Dear RN list, April 5 A couple of readers have expressed concern (or disgust) with what seems to be unfair coverage of the crisis in the former Yugoslavia on the cyberjournal and RN lists. One of these people, James Crombie, has gone to the trouble to thoughfully critique cj #914 and to find information on the human rights situation in Kosovo. I think it best not to send these postings out over the list lest I overload it, but I would be quite happy to send them to anyone who would like them. Another, Lou Stone, wrote: Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 19:16:08 -0800 From: Lou Stone <•••@••.•••> Subject: Re: CNN/State Dept. on Kosovo Jan Now that you have ranted about the conflict of interest in the media, as is correct to do, now please balance the rant about the ethnic cleansing of the Albanians. While you're at it, please produce a rant for the ethnic cleansing in the Americas of the aboriginal peoples by the English speaking Christians and the concomitant capitalism so tight to the media conflicts of interest. Lou Stone Member, Lakes Nation ******************************************************************* Well, I'd rather avoid things I would call "rants" but I do think it is important that we not overlook atrocities committed by the Serbian government and/or people in our digust over what is being done in our name. And yes, what happened to native people in my own country and everywhere is shocking and needs attention too. Not just what happened in the past, but what is happening now... Anyhow, being against the bombing does not necessarily mean we are FOR Milosovitch and indeed, I think we ought to do what our governments ought to be doing and ought to have done: work to strengthen democracy and civil society in the former Yugoslavia. Actually, I think this type of work is the most reasonable response to the current situation. HOw might we work to strenghten democracy and civil society in the former Yugoslavia? There are lots of ways; we need to find out who was doing useful work in the former Yugoslavia and work to help them get back to their work (rather than having to flee the bombing and its consequences). And below is a message with a very concrete idea of how we can help. all the best, Jan ****************************************************************** From: "Janet M. Eaton" <•••@••.•••> To: •••@••.••• Date: Sun, 4 Apr 1999 08:15:53 +0000 Subject: [GSN] FW: Help Radio B92 PLEASE FORWARD!! je ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 23:19:19 -0800 (PST) From: MichaelP <•••@••.•••> To: unlikely.suspects:; Subject: [GSN] FW: Help Radio B92 From: MichaelP <•••@••.•••> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 08:03:48 +0100 From: Karl Waldron <•••@••.•••> Subject: FW: Help Radio B92 From: •••@••.••• Dear All, Radio B92 is now banned from broadcasting its independent news. The Yugoslavia government closed their studio and office. A group of people from Europe and from around the world are staging a campaign to help B92 continue to provide news updates about the situation in Yugoslavia as it develops. The campaign is centred in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, through the internet service provider, XS4ALL and the cultural organisation, De Balie. The group aim to achieve this through the establishment of a fundraising campaign, a website and a Real Audio service. The current crisis situation in Yugoslavia means that the potential for B92 continuing its independent news service is limited. The recently founded support group intends to take measures to distribute news by and about B92, from Amsterdam. For this purpose a special website has been established: http://helpB92.xs4all.nl B92 is the backbone of the independent news service in Yugoslavia. Without immediate support this last source of independent news for the inhabitants of this region is endangered. A campaign has been started by the support group, with the objective of sending money and equipment to B92 and other independent radio stations in Serbia and Kosovo. There are four key ways that you can assist the group in its support of B92. 1) Link to our website: http://helpb92.xs4all.nl by using the logo from the website and promote the spreading of this logo in any way you can. This logo is also attached to this email. After you've added our logo to your site you can list yourself on our buttonpage. Also link to the B92 website: http://www.b92.net 2) Help us raise funds for B92 and other endangered independent news services from Serbia and Kosovo. The special accountnumber that has been opened for donations is 7676 (Postbank, Netherlands). by international money order payable to: Press Now Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10 1017 RR Amsterdam Netherlands or by international bank transfer to: Postbank Amsterdam Swift address: INGBNL2A Accountnumber: 7676 in the name of: Press Now (adress above) Please specify "Help B92". 3) Distribute the press release about the fundraising campaign to your local media and politicians. You will find the press release at the end of this email. 4) Sign the guestbook on the website if you want to express your individual support or, if you represent an organisation that wants to become part of the support group, mail us more details about the organisation and nature of the support offered, preferably accompanied by a small logo in gif-format to include on our website. The Help B92 Team: B92: http://www.b92.net/ De Balie: http://www.balie.nl/ De Digitale Stad: http://www.dds.nl/ Next 5 Minutes: http://www.n5m.org/ Press Now: http://www.dds.nl/~pressnow/ radioqualia (Australia): http://www.radioqualia.va.com.au/ De Waag (MONM): http://www.waag.org/ XS4ALL: http://www.xs4all.nl/ Please Note that the following is the new link for B92 internet audio stream: http://play.rbn.com/?b92 ================================================== Press Release April 3 1999 THE FREE VOICE OF B92 BANNED: THE STRUGGLE GOES ON Latest news: http://helpb92.xs4all.nl The last message from Yugoslavia's most prominent independent broadcaster -B92 - as government officials and the police moved in on April 2, 1999, to take over the station and silence the last vestiges of free speech in Serbia was - 'Keep The Faith!' HelpB92 was launched on March 25, 1999, to do just that. The support group uses Internet technology to enable B92 and all other banned independent media in Yugoslavia defend their right to speak freely, and the pivotal role of free media to regional stability. The action against B92 comes at the end of a week of intense media repression against independent media in Yugoslavia. On March 24, government officials confiscated B92's transmitter, cutting off direct radio broadcasts to Belgrade. B92 responded by harnessing the power of the Internet and Real Audio, satellite, medium wave broadcasts and solidarity rebroadcasting across the world to its struggle for free speech. B92 supporters responded in record number - the B92 web site had 15 million visitors in just 7 days. At the same time, in the past ten days, ten rebroadcasters of B92's news from the Association of Independent Electronic Media - ANEM have been closed down by the government. Other ANEM members have the either taken themselves voluntarily off the air rather than re-broadcast the propaganda of state radio and TV, which they must do by law when the country is in a state of war, or have been taken over by the government. In Kosovo, the offices of the two most important alternative Albanian language media - Koha and Radio 21 - have also been destroyed and their staff have fled the country. The closure of B92, on April 2, 1999, means that the only source of information left for audiences and viewers in the region is the state-controlled Radio Television Serbia. All the journalists from these banned independent media are now in dire straits and money is urgently needed to help assist these journalists to find new means to get news out. We therefore ask people to please express their involvement and support this cause by donating money to the special HelpB92 fund, bank account number 7676, Postbank Amsterdam, Swift address INGBNL2A, in the name of Press Now. Please specify 'Help B92' In the last week, HelpB92 has received an enormous amount of support from around the globe. In Spain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Australia supporting web sites have been established in their national languages. Hundreds of people and organisations have placed the HelpB92 logo and link to the web site on their home pages and signed the interactive guest book. Future actions include benefit concerts, global rebroadcasting initiatives and Internet Real Audio actions. HelpB92 was founded by: B92, De Balie, De Digitale Stad, Next 5 Minutes, Press Now, Public Netbase (Austria), radioqualia (Australia), De Waag (MONM) and XS4ALL Internet. B92 Website: http://www.b92.net HelpB92 campaign: http://helpb92.xs4all.nl E-mail: •••@••.••• -- For more information about this e-mail list, send a message with its body containing command "info odrazb92e" to •••@••.••• or visit http://brazil.tcimet.net/cgi-bin/lwgate/ODRAZB92E/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Have you visited our new web site? http://www.onelist.com Onelist: Helping to create Internet communities
