Vreme

Vreme was founded in 1990 by a group of journalists from the largest Serbian publishing house "Politika". The weekly was modeled after its U.S. counterparts "Time" and "Newsweek" as its name, time in Serbo-Croatian, shows. Vreme has established reputation as one of the most reliable media sources on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia and its writers/experts have been profusely quoted by the Western media. Since 1990, Vreme has started a number of supplements (Vreme Novca (time of money) , Vreme Zabave (time for fun) etc.) and a publishing house. The paper offers an on-line edition with short versions of articles from the paper edition in Serbian and the information about subscription to Vreme International. The editorial board can be reached at redakcija@vreme.com. Vreme journalist Dejan Anastasijevic was questioned on January 12 1999 by a magistrate of the First District Court in Belgrade under suspicion of "spreading false information in order to alarm the public and discredit the efforts of the authorities in their struggle against terrorism". The questioning was initiated because of the article Bloody Weekend in Drenica, published in Vreme on March 7 1998. The Vreme editorial board believes that this is the first investigation in connection with reporting from Kosovo. They would also like to point out that the Serbian Police promised to conduct an investigation into the events described in the mentioned article. "The results of that investigation, if indeed it ever took place, were never published. Thus, in case the prosecutor decides to indict our journalist, it will be interesting to see what he will be charged with." (Note: as of December 2000, there has been no new information about this case, indicating that the authorities have probably dropped their charges)

On March 24, the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia began. This is what Vreme columnist Stojan Cerovic had to say about it:

At the moment Serbia is mostly unable to perceive the difference between herself and Slobodan Milosevic. Serbia's problem with Kosovo and Milosevic's problem with America have merged into one, and they were supposed to exclude, oppose and contradict each other. Serbia had to find the way to make sure that Milosevic's defeat by America does not also become her defeat in Kosovo. But, those who understand that these are two different wars now cannot do anything significant, since this president has taken his country hostage and placed her between himself and NATO.

On the other hand, the West had the duty to make greater efforts and does not accept Milosevic as an even remotely serious opponent. Thereby Milosevic unavoidably turned into a sort of a partner. The Kosovo crisis had to be approached independently of which regime is in power in Belgrade. Instead, Milosevic's regime was accepted as the only stable, unalterable reality, and everything else, including wars, population movements, change of borders and establishment of new states, turned out to be a lesser problem and given to all sorts of improvisation. In a few days, we will find out whether this is the end of that, or whether Milosevic will come out of this crisis even stronger regardless of what happens with Kosovo.(Private Cold War, by Stojan Cerovic, Vreme, March 20, 1999)

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Last Update 7/14/2007