worst in the world. In accordance with this law, media and journalists are being punished and fined almost every day — mostly with enormously high fines. In this way, the regime attempts to hinder any free speech. However, this is also the reason why there is no self-censorship in independent media — the law covers everything and you can be fined for anything, so if you cared about self-censorship you would not be able to work at all. One thing we are clearly not allowed to do is rebroadcast in Serbian international news services such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Libery, Deutsche Welle or the BBC. The fact is that these services/stations have never had high listenership ratings, even in times when we did rebroadcast them. Now, when they are officially banned in this country, when they are something forbidden, they are being listened to more than ever before, and they are being picked up from transmitters stationed in surrounding countries. The regime actually did a favor to those international services in terms of increasing their listenership here!

How much reach do the independent media have within Serbia? Do the people know what's going on between the government and the media?

At the moment, non-government daily and weekly papers have a combined circulation that is three times larger than that of the pro-government and government newspapers. This is exactly the reason why the independent papers are being fined almost daily. Radio stations belonging to ANEM (Association of Independent Electronic Media) and others have larger listenerships than the state radio, despite the fact that we cover a smaller territory and our transmitters are constantly being confiscated by the state.

The only media field where the regime prevails is television. State and pro-government stations have by far the strongest influence on public opinion. This situation could be altered if TV Studio B would become professional and unbiased. At the moment, this station is under the control of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) and spends most of its time promoting this political party. [The SPO, led by former Yugoslavian Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic, is part of Serbia's shifting and complex opposition movement. For more, see the Balkan Crisis Report.] Therefore, with TV Studio B and ANEM (which includes 20 local TV stations) it would be possible to balance the influence of the state television.

How are the independent media fighting back against threats on all sides?

Up until two months ago, our association, ANEM, has been showing the strongest resistance. Ever since the changes in the management staff of the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists (NUNS) occurred, this association has also become very active. Now there are many more of us, and we are better organized. ANEM organized a two-month-long Serbian tour of rock bands and representatives of several NGOs under the name "Silence Won't Do" in order to appeal to citizens in inner Serbia and call on them to join the fight against the repression. This campaign was very successful and we will go on with it in the future. Together with NUNS, we decided to boycott activities of Seselj's Radical Party — to boycott the hate speech and promotion of fascist ideas ... We simply do not want to become voluntary targets for the expansion of fascist ideas promoted by this influential representative of the regime. The first results can already be seen. New media are constantly joining the boycott, and Seselj cannot hide his rage about the boycott. The boycott is important since Seselj is a great media manipulator and he always relies on the strength of his media image. Now that we have cut him off from many media outlets, he is very nervous, because he realizes what kind of mistake he made. Of course, in his media appearances he projects such a brutality that some of our colleagues feel compelled to hide temporarily.

How can media organizations in the rest of the world assist you in your fight for press freedom?

We have already called on organizations such as the International Federation of Journalists and the World Association of Newspapers to launch an international action of solidarity with media in Yugoslavia. Although such solidarity is often only symbolic, it is very important since it gives us encouragement and a certain feeling of satisfaction about our work. We get the feeling that what we do makes sense. Unfortunately, it seems to me that it is no longer possible to influence President Milosevic in any way. He was indicted for war crimes, and the only direction he can go is towards the International Tribunal in the Hague or towards total dictatorship and bloody civil war in Serbia. Activities of international organizations in that field can have no effect. Editors of independent newspapers should be helped, since they are being fined almost very day, so they don't end up in jail — they should go on with their enthusiastic and professional work. Solidarity would help each one of us feel relieved from worries that we will go to prison because we did not pay financial fines. Certainly, each one of us is ready to go to prison, but we should prevent the possibility that we will go to prison for the most banal reasons.

International actions are also supposed to help us collect funding to expand the influence of the independent media in various ways, to encourage media to work together through building networks among themselves and with all those who can help democratic changes occur as soon as possible. Regional connectivity of media should be helped, because conflicts in the Balkans should never be viewed separately as isolated territorial cases. The regime itself realizes the danger of regional media connectivity, so it prevented our colleagues from the Bulgarian Darik network from attending the meeting with the ANEM representatives which was supposed to focus on mutual cooperation.

How do you feel about the NATO bombing of Serbian television and the Committee to Protect Journalists' decision not to include the victims of that bombing in their lists of journalists killed?

I live right across the road from Serbian television premises, at Takovska Street 9; the premises of Serbian television are located at Takovska Street 10. I was in my apartment when the station was bombed, and it was very difficult for me. I am among the persons whom the state television had been attacking, throwing mud at and discrediting in the most brutal ways. However, I was among the first to write an open protest letter against the bombardment of Serbian TV, and our association was among the first to send financial aid to the families of the employees killed in the attack. Now we are filming a documentary about this tragic event that obviously had been co-directed together by NATO and the state TV management. The people killed in the attack were not editors or journalists, but they happened to be employees of a large media outlet. They must be officially registered as media workers and victims. I am convinced that it must be taken care of by the organizations which deal with the protection of journalists and media workers. They should not be registered as journalists, since they were not journalists. They should be registered as workers of a certain media outlet which was the target of a violent act ... This is also necessary for assistance to the parents of the victims in their attempts to have their elementary rights recognized — to ascertain accountability of the management staff of the state TV in their failure to protect their employees, because it had been obvious that the TV premises would be a target for the missile attack.

It is true that Serbian state television has been the most powerful part of Milosevic's propaganda machinery in the past 10 years, but it is impossible to speak about this TV station without defining it as a media outlet, and without recognizing that employees of this medium were media workers.

- Aliza Dichter, MediaChannel editorial producer, conducted this interview.

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