Do you think that B92 played a major part in the downfall of Milosevic, and if so, how?
B92 along with all other independent and professional media outlets greatly contributed to the downfall of Milosevic. However, we were different from the others, as we are not an ordinary media outlet but rather an umbrella institution which comprised various activities which in turn contributed to bringing people to their senses that Milosevic's fall was inevitable. The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) also played a crucial role in informing people, as it broadcast news programmes and other shows of B92 production, thus contributing to better distribution of information throughout Serbia, and this only accelerated Milosevic's ousting. It is enough just to mention that most of the energetic and resolute protesters that came to Belgrade on October 5, on the day of the fall of Milosevic's regime, were the people from the cities where our programmes were being rebroadcast through their local stations!
How did technology help you keep track of his arrest?
I think that technology was not so significant in the matter of arresting Milosevic, as much as the credibility of B92 as a professional and independent media outlet. This means that we were virtually the last radio station to which Milosevic gave a short interview from his own house several hours before arrest. Also, we were the first media that reported about Milosevic's transport to the Hague. We got this information from the people in the ruling circles due to our 13 years of dedicated professionalism, right from the date when B92 was founded. The only technology that we used were mobile telephone services...
When the government closed down the transmitter in 1996, what did you do?
Back then, the internet was not as widely used as nowadays. At the moment we were unable to broadcast the radio signal regularly, we started sending our audio signal via the internet in Real Audio format. At the time, it was a kind of technological revolution, especially in this part of the world. The signal was then picked by the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle... so the ban proved to be senseless, as well as counter productive, as overnight, apart from Belgrade audiences, we gained new listeners throughout the country, due to the transmissions of the radio stations that rebroadcast our programmes. This ban lasted for 51 hours, and afterwards, the authorities claimed cynically that "the water got into coaxial cable inside of our transmitter".
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