A Thousand Tuesdays

Milos Vasic

Official Note

Tomorrow, late in the evening, the thousandth issue of the weekly "Vreme" will be finalized and set for printing. You could buy it on Sunday, together with some bonus pages in color dedicated to this occasion. Buy it – it will be of good use to you. This crazy team came together in the attic above the legal office of Srdja Popovic with plans to launch the first private newspaper. It was Srdja's idea, and the supply of skilled journalistic workforce was huge. Namely, Milosevic and his gang had already "reconstructed" editorial offices, NIN being the first to take the hit. The few of us suspects had been given salaries equal to cleaner's (three thousand something) because we were not able to publish anything. At the same time, we could not force ourselves to work with Andjelic – the mere thought was too repulsive. So I went to see Srdja with the idea to sue "Politika", just for the fun of it. He had a better idea – let's make our own newspaper! He, Stojan Cerovic and Laza Stojanovic had already agreed on that, he told me. The future editorial team was soon brought together: Zoran Jelicic, Milan Milosevic, Hari Stajner, Slobodanka Ast, then Sasa Ciric, Goranka Matic, Mita Boarov and others; I hope they will forgive me for not remembering the exact chronology.

The name "Vreme" was selected in a secret vote among several proposed names, and the work on creation of the paper's concept was difficult and exhausting, consuming the whole summer of 1990. We intended to make a few pilot issues to be later polished and improved, but Milosevic forced our hand by scheduling general elections for December 1990 and we had to launch earlier. The first issue came out on October 29, 1990 and I don't remember it gladly: it had an awful design, but was full of excellent articles. We had to register it in Rijeka, because regulations in Serbia had not been changed yet.
At first we were successful, I must admit. The idea was to make a weekly general news magazine for the educated and wealthier middle class in Yugoslavia. But Slobo and his gang had different things in mind: first they broke Yugoslavia apart, then they destroyed the educated and wealthy middle class. Until that time, "Vreme" had managed to become the most often cited source of information from the ex-Yugoslavia. In the meantime, others joined us: Jug Grizelj, Pera Lukovic, Corax, Rocky Ninciceva, Drasko Gagovic, Ivan Hrasovec, Dejan Anastasijevic, Filip Svarm, may God bless them all.
The philosophy of journalism that we have accepted is simple: accurate, complete and timely information together with background and analysis. I remember how a long time ago, one of the founders of "Le Monde", a nice older gentleman, held a lecture in "Politika". Someone asked him whether independent journalism actually existed. He pondered a little and replied: "I don't know if independent journalism truly exists, but I know that honest journalism exists". In my opinion, that's all there is to say about that. And we did our job: we were out there, in every place where a first shot was fired, we searched, we poked, we dared – whatever the cost. Soon we discovered that honest reporting does not make money and became poor but honest, our clothes patched up but kept clean. They immediately realized who we were: Brana Crncevic called us "HDZ office in Belgrade"; Dragos Kalajic declared us "Freemasons' operation" which forced us to hastily organize a Freemason Lodge "Opus Orienti", the one and only – unlike the one organized by those provincial amateurs. Milosevic tolerated us, having in mind the cost/benefit analysis – it was less damaging to allow us to work than to shut us down. But greater-Serbian chauvinists hated us deeply and with understanding. It is a shame that we used to throw away all the hate mail – it would have made an interesting reading. We responded to threatening phone calls with extreme vulgarity, which was the only way to deal with fools. It wasn't easy with the other side too: during the war in 1999 "Vreme" remained in print, the fact that was frowned upon by moralists. Our response was that what we do is make a newspaper, that was our job. Other complaints followed as well. It was easier to deal with enemies than the natural allies: we always knew what our enemies were up to, but the latter were trying take advantage of us – for free. There were other, nastier things that happened: kidnapping of Dusan Reljic in September 1993 (we found out later who did it and where they kept him, but we still do not know why); bomb explosion at the apartment window of Dejan Anastasijevic in April 2007 (he and Lida were lucky; the case has not been solved); and certain other episodes that are not fit to be published.
We did not feel much difference after October 5, 2000 although it certainly improved our position. Less than three months later, we had already been in conflict with the new government regarding various issues. Interesting fact: we have been sued for libel after October 5 more often than in the previous 10 years. We came to a sad conclusion that every regime is about the same – if you mess with it. Perhaps because every 'government is ordained by God' and aware of it.
In the end, my humble opinion is that we have managed to do something very important: to attract a multitude of brilliant young girls and boys and secure the future of "Vreme". These beautiful, smart, nice and talented kids are doing an excellent job and at the same time keep improving. A thousand Tuesdays and thousand issues of "Vreme", twenty years later, and we are still not tired or ready to quit. And our enemies can only hate us.

Author: Milos Vasic

Source: Danas, 01.03.2010; Page: 5

MC Newsletter,
March 12, 2010