🚀 go-pugleaf

From:          "IFEX Action Alert Network" <alerts@ifex.org>
Subject:       IPI press release ("Free Media Award")
Date:          Thu, 16 Apr 1998 15:54:38 -0400

IFEX- News from the international freedom of expression community
_________________________________________________________________

PRESS RELEASE - WORLD

16 April 1998

Radio B 92, Belgrade, wins IPI "Free Media Pioneer" award

SOURCE: International Press Institute (IPI), Vienna

(IPI/IFEX) - The following is the full text of a press release
issued by IPI on 16 April 1998:

Radio B 92, the principal independent radio station in Serbia, has
been named by the Executive Board of the International Press
Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media
executives, as the "Free Media Pioneer" of 1998. The station,
represented by director and co-founder Sasa Mirkovic, will receive
the award on Wednesday, 27 May 1998, at the IPI World Congress in
Moscow.

Sasa Mirkovic will be in Vienna to speak about the current
situation of the media in Serbia on Monday, 20 April 1998. This
lecture, part of the IPI series of dinner lectures featuring "Top
Media Representatives", will mark the occasion on which IPI
officially announces B 92 as the recipient of this year's "Free
Media Pioneer" award.

Since its beginning in 1989, B 92's broadcasts have been critical
of government, anti-war, and based on human rights. Over the
years, the station has had to fight to elude  government efforts
to shut it down. It was first banned in March 1991 and again in
December 1996 amid the wave of street protests after President
Slobodan Milosevic's government canceled the results of local
elections won by the opposition. On that occasion, B 92 was
repeatedly jammed, then shut down altogether, but it went on
operating via the Internet until international protest forced the
authorities to reopen the station after only two days.

With Serbia's elections now over, the state propaganda machine
remains as vital as ever for President Milosevic's hold on power.
Anticipating further trouble, B-92 established the Association of
Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), a network of independent
local radio stations throughout Serbia and Montenegro. ANEM
currently provides 32 radio stations covering 70 per cent of the
country with daily news and information programming, as well as
professional development, legal support and training
opportunities, thereby offering an alternative to state-controlled
broadcasting and helping to build the conditions for free media
and democracy in Yugoslavia. B 92 intends to establish a similar
network of independent local TV stations.

IPI believes that a free and pluralistic media is vital to ensure
lasting peace and  democracy in the former Yugoslavia. Therefore,
in recognition of B 92's ongoing work in the development and
protection of independent electronic media in Serbia and
Montenegro, and in order to mobilize and encourage international
support for its efforts, IPI has decided to award B 92 with the
IPI "Free Media Pioneer '98" award.

For further information, contact the IPI Secretariat at
Spiegelgasse 2, A-1010 Vienna, Austria, tel: +43 1 512 90 11, fax:
+43 1 512 90 14, e-mail: ipi.vienna@xpoint.at, info@freemedia.at,
Internet: www.freemedia.at

The information contained in this press release is the sole
responsibility of IPI. In citing this material for broadcast or
publication, please credit IPI.
_________________________________________________________________
DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION EXCHANGE
(IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE 489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON)
M6G 1A5 CANADA tel: +1 416 515 9622    fax: +1 416 515 7879 alerts
e-mail: alerts@ifex.org    general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org Internet
site: http://www.ifex.org/
_________________________________________________________________




___________________________________________________
Bruce Girard Boa, Comunica.Org
bgirard@comunica.org     http://comunica.org
Tel: +593-2-450398 - Fax en Canada: +1-514-221-2009
Casilla Postal 17-08-8372, Quito, Ecuador