Embattled B92
By
Sherry Ricchiardi
Sherry Ricchiardi (sricchia@iupui.edu) is an AJR senior contributing writer.
On April 2, news junkies signing onto www.b92.net were greeted by an ominous message. Independent Radio B92, whose defiance of Yugoslavia's repressive regime has been monitored by journalists worldwide , had been closed down, its offices sealed.
On the audio portion of the Web site, a somber voice repeated the message "the sound of B92 banned." No news updates were being posted.
In the wake of the NATO air strikes that began on March 24, police burst into B92, confiscated its transmitter and ordered all computers shut down. The chief editor, Veran Matic, was arrested and detained for eight hours.
But the station was able to resume broadcasting and publishing on the Internet with the help of the B92 Support Group, a consortium of international media organizations based in Amsterdam, and through mirror sites in Europe and North America. At one point, B92's digital signal was channeled by Internet to the BBC World Service, which transmitted the signal via satellite. ###
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