FHP-OR-030 FUND: A Time When People Spoke – Echoes and Reactions

PERIOD: 1988-1991

PRIMARY SOURCE: Politika Daily newspaper

VOLUME AND MEDIUM: 1 CD

CONTENT: ‘How People Spoke’ represents edited material from the  ‘Echoes and Reactions’ column, which was published in the Politika daily newspaper from July 1988 until March 1991, in which Politika’s readers were at the same time authors of articles in which they presented their opinions and reactions to the news published in Politika’s columns relating to internal, foreign, cultural and sports affairs.

The ‘Echoes and Reactions’ column is of essential significance for an understanding of the manner in which the public in Serbia and those parts of Yugoslavia inhabited by Serb populations was systematically prepared for the   directed future deconstruction of the country and the wars in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and, finally,  Kosovo. Ten years after the sudden end which was as sudden as the beginnings (July 1988 – March 1991), the column remains in the memory of contemporaries  as a symbol of the political instrumentalization of the media for the purpose of an orchestrated manipulation of the public, a testimony to the professional downfall of the editors of Politika, a very influential daily newspaper; and also as an indelible record of the dishonourable role of intellectuals in the development and rationalization of ethnic stereotypes, incitement to national hatred and  revision of history. This was a preparation for much more serious political and military undertakings that followed.

ORGANIZATION SYSTEM:   Chronologically, by date.

The fund is not expected to expand.

LANGUAGE:  Serbian.