(Fwd) REVOLUTION IN SERBIA BEGINS WITH A HOMEPAGE

["Marek Tuszynski" <mtusz@batory.org.pl>]

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------

Subject:       REVOLUTION IN SERBIA BEGINS WITH A HOMEPAGE


The demonstrations in Belgrade against Milosevic also have an Internet
angle. The independent Radio B92 is very active on Internet. I just checked
out their protest site <(http://www.galeb.eft.bg.ac.yu/protest96)> but the
server has apparently been disconnected.

This message is forwarded from the net-time mailing list, an important news
center for Europe-based Internet activists. Info below.

=steve=


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>Date: Wed, 04 Dec 1996 01:47:49 +0100
>To: nettime-l@Desk.nl, briefe@taz.de
>From: Pit Schultz <pit@contrib.de>
>Subject: nettime: REVOLUTION IN SERBIA BEGINS WITH A HOMEPAGE
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>http://www.xs4all.nl/~opennet/8.html
>
>THE REVOLUTION IN SERBIA BEGINS WITH A HOMEPAGE ON INTERNET
>
>Even revolutions aren't what they used to be, since there is internet. The
>times of illegal printing-presses in wet cellars, seditious pamphlets spread
>by revolutionaries in duffle coats, are over. The students of Belgrade
>University agitate per homepage (http://www.galeb.eft.bg.ac.yu/protest96)
>against the Serbian president Milosevic.
>Evening after evening the newsreader of the Serbian television summarizes
>with a long face the soporific activities of the statesmen, explaining about
>the visits of official delegations and especially about cutting through of
>endless numbers of ribbons. What about the protests - which protest? Even
>when already for two weeks every day, a hundred-thousand people demonstrate
>against Milosevic, because he falsified the local elections, the media act
>as if nothing is going on.
>Radio B92, from which the weak transmitter only reaches the centre of
>Belgrade, was the only one who reported the anger of the people. But since
>Thursday the one thing one can only hear on the frequency of B92 is
>ear-splitting noise. The authorities have a disturbance- transmitter in a
>small bus driving through town, to make the broadcast impossible.
>Via the world wide web students of the faculty of electro-technics try to
>break the media-blocking. The symbol of their homepage is an egg, which is
>the most beloved weapon of the students. On the homepage are shown pictures
>of the demonstrations, which should show ignorant Serbia how numerous the
>demonstrators are, a report on the egg bombardment, the next-days program
>and a list of demands.
>>From the whole world they receive solidarity e-mails, even from countries
>with whom Serbia was recently in war. Canada wishes 'Courage and Strength',
>New-Zealand 'stays with heard and soul on your side'. 'Fight for your right'
>encourages the United States.
>Former Serbs, lots of them emigrated to far-away countries after the
>break-down of the students protest five years ago, admit that they think
>it's a shame they can't throw a few eggs themselves.
>With over two-thousand hits on the first day of it's existence the
>protest-homepage is a success. The Belgrade students are even listed on the
>CNN-homepage.
>On second thoughts the homepage opens the door to an unsuspected network of
>subversive sites full of information about anti-Milosevic demonstrations:
>weekly papers, newspapers and civil-groups, which are muzzled by the regime,
>have found an opportunity to escape to the Internet.
>But probably most readers of the protest-homepage live abroad. In Serbia a
>vulgar computer already fulfil people with respect and fear, let alone that
>they know what internet is. The students, full of revolutionary fire, say
>that every stone they can scull from the wall, build by the authorities to
>stop information, is one.
>
>Bart Rijs, Volkskrant, 12/2/96
>
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*****************************************************************************
 Marek Tuszynski - Internet Program Coordinator, 
 The Stefan Batory Foundation
 ul. Flory 9 (IV floor), 00-586 Warsaw, ph. 4822 488055;     
 fax  4822 493561; http://www.batory.org.pl; 
 try http://ngo.batory.org.pl/klonDB                                          
*****************************************************************************