Borba, an ex-Communist Party newspaper, established itself as an independent daily during the break up of the Yugoslav Communist Party and ``old" Yugoslavia. It has frequently ignored the Government line in its reporting and has continuously covered the Bosnian Serb leadership and the war in Bosnia. The pro-government media have largely stopped the coverage of the Bosnian conflict after the beginning of the Serbian Government's blockade of the Bosnian Serbs in August of 1994. In Novemeber 1994 the Government, after obtaining the Court decision which declared ``Borba's" privatisation in 1991 invalid, seized the paper's assets (as the paper legally became the Government property) and appointed the Yugoslav Minister for Informations for the Chief editor. After several weeks during which two editions of ``Borba" ( one ``official" the other ``independent") were available on the streets, the original editorial board and most of employees, moved to Novi Sad (Serbia's third largest city) and started a new paper ``Nasa Borba" (Our Borba). Together with Danas, Dnevni Telegraf, Nasa Borba was banned by the Serbian Ministry of Information on October 15 1998. Since the paper's equipment was seized, the editorial team has had to stop with publishing. Unfortunately, they cannot even update their on-line edition. Here's the warning sent to Nasa Borba by the Ministry for Information: You Spread Fear, Panic and Defeatism. Although the ban is not in force any more, it has been supplanted by a new Public Information Law which envisages large fines for the publication of information which among other "endangers Constitutional order". The editorial board has decided to stop with publication until the new Law is repealed.
More articles, daily updated selection of articles in Serbo-Croatian and, additional information about the paper (both in Serbo-Croatian and English) can be found on Nasa Borba homepage. (NOTE: as of February 1999, the site is off-line)
| The site used to be worth visiting even if you don't understand Serbo-Croatian for superb comics by Predrag Koraksic-Corax. The comics are presently published by Vreme and Danas and on Corax's own web site. This comic from April 23 1998 is Corax's comment on Milosevic's approach to the relations with the West. |
