nettime's_roving_reporter on Thu, 20 May 1999 18:13:10 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> The Economist's guide to the war on the web |
ECONOMIST 05-15-99 - YUGOSLAVIA: WAR ON THE WEB - A GUIDE TO FOLLOWING THE WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA ON THE INTERNET. WE HAVE had birth on the net and sex on the net; now we have war on the net. As NATO planes bomb the former Yugoslavia, American government websites display what is destroyed. The Yugoslav government ripostes with numbers of planes shot down, targets missed and civilians killed. Albanian websites chronicle the flood of Kosovar refugees. Serb ones list atrocities by Kosovar terrorists. All of this against a backdrop of interactive maps, living histories, bile-filled bulletin boards and eye-witness e-mails. This is the first web war. The Americans lead NATO's efforts on the web, as they do in the air. The http://www.state.gov/www/regions/eur/kosovo-hp.html State Department's clearly designed website is the best place to follow the official version of the war, as well as the rapid evolution of American policy towards Yugoslavia. http://www.nato.int NATO's site offers detail on the military operations (including before-and-after photos of bomb targets) and transcripts of NATO press conferences. http://www.mod.uk/news/kosovo Britain's contribution is more modest, although a combined effort from the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence provides a British perspective on the war.The Yugoslavs are fighting back in earnest. Official websites are surprisingly slick. Serbia's http://www.serbia-info.com/news Ministry of Information fills you in on setbacks that NATO may be reluctant to own up to, as well as palpable fabrications. It reads well, the site is well organised and the English is almost impeccable. http://www.borba.co.yu/daily.html Borba, an English-language daily published by the Yugoslav government, offers a similarly slanted view. But it does so less successfully because it reads more like an official mouthpiece. http://www.gov.yu/kosovo - facts/index.html central government's website explains the Serbian view of the history of Kosovo and includes detailed maps of the province. It "exposes" a http://www.gov.yu/mediawar propaganda campaign by the western media against Serbia and accuses the West of historical "revisionism". And it http://www.gov.yu/terrorism chronicles Albanian terrorism against Serbs in Kosovo, complete with gruesome pictures of alleged atrocities. Also pro-Serb, but independent of the Milosevic government, http://www.sn-ol.com/news"Serbia Now! offers a more nuanced view of the news. But its bulletin board contains this alleged contribution from a British soldier: "Serbia is the new Nazi state in Europe. The SAS is already with you and very soon now we will be coming to join them. Bone Crusher, Special Boat Section, Royal Marines." http://www.srpska-mreza.com Serbian Network flashes wanted posters for Bill Clinton and other Serb hate figures such as Robin Cook, Britain's foreign secretary. It also displays a NATO logo that turns into a Nazi swastika. It is sponsored by America's http://www.srpska-mreza.com/shsc/index.htm Serbian Home Shopping Centre, which is selling bed covers emblazoned with the Serbian coat of arms to support the war effort. Another pro-Serb site is http://www.kosovo.com"www.kosovo.com which is run by Canadians. Two American sites also offer a pro-Serb slant. Criticism of the war from academic intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky and Edward Said are cited on http://www.beograd.com"www.beograd.com which contains links to a wide range of international coverage. At the http://www.commondreams.org/kosovo/kosovo.htm Common Dreams site, you can get a left-wing American perspective. It is more anti-war than pro-Serb, and it also includes handy links to a range of news sources. Until it was shut down on April 2nd, Belgrade's Radio B92, provided an invaluable independent Yugoslav voice, complete with live radio reports over the net. http://helpb92.xs4all.nl a site in the Netherlands is co-ordinating the international support campaign for Radio B92. Also alas now closed is Kosovo's http://www.radio21.net/english/headlines.htm"Radio 21, which gave a Kosovar Albanian perspective. Free radio survives in Montenegro, Serbia's increasingly reluctant junior partner in what remains of Yugoslavia. http://www.antenam.org Radio Antena M can be heard, though getting the connection is frequently quite difficult. Unsurprisingly, news direct from Kosovo is hard to come by. Eeerily, many sites, such as http://www.kosova.com www.kosova.com, stopped updating on March 24th, the day NATO's bombing campaign began. But the http://www.alb-net.com/index.htm Kosovo Crisis Centre is a good source of information on the situation with refugees, and offers news in Albanian for those seeking to locate relatives. It also prints letters of support from around the world. The http://www.kosova-press.com Kosova Press site does a good job of collating Albanian sources on the war. The website of the http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Track/4165/kla2.html Kosovo Liberation Army is still up and running, complete with its ominous music but it appears not to have been updated for a long time. A Croat journalist, Mario Profaca, runs a nasty and tasteless anti-Serb http://mprofaca.cro.net/mainmenu.html site, a helpful and timely reminder that chauvinism is not an exclusively Serbian vice. Most television networks are covering the war on the web too. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/10/kosovo CNN's website is first-rate. As well as up-to-the-minute news, it includes interactive maps, e-mails from Kosovo and a message board for readers. Also excellent is the http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special-report/1998/kosovo BBC's site, which offers World Service news in Serbian, Albanian and Macedonian, video clips and comprehensive coverage from BBC journalists. http://www.msnbc.com/news/KOSOVO - Front.asp MSNBC also has a good site. For a broader and more considered perspective, the http://www.iwpr.net Institute for War and Peace Reporting, a London-based charity, offers outstanding coverage and analysis in English, Serbian and Albanian of a broad range of topics related to the war, filed by reporters on the ground. One article suggests Muslims in the Sandzak region of Serbia fear they may be the next victims of ethnic cleansing; another reports on the Kosovan refugees in Skopje, the Macedonian capital. It also offers free subscriptions to regular e-mail reports. Coverage of Kosovo on the web is a godsend for news junkies and-the archives permitting-for future historians as well. It is also a vital source for anyone who wants to understand this agonising war by hearing directly what the participants are saying. --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl