Live the Resistance

This interview with Veran Matic, Editor in Chief of Radio B92 and President of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), was conducted in a festive atmosphere which reigned in the offices of this radio station.  First, on Thursday October 12, at the MTV Europe annual awards in Milano, Radio B92 won this year's "Free Your Mind" award, which had been established five years ago.  MTV Europe gives this award every year to the organization which it considers to have "contributed greatly to the removal of barriers, prejudices and intolerance."  Then on Monday, November 16, B92 ceremonially launched its new transmitter, calling together a press conference at the top of the building of Dom Omladine amid gusts of cold wind, with a salutary speech by the American writer Timothy Garton Ash.  Two good reasons for celebration and an interview with VREME, beginning with Matic's explanation of how the unique "self-contribution" came to pass and whose result the new transmitter was:
"The action began two months ago, practically when we got the permit for broadcasting our programs from our own transmitter.  We received the permit from the Federal Ministry of Telecommunication in July of this year.  They wanted to allot to us, once again, the Zvezdara location, which we did not want because we would then, once again, have to apply for a building permit, and even then, we would not have had control over the transmitter because the location is owned by Radio Television Serbia.  We managed to fight our way to getting our location and to half the amount of fees for using the air frequency, which we have been paying retroactively, and now we are trying to get our money back through the courts.  As far as 'self- contribution' goes, there is not a tradition here of collecting money in this way.  In America non-commercial stations live off the funds they get twice a year when they approach their listeners for assistance.  We wanted to see how that would work here and to try to establish a similar mechanism for other things: we have the Rex Cinema, an important center for alternative culture which is also of a non-commercial character.  There is a whole list of actions we are planing.  For instance, we will attempt to gather money in a similar way to aid banned media, for actions of resistance, for propaganda companies..."

VREME: As you said, this time around five thousand people came to your aid...

MATIC: "Yes, in Yugoslavia.  About 500 more people from the rest of the world also contributed.  We collected around half of the required amount of 400,000 dinars in this way, part of the money came from international foundations and organizations, and the rest from the MTV Award in the amount of 10,000 pounds.  We learned of the award a month ago: an MTV crew arrived to make a three minute clip which was shown before the award ceremony.  At the beginning of the clip you can see the transmitter being mounted at the top of this building, and there began the B92 story.  At that instant, live MTV Awards coverage on TV Kosava was interrupted, so that people here were unable to see what was happening."

What did the censors cut out?

More than half of the clip, the entire ceremony of the giving of the award, and my speech, therefore the most important part, and it is interesting that we got more air time than Madonna, who won two awards.  I used the occasion to send a visual message: literally the night before leaving we made a t-shirt with a clenched fist and the words "Live the Resistance", written out both in Serbian and English, and another, reserve one, also with a fist and the message "Protest Is Not Dead", as a paraphrase of "Punk is Not Dead".  It seems that this is where the problem was, for it is evident that the very word "resistance" and this fist irritate the regime enormously.  Otherwise the entire footage was broadcast over 18 TV stations, thus all the ones that are part of ANEM.

Do you find it unusual that an apolitical station like MTV should be giving this kind of award?

It is only apolitical in principle.  Besides entertainment and business, MTV maintained the rock&roll pop culture, which is progressive on many issues, often being given to resistance.  The list of previous recipients of the award speaks sufficiently about the politics of the station itself and about the fact that it is not linked merely to showing videos, but also to the fight against AIDS, the fight for human rights and freedom of speech, and aid to mine victims.  Therefore, they participate in the campaign for global issues.  In any case, our rock&roll scene was among the first to react to what was happening to us: rock bands held anti-war concerts, they came out at a time when the media were under threat...  It is not unusual for MTV, even though it is ironic that here RTS incorporated MTV into its escapist programming scheme on the Third Channel, which is solely devoted to total escape from reality (from talk shows with Serbian country music stars, to informal woman's chitchat over cocoa with marshmallows).  It is not unusual that many consumers treated MTV as a part of the escapist model, but whoever wished could recognize the subversive political quality of what MTV promotes and that which made up the rest of the Third Channel programming, and the rest of our lives.  Admittedly, our award did not quite fit into the glamour of the evening, which Michael Miles, bassist with R.E.M., explained quite well when he said that the whole spectacle is slightly silly, but, with a huge audience, it is estimated that the broadcast was followed live by around one billion people, and that the only nice thing is that on that occasion, R.E.M. was chosen to give the award for human rights to the Serbian Radio B92.

How will this award really help democratization in Serbia, or at least contribute to stopping the campaign against independent media?

I think that it will help very much because very soon we will be able to present our problems to a world public.  For instance, we made friends with the group R.E.M., a world mega band.  When they banned us in 1996, I went to New York and Washington.  People from R.E.M. literally chased after me from one end of America to another (they were in California) in order to give us "first aid": cassettes, CD's, t-shirts...  These people are really aware of the problem, they are ready to confront it and to help out accordingly.  On the other hand, we will no longer lead a one-sided battle through influential politicians and ruling regimes which keep changing all the time in the West, just as daily political interests keep change from one day to the next.  The behavior of MTV, that is to say of people who are gathered around the rock industry, among whom many had heard of our radio (we saw first hand), is not based on daily politics.

Second, I did not believe that our listeners would be this glad about our getting this award, as is evidenced by the many congratulations which we keep getting.  For instance, reactions from Negotin, where local TV re-broadcasts our news, are interesting.  As it is a member of ANEM, people identified it with us and sent in congratulations.  Thus, people identify their local TV with that which B92 represents in Belgrade, and that is very important.  This award is in some way an encouragement in the atmosphere of general apathy.

Of the 33 radio stations and 18 TV stations gathered under ANEM, very few have broadcast permits.  The rest are practically illegal.  For instance, we see what is happening to Radio-Indeks.  What will happen to them?

They are all in the process of getting permits, they all applied, they all have the same documents as B92 and other stations which got permits.  Therefore, there are no reasons why they should not to get permits also.  Of course, the question is whether that will happen, for the regime has clearly begun a cleanup of the media.

The Republican Minister of Justice Dragoljub Jankovic has stated recently that the new federal Law on Information will correct the mistakes of this contentious law passed on the level of the republic, and that circuit courts will decide on fines.  What do you think about that?

I do not believe a single thing they say.  Even earlier, after our comments concerning decrees in the draft of this republican law, they promised that they would soften them somewhat.  Instead of that they were merely sharpened.  We cannot expect liberalization from this regime.  We must fight for it ourselves.

How?

It seems to me that a united front is appearing on the horizon with each coming day.  Fear and uncertainty cannot last indefinitely.  It is important to point out that there exists a large, influential segment of honest people who managed to establish themselves through their own hard work and sacrifice in the past ten years, and who today hold 50 percent of the actual social product.  With its policies this regime is persecuting such people more and more, threatening their investments and capital.  This cannot remain without political and social consequences.

All that which has been broken up and fragmented in the past ten years, especially in the past two years, is now beginning to spontaneously recognize its own interests: a change of regime.  The media are the principal compass signs and unifiers behind such tendencies.

The panicked fear behind the very word resistance is nothing more than open acknowledgment of inner weakness and lack of energy and perspective on the part of the regime.  However, resistance is certainly growing.  I fear that at one point it won’t outgrow itself and become something which is beyond anyone's control.  In this case, the media plays an enormous role.  It is precisely they which can channel and articulate the despair and the anger of the masses, and thus to prevent it from turning into brutal violence.  I do not see that any opposition group or party is seriously paying attention to this.  They probably think that it will all come right of its own.
However, nothing here will come right of its own.

So, resistance?

Yes, resistance.

Award Given to Citizens

What did you say in Milan?

I said that the fact that we got this award after Amnesty International and Greenpeace is a sign that the problem of the independent media in Yugoslavia has become a global issue, thinking at that moment that now it will be a lot easier for us to articulate this problem, for it was suppressed in the world media by Kosovo.  Then I said that this award is above all in recognition of the average citizens of Serbia and Yugoslavia whose human rights have been thwarted by the poverty created by the regime, then of the students who are in jail, of professors who are in the streets, of journalists who have been kidnapped, of editors who are being fined enormous sums, of media which are banned...  Finally, I thanked them for thinking about democracy in Yugoslavia.