"Radio B92 was an iconic independent media institution in Serbia. Founded in 1989, B92 provided Belgrade listeners with subversive rock music, high-quality journalism, and independent perspectives on politics in the former Yugoslavia. An early adapter to the internet, B92 has been credited with spar
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king the many demonstrations that took place in Belgrade during the 1990s. While the role of Radio B92 during the turbulent days of the Yugoslav Wars is well known, less known is the role of its first CEO and news director in the creation of what would become the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF). Drawing on semi-structured interviews with journalists, scholars, funders, diplomats, and media observers conducted in Belgrade in 2022, this study argues that much can be learned from the case of Radio B92 and the short history of independent media in Serbia. Although B92 ultimately met a tragic death at the hands of privatization and “market censorship,” the “impact investment” model of media development it sparked lives on. Combining affordable loan and equity financing with technical assistance and advisory services, MDIF’s model helps struggling news organizations avoid dependency on grants. Although the 2022 reelection of President Aleksandar Vucic demonstrates his party’s successful state capture of Serbian news media, a look back at the case of Radio B92 has implications for the broader question of what works in international media assistance and why." (Abstract)
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"This article examines how broadcaster B92, once the top-billed independent media in Serbia that resisted Milosevic’s authoritarianism, could not survive democracy. Although it withstood the crackdown and censorship of the war regime, it was eventually sunk by what could be considered ‘market ce
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nsorship’. B92 was forced into privatization because the international donors, who assisted it during the Milosevic regime, tapered their support on the assumption that in a democratic and marketbased environment, all media outlets should have an equal chance to grow and to become self-sustainable. The story of B92 illustrates how the rapid liberalization that occurred lead not to an ideal ‘marketplace of ideas’ furthering democracy, but to commercialization and the drastic loss of space on the airwaves for alternative voices and critical investigative journalism." (Abstract)
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"[...] tells the astonishing story of a bunch of Belgrade kids and their pirate radio station B92. B92 started in the late eighties with the naive desire to simply play music but ended up facing two wars, economic sanctions, violent police and government crackdowns, the attention of armed gangsters
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and neo-Nazi politicians, and ultimately became the focal point of a successful opposition movement against Slobodan Milosevic." (Back cover)
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