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Radio Television B92

• Description of organisation

Radio B92 was founded in May, 1989, as an experimental youth station, broadcasting in Belgrade on a fifteen-day licence. The station rapidly expanded into a multi-faceted institution. Apart from broadcasting a mixture of news, culture, entertainment and phone-in radio shows to Belgrade audiences, B92 also operated its own Television and Film Production, Publishing division, Internet provider, cultural centre (Cinema REX) and CD label.

By April 1999, Radio B92 was the Number One radio station in Belgrade.  Its news programs also covered the core information programming for the radio network of the Association of Indpendent Electronic Media (ANEM), which gathered 30+ independent broadcasters in FR Yugoslavia.

In the ten years of its existence, Radio B92 earned a reputation as a defender of human rights, particularly the right to free expression and free media. Its fundamental credo, which also included rigorous impartiality, professionalism and media networking, and the effort B92 put into promoting these values have been recognised by numerous awards, including:

• Peace Award from Danish peace movements, 1993

• Peace Plume from Flemish peace organisations, 1993

• Radiostation des Jahres, from Medienhilfe Internationale (Germany), 1996

• Free Media Pioneer, from the International Press Insitute and Freedom Forum, 1998

• Solidarity Award from AMARC, the World Association of Local Community Broadcasters, 1998

• Free Your Mind award from MTV Europe

• Robert Schuman Medal by the Group of the European People’s Party and European Democrats in the European Parliament

In the Milosevic era, Radio B92 was banned on several occasions. The first two bans were imposed after the station's full and frank reporting of mass civil demonstrations against the government and both bans were lifted within days after massive pressure from the domestic public and the international community.

On the day NATO began bombing Belgrade, Radio B92 was banned again but continued to make programs which it broadcast over the Internet and through the ANEM network. Nine days later, a government-backed consortium seized control of Radio B92's premises and those of ANEM.

When Radio B92's premises were seized in April, 1999, and a new, government-backed management installed, not one of the stations employees agreed to work for the new management. Instead they regrouped, fighting a rearguard action in private homes. In this way, the B92 team kept up its flow of information through an Internet server in Amsterdam. Many of the station's journalists continued to work, now as Belgrade correspondents for those member stations of the ANEM network who had managed to escape the wartime banning campaign.

In August 1999, the original B92 team, which had stayed intact throught the months of war, returned to the air as Radio B2 92 on a frequency leased from Belgrade’s Studio B. By the end of 1999, Radio B292 was able to restore its full programming schedule, while its Television and Film department resumed production of current affairs programs and features about the main news in the capital for the ANEM Television Network.

In addition, Radio B92’s team and ANEM were the leaders of the free media campaign that aimed at coordinating media and civil actions to defend the independent media from increasingly harsh interference at the hands of the Milosevic government.

In May 2000, B92 was once again banned from the airwaves in Belgrade, when the Serbian government illegally took over Studio B, the Belgrade station from which Radio B292 had leased its frequency and studios. However, in a matter of 24 hours, the station was able to resume its production of national and international news and current affairs and distribute them for rebroadcasts via the Internet and the satellite to ANEM affiliates and other partners in the region. Thanks to strong solidarity of ANEM affiliates and other news outlets in the region, B92’s news was thus available to at least 60% of the Yugoslav population.

Television B92 was launched in September 2000, ahead of the crucial elections in Yugoslavia. Its news and current affairs programs were produced in Belgrade, and distributed via satellite to ANEM TV Network members, as well as other stations in the region.

After the events of October 5, Radio Television B92 was able to restore control of its own company, premises the radio had used until April 1999 and radio and television transmission. By the end of the year, B92 radio ranked the most popular station in Belgrade, while its television counterpart, after only three weeks on the air in the capital and with 60% coverage of its territory, ranked 7th out of 20 stations, 19 of which had been on the air for at least two years.

In the light of political, legal and economic changes that will hopefully bring about a general liberalization of working environment, the organization is currently undertaking a reconstruction so as to prepare in the best possible way for a market competition while at the same time continuing its mission of helping develop a healthy and stable society.

• Independent public service output

B92 has been the leader of professional news reporting in FR Yugoslavia over the past decade. Its team of dedicated, skilled and experienced radio news and technical crew will continue to produce 24-hours of programming per day, which in peak listening hours includes:

• 3 x daily 30-minute main national and international news show;

• 20 x daily 5-minute news on the hour;

• 20 x daily 3-minute news on the half-hour;

• 7 x weekly political magazine / education / interview;

• 1 x weekly re-education program addressing the issue of guilt and responsibility with regard to the Kosovo conflict, and other wars of the former Yugoslavia;

• 1 x weekly Putokaz refugee radio show, which will target mainly Serbian-speaking internally displaced persons and refugees across FRY;

• 1 x weekly trade union show Pa-Pa Proleteri.

Television B92 was launched in September 2000, with the help of journalists and technicians with television experience. Its programs include around sixteen hours per week of own production:

• 7 x weekly 30-minute magazine of news of the day

• 1 x weekly 60-minute political interview

• 1 x weekly 60-minute political debate

• 2 x weekly 15-minute news of the week overview

• 1 x weekly 30-minute international news roundup

• 1 x weekly 20-minute political analysis magazine

• 1 x weekly 30-minute show about agricultural issues

• 1 x weekly 60-minute culture shows

• 7 x weekly 60-minute music show

• 2 x weekly 15-minute cultural news roundup

TV B92 screens daily 1.5 hours of television news and current affairs, which are re-run the next day, and 1.5 hours of Radio B92 news on television. Television B92 also presents current affairs programs by other independent production houses, such as TV Mreza and VIN.

In line with the overall mission of B92, exploration of quilt and responsibility issues for the crimes that took place in the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. Television B92 hopes to be able to secure broadcast rights for internationally-produced programs on this subject and screen them as part of a program that will also studio debates of the issue.

This program will be complementary to B92’s radio show on the issue that is entering its second year of broadcasts, publication translations into Serbo-Croat of relevant analyses of similar experiences elsewhere in the world, and involvement in initiatives for launching a genuine examination of truth and responsibility in the past crimes in the country and the region.

Underpinning the ‘traditional’ media output and distribution is the B92 new media activity: the organization will also continue its a web site as an alternative distribution mechanism of news and other public service forums in English, Serbo-Croat, Albanian and Hungarian. The web page also serves as and alternative and backup mechanism for distribution of radio program (web stream) and video output (digitally compressed video files with features by TV B92) and is being developed to allow exchange of programming materials with other stations, specifically with and among members of ANEM.

• Target group, coverage and audience reach

Radio Television B92’s broadcasts in Belgrade, and its news and current affairs production is also available to some 75% of Yugoslav population though rebroadcasts by ANEM affiliates (31 radio and 18 television stations) and other stations in the country (some 50 radio and television stations to date).

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