• Republika Srpska Media Directory
• Croat-controlled Federation Territory Media Directory
• Bosniac-controlled federation territory Media Directory

Republika Srpska Media Directory

The following directory is not complete but does list many of the most influential and well known media with contact names and telephone numbers.

Independent Journalists Association
President: Branko Peric (AIM editor Banja Luka)
Tel.: (078) 12 295, 46 691; fax: (078) 12 295

Print

Alternativa
Editor: Zivko Savkovic
Tel./fax: (074) 42 092

A brave alternative paper in the front-line town of Doboj which attempts to come out every week and sells a little more than 1,000 copies per issue. It has been shielded to a certain extent because its founder and owner Milovan Stankovic was a colonel in the Bosnian Serb Army. Nevertheless, two of its journalists were last year put on trial for libel and given suspended sentences.

Ekstra magazin
Editor: Jovica Petkovic
Tel./fax: (076) 45 797

Bijeljina-based newspaper which aims to be a fortnightly but fails to come out on a regular basis. It was originally founded in 1994 during the war and shut down after a year for not being sufficiently patriotic. It was relaunched in May 1996 though many of the original journalists joined the rival paper Panorama. Since it presents itself as part of the alternative media scene, it has received 18,400 DM financial support from USAID. However, the editor Jovica Petkovic was head of the Bosnian Serb Army's press centre for three years of the war and, judging by the contents of his paper, is still peddling Serb nationalism, even if he has formally split from the ruling party. Sarajevo journalists complain that Ekstra magazin has published their articles without permission and then edited them in such a way as to distort the original message.

Fokus
Editor: Pero Simic
Tel./fax: (076) 43 402

Launched at the end of 1996 Fokus is a Bijeljina-based monthly printing 5,000 copies per issue in Belgrade and looking for financial support from USAID. The contents, however, is less than savoury. In the January issue indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic was declared personality of 1996.

Glas Srpski
Editor: Gordan Matrak
Tel.: (078) 12 844; fax: (078) 11 759

Dull Banja Luka daily tightly controlled by the SDS. It prints about 2,000 copies per issue and sells even fewer.

Javnost
Editor: Jovan Janjic
Tel.: (381 11) 332 648 (Belgrade)

SDS weekly party magazine.

Nezavisne novine
Editor: Zeljko Kopanja
Tel.: (078) 11 604; fax: (078) 60 676

Republika Srpska's most influential alternative medium. The weekly, which has a circulation of 9,000, contains many ground-breaking and investigative stories. The daily, which was launched in August, folded in October and began coming out again in January, consists mainly of agency copy (in particular the Belgrade-based wires Tanjug and Beta) and had a circulation of around 4,000 in September, the only full month it was printed. Editor Zeljko Kopanja has smashed taboos in Republika Srpska by, for example, travelling to Sarajevo to interview the chairman of Bosnia's Presidency Alija Izetbegovic and publishing a sympathetic and balanced article.

Novi prelom
Editor: Miodrag Zivanovic
Tel: (078) 614 37; fax: (078) 606 76

Intellectual Banja Luka-based paper founded by and affiliated to the Social Liberal Party. Although the first medium in Republika Srpska to receive any foreign assistance, it lacks firm editorial direction and struggles to come out twice a month. When it comes out it sells fewer than 2,000 copies.

Panorama
Editor: Slobodan Markovic
Tel./fax: (076) 46 483

Bijeljina-based, alternative bi-weekly which has struggled to come out regularly. It consistently contained some of the best analyses of politics in the Federation seen in Republika Srpska during the election campaign but sells fewer than 3,000 copies per issue.

Srpsko Oslobodjenje
Editor: Drazenko Dukanovic
Tel./fax: (071) 786 687

Weekly SDS-affiliated newspaper based in Pale which considers itself, and not the Sarajevo-based daily, to be a continuation of the Oslobodjenje (meaning liberation) news-sheet founded by Tito's partisans during the Second World War.

Svitanja
Editor: Milenko Djukanovic
Tel.: (074) 42 157; fax: (074) 41 646

Doboj newspaper close to the ruling SDS which went weekly in February.

Zapadna Srbija
Editor: Nikola Poplasen

Party paper of the extreme nationalist Srpska radikalna stranka (Serb Radical Party or SRS).

Agencies

SRNA
Editor: Nenad Tadic
Tel.: (071) 783 164; fax: (071) 783 442

Closely-controlled, nationalist state-run news agency.

Radio

Radio Srpska Editor: Milivoje Tutjevic
Tel.: (078) 35 800; fax: (078) 31 667

Closely-controlled, nationalist state radio which broadcasts out of both Pale and Banja Luka and covers all of Republika Srpska and can be heard in parts of the Federation.

Radio Sveti Jovan
Director: Sonja Karadzic

The subject of some controversy in Republika Srpska media circles since the station acquired frequencies and powerful transmitters without the usual paperwork and payments. Launched by Sonja Karadzic, the daughter of Radovan, in 1996, it does not have an independent news-gathering capacity, but can be heard in most of Republika Srpska.

Television

Nezavisna televizija
Editor: Zoran Kalinic
Tel.: (078) 17 899; fax: (078) 17 700

Recently-launched outpost of Serbian television in Banja Luka. The station, which can only be seen in and around Banja Luka, lacks equipment and journalists and thus produces little independent programming.

Simic televizija Director: Vladimir Simic
Tel./fax: (078) 30 253

A private television station owned by and named after Vladimir Simic, a young Banja Luka entrepreneur, which shows films, sport, music and pornography, and has no independent news-gathering capacity.

TV Srpska
Editor: Ilija Guzina
Tel. Banja Luka: (078) 11 741; fax: (078) 49 973
Tel. Pale: (071) 783 186; fax: (071) 783 179

Closely-controlled, nationalist state television headquartered in both Banja Luka and Pale. Programming is usually the same but can, at times, differ because of technical difficulties linking the studios together. The station can also be watched in parts of the Federation, notably in Sarajevo.

Croat-controlled Federation Territory Media Directory

The following directory is not complete but does list many of the most influential and well known media with contact names and telephone numbers.

Agencies

HABENA
Editor: Marko Dragic
Tel.: (088) 319 222; fax: (088) 319 422

Closely-controlled, nationalist news agency of Croat-controlled Federation territory.

Print

Hrvatska rijec
Editor: Ana Havel
Tel.: (071) 470 002; fax: (071) 444 621

Sarajevo-based weekly which backs the ruling HDZ to the hilt.

Horizont
Editor: Mario Marusic
Tel.: (088) 323 541, 322 581; fax: (088) 322 579

West Mostar-based weekly launched in December 1996 which has to date contained several strong, balanced parallel interviews with Croat and Bosniac politicians. It is still too early to assess its politics. Radio

Radio Herceg-Bosna
Editor: Milan Vego
Tel.: (088) 310 579; (088) 310 578

The Mostar-based station is owned by the municipal authorities and its news content is exactly what the name would lead one to believe.

Hrvatska Radio Postaja Mostar
Editor: Tomislav Mazal
Tel.: (088) 311 594; fax: (088) 311 581

For 25 years before the war this station, which can be heard throughout the region, was Mostar's one and only broadcast medium catering for the entire city and all its peoples, that is Serbs and Muslims as well as Croats. It is now exclusively Croat and fiercely nationalistic.

Television

Hrvatska Televizija Mostar
Editor: Veseljko Cerkez
Tel.: (088) 321 194; fax: (088) 321 102

Privately owned by Ante Kristo, a former cameraman and entrepreneur, the television station is often even more hard-line than the radio stations, even though many of the same journalists work at both. It can only be watched in and around Mostar.

TV Herceg-Bosna
Editor: Branko Covak
Tel./fax: (088) 322 459

Launched on 1 February this year, this station is an outpost of Hrvatska Radio-Televizija, that is television from Croatia proper, broadcasting from Siroki Brijeg to Croat-controlled parts of the Federation.

Bosniac-controlled Federation Territory Media Directory

The following directory is not complete but does list many of the most influential and well known media with contact names and telephone numbers.

Independent Journalists Association
President: Mehmed Halilovic (editor Oslobodjenje)
Tel.: (071) 670 813, 670 814; fax: (071) 534 495

Agencies

Alternativna informativna mreza (AIM)
Editor: Drazena Peranic
Tel./fax: 667 737

In English AIM means the alternative information network. It is a network of journalists established and financed by the European Commission which covers the whole of the former Yugoslavia and employs many leading pre-war reporters. It offers articles free to any media willing to publish them.

BH Press
Editor: Kemal Muftic
Tel.: 663 772; fax: 664 360

The official government-owned news agency.

ONASA
Editor: Mehmed Husic
Tel.: 670 810, 444 237; fax: 521 175/6

Alternative news agency linked to the daily newspaper Oslobodjenje which also publishes an English version.

Print

Dnevni avaz
Editor: Fahrudin Radoncic
Tel.: (071) 652 099; fax: (071) 658 940

A lively, informative and best-selling daily with strong links to the ruling SDA. It was launched at the end of 1995 and received some early funding from George Soros' Open Society Fund. It has a circulation of about 23,000.

Dani
Editor: Senad Pecanin
Tel.: (071) 649 943; fax: (071) 651 789

Sarajevo-based monthly containing many informative and ground-breaking articles owned by its editor Senad Pecanin. Until the middle of last year the magazine was largely financed by Alija Delimustaric, a Communist entrepreneur and former member of the SDA who fell out with Alija Izetbegovic and now lives in France. When Delimustaric pulled out, the Open Society Fund filled the breach with a 77,000 DM grant. Since switching backer circulation has soared from 4,000 to 15,000 per issue.

Front slobode
Editor: Sinan Alic
Tel.: (075) 32 271; fax: (075) 33 988

Local Tuzla fortnightly which struggles to come out on a regular basis despite 40,000 DM of assistance from USAID. Also has television arm FS3 which has been in dispute with the municipal government over ownership of equipment. Plans to begin broadcasting own programmes.

Ljiljan
Editor: Dzemaludin Latic
Tel.: (071) 442 993; fax: (071) 664 549

Nationalist weekly edited by a close ally of president Alija Izetbegovic who was also imprisoned as one of the so-called young Muslims (Mladi Muslimani) during the 1980s on trumped-up charges. It prints more than 50,000 copies, though a high proportion of these is sold abroad to the refugee community. Latic is currently planning to launch Ljiljan television, an overtly Bosniac television station.

Ogledalo
Editor: Sinan Alic
Tel.: (075) 32 271; fax: (075) 33 988

Inter-entity monthly joint venture funded by USAID and London's Institute of War and Peace Reporting linking Tuzla's Front slobode, Banja Luka's Novi prelom, Doboj's Alternativa and Bijeljina's Ekstra magazin. Only one issue has been published to date in a mixture of Cyrillic and Latin script.

Oslobodjenje
Editor: Mehmed Halilovic
Tel.: (071) 670 813, 670 814; fax: (071) 534 495

A Sarajevo daily newspaper which was launched as a partisan newssheet during the Second World War. It acquired world-wide fame because it refused to close during the most recent war, coming out almost every day despite massive privations. Readership is concentrated in the Bosnian capital and though a circulation of 13,000 is claimed it only sells about 8,000 copies per issue.

Nasa rijec
Editor: Jasminka Ahmetspahic
Tel.: (072) 36 024; fax: (072) 13 066

Zenica local fortnightly with modest circulation.

Republika
Editor: Zeljko Gakovic
Tel.: (071) 525 038; fax: (071) 664 987

Launched in January 1995 this Sarajevo-based monthly magazine is aimed at intellectuals and largely consists of commentaries from celebrated individuals. Because of financial problems, it often fails to appear.

Slobodna Bosna
Editor: Senad Avdic
Tel.: (071) 444 041; fax: (071) 444 895

Remarkable, investigative bi-weekly challenging paper which sells throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, in both the Federation and Republika Srpska. It was the best-seller before the war and again since its relaunch in 1994. Slobodna Bosna is one of the highest recipients of Open Society Fund financial support having received some 550,000 DM in the past two years. Current sales are more than 35,000 per issue.

Slobodna Hercegovina
Editor: Tahir Pervan
Tel./fax: (071) 640 520

A bi-weekly magazine which was launched at the end of last year. Despite identical type-face to Slobodna Bosna, the two titles are not linked in any way.

Svijet
Editor: Zlatko Dizdarevic
Tel.: (071) 466 577, 456 827; fax: (071) 456 142

A glossy weekly published by Oslobodjenje with something for everybody. Printed in Zagreb, it appears more professional and with articles covering sport, music, travel and culture, as well as politics, is an easier read than any other magazine in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Circulation has risen since the editorial headquarters moved from Ljubljana to Sarajevo and articles became more timely. At present 23,000 copies are printed, of which about 17,000 are sold. Of these about 60 per cent are sold abroad. Only about 7,000 copies are sold per issue within Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Vecernje novine
Editor: Sead Demerovic
Tel.: (071) 664 875; fax: (071) 664 977/8

A Sarajevo daily which pre-dates the war. It is tabloid in style and has recently added colour to its front and back pages. The newspaper was hit badly by the launch of Dnevni avaz in 1995 as many journalists defected to the new title. It claims a circulation of 15,000, but sales are only about 9,000.

Zmaj od Bosne
Editor: Vedad Spahic
Tel./fax: (075) 234 808

Tuzla fortnightly more nationalist than Front slobode.

Radio

DISS Radio
Editor: Maksim Stanisic

Radio station for those Serbs from the former Serb-held Sarajevo suburbs who remained in the city after the hand-over to Federation. It has received 210,000 DM from a plethora of western donors yet is still not on the air.

Radio B&H
Editor: Esad Cerovic
Tel.: (071) 461 101; fax: (071) 445 141

State radio which covers almost all of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Radio FERN
Editor: Dino Bornatica
Tel.: (071) 668 059; fax: (071) 668 052

Swiss-financed and OSCE-sponsored, 2 million DM Free Elections Radio Network (see above).

Radio Hayat
Editor: Leijls Saric
Tel./fax: (071) 443 113

Sloppy, Bosniac nationalist station based in Sarajevo with few listeners despite powerful transmitters.

Radio Kameleon
Director: Zlatko Berbic
Tel.: (075) 231 237; fax: (075) 238 247

The most popular Tuzla radio station. It is privately-owned and, in addition to music, broadcasts the local language news services of the BBC, Voice of America and Deutsche Welle.

Radio Mostar
Director: Alija Behram
Tel.: (088) 550 055; fax: (088) 552 147

Bosniac radio station broadcasting out of east Mostar.

Radio Stari Grad
Editor-in-chief: Adnan Osmanagic
Tel.: (071) 442 565; fax: (071) 471 366

Popular cultural station broadcasting from Sarajevo's old town.

Radio Studio 99
Editor-in-chief: Adil Kulenovic
Tel.: (071) 664 550; fax: (071) 664 551

Sarajevo popular music station with two late-morning phone-ins a week called "Hyde Park" which have built up a devoted following. Listeners' views on topical issues are often a good pointer to public opinion in the Bosnian capital.

Radio Zid
Editor: Adnan Sarajlic
Tel.: (071) 470 854; tel./fax: (071) 443 770

Sarajevo-based station with interesting discussion programmes. It broadcasts BBC, Voice of America and Deutsche Welle's Croat- and Serb-language news services. However, foreign subsidies dried up in 1996 and the station is facing financial difficulties.

Radio Vrhbosna
Editor-in-chief: Vladimir Bilic
Tel.: (071) 441 920; (071) 441 921

Church-financed yet civic-orientated and Croat cultural radio station in Sarajevo. Broadcasts Voice of America's Croat-language news as well as Croatian radio news in addition to own programming.

Television

Liberty Television
Editor: Mehmet Agovic
Tel.: (071) 483 195; fax: (071) 483 196

Television arm of Radio Free Europe, has been producing one 30-minute current affairs programme a week since two weeks before the September elections. The weekly programme is packaged in Prague and is broadcast by TVX in Sarajevo, TV Mostar, and Zetel in Zenica.

RTV BiH
Director: Amila Omersoftic
Tel.: (071) 663 306; fax: (071) 645 142

State-controlled TV which can be seen by at least 30 per cent of the population of Republika Srpska as well as 78 per cent of the population of Bosniac-controlled Federation territory.

TV Hayat
Editor: Elvir Svrakic
Tel.: (071) 533 655; fax: (071) 663 601

Popular Sarajevo private television station broadcasting out of the old town. It has no longer linked to the Bosniac nationalist radio station of the same name and its popularity can largely be attributed to the many recently-released films it shows. Copyright law is broken every day. During ramadan the station has been broadcasting an Iranian programme. TV Hayat belongs to the TV-IN network (see above).

TV-IN
Editor: Kosta Jovanovic
Tel.: (071) 456 150, 460 556, 472 611; fax: (071) 460

OHR-sponsored, non-nationalist station for Bosnia and Herzegovina (see above).

RTV Mostar
Editor: Alija Behram
Tel.: (088) 550 055; fax: (088) 552 147

Bosniac station broadcasting out of east Mostar. It is often referred to as Orucevic television after the local SDA strongman, Safet Orucevic. The station belongs to the TV-IN network (see above) and also broadcasts TV Liberty, the television arm of Radio Free Europe.

NTV Studio 99
Editor: Adil Kulenovic
Tel.: (071) 664 550; fax: 664 551

Sarajevo-based, independent station which has been more successful than any other in obtaining foreign subsidies. Launched in 1995 with massive financial backing from UNESCO and various European governments, the station joined the TV-IN network (see above) briefly last year in order to acquire new equipment. It left the network almost immediately.

TV Tuzla
Editor: Jasna Zunic
Tel./fax: (075) 215 772

Founded and originally owned by the non-nationalist municipal government of Tuzla, the station now belongs to the TV-IN network (see above).

NTV Zetel
Editor: Zeljko Lincner
Tel.: (072) 410 552; (072) 417 317

The station which has to date been most committed to the TV-IN network (see above), it produces a lot of community programming itself and also broadcasts Liberty television.

TV TPK Tuzla
Editor: Kasim Softic
Tel.: (075) 214 123; fax: (075) 213 302

Founded and controlled by the cantonal government of Tuzla, the station backs the SDA to the hilt and is forever at odds with the non-nationalist municipal authorities.

TVX
Editor: Admir Hadzibegovic
Tel./fax: (071) 483 056

Sarajevo-based station launched in 1996 which retransmits several foreign broadcasts, in particular one German and one French pop music channels. It also shows Liberty television and used to broadcast highlights of the war crimes trials from The Hague.