Veran Matic
Mr Matic has been engaged in journalism since 1984 with alternative and youth media in Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana. He began his career with NTV Studio B, Belgrade's formerly independent television station. In May 1989 he founded Radio B92, the first independent radio station in Serbia.
The station was banned several times, but managed to continue broadcasting until it was illegally taken over by a group close to the government in April 1999. On March 24 1999, just hours before the NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia began, the station was banned and Matic was briefly detained by police. Despite the ban, the station continued to broadcast via the Internet until the take-over. Under his guidance, Radio B92 had set up and developed its Internet centre, OpenNet, the first Internet provider in the country; a publishing division which produced more than 30 titles, including books of research and commentary on the wars in the former Yugoslavia and minority rights, and three magazines; the Cinema REX cultural centre, a venue for the alternative and progressive culture scene; a film and video division, the winner of a number of national and international awards; a CD label which featured young and progressive artists in FR Yugoslavia. Over time, Radio B92 became a focus of new, young intellectual and urban circles from all over Serbia and Montenegro, and collaborated with independent journalists in Kosovo, as well as organising a number of anti-war activities, social and cultural events and projects in the independent sector.
After the illegal take-over, the employees of the radio refused to co-operate with the new management and were soon thereafter all laid off. They took to the Internet, creating the FreeB92 website and subsequently to the ether -- as Radio B2-92 -- broadcasting in Belgrade on the 99.1 MHz frequency and also on the Internet. Their struggle to regain control of their radio continues. Radio B2-92’s news programs remain the core of the joint ANEM Radio Network programming, which provides independent news to audiences on some sixty per cent of Yugoslav territory. ANEM is an umbrella organisation providing technical, programming, legal and training assistance to its members and seeking to promote democracy through the dissemination of independent information and closer links with other non-governmental organisations in the country and the region. ANEM consists of the ANEM Radio Network of 28 independent local radio stations, the ANEM Television Network of some twenty local television stations, ANEM Internet Media and the ANEM Legal Service, which provides defence for the media and journalists and has tackled a number of local and international actions to support media and journalists under repression. Radio B92's awards include:
Veran Matic received the annual award of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists in 1993. As chairman of ANEM and Radio B92's editor-in-chief, he shared the 1998 Olof Palme Memorial Fund's prize for professional journalism and promotion of international understanding with Viktor Ivancic, the chief editor of Croatian independent weekly Feral Tribune and Senad Pecanin, the editor-in-chief of Sarajevo's independent weekly Dani. At the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting for 1999, he was proclaimed one of this year's hundred Global Leaders for Tomorrow, along with Veton Surroi, the publisher of Koha Dittore a daily newspaper in Kosovo, and Sasa Vucinic, director of the Prague-based Media Development Loan Fund, as representatives from the Yugoslav Region. In May 1999, he was awarded USC Annenberg School for Communication Dean's Award for Courage in Journalism. In May 1999 he also received the Social Justice Award from the US-based Children Uniting Nations. In April 2000, the International Press Institute selected him one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes. 1999 – The Ilaria Alpi Award - This prize, whose goal is to stress the value of the journalistic inquiries, is dedicated to the memory of Ilaria Alpi, a reporter of TG3 Rai killed in Mogadiscio on circumstances that still remain obscure. With her activity Ilaria left an example of an intelligent engagement and extraordinary ethical sense. ANEM’s Award In May 2000 – Concordia Press Freedom Award by International Press Institute and Austrian Association of Newspapers - The award is intended to honour each year a person/organisation that has shown a strong commitment to the defence/and or promotion of press freedom in his/her country. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, Index on Censorship, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Le Monde, The Nation, and elsewhere. The conferences he has addressed include:
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BIOGRAPHIES