Curriculum Vitae

Veran Matic, Chief Executive Officer of B92

· Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of Belgrade's leading independent radio and television station B92, Serbia's sole commercially funded public service broadcaster, managing the company's radio, TV, online, publishing and cultural services.

· Born in 1962, in Sabac, Yugoslavia. Studied world literature at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade.

Career

Mr Matic has been engaged in journalism since 1984 with alternative and youth media in Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana. He began his career with NTV Studio B, Belgrade's formerly independent television station. In May 1989 he founded Radio B92, the first independent radio station in Serbia.

The station was banned several times, but managed to continue broadcasting until it was illegally taken over by a group close to the government in April 1999. On March 24 1999, just hours before the NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia began, the station was banned and Matic was briefly detained by police. Despite the ban, the station continued to broadcast via the Internet until the take-over.

Under his guidance, Radio B92 had set up and developed its numerous sectors:

· Internet centre - OpenNet, the first Internet provider in the country
· a publishing division which produced more than 30 titles, including books of research and commentary on the wars in the former Yugoslavia and minority rights, and three magazines
· the Cinema REX cultural centre, a venue for the alternative and progressive culture scene
· a film and video division, the winner of a number of national and international awards
· a CD label which featured young and progressive artists in FR Yugoslavia.

Radio B92 became a focus of new, young intellectual and urban circles from all over Serbia and Montenegro, and collaborated with independent journalists in Kosovo, as well as organising a number of anti-war activities, social and cultural events and projects in the independent sector.

After the illegal take-over, the employees of the radio refused to co-operate with the new management and were soon thereafter all laid off. They took to the Internet, creating the FreeB92 website (www.freeb92.net) and subsequently to the ether -- as Radio B2-92 -- broadcasting in Belgrade on the 99.1 MHz frequency and also on the Internet.

Radio B92’s news programmes remain the core of the joint ANEM Radio Network programming, which provides independent news to audiences on some sixty per cent of Yugoslav territory. ANEM is an umbrella organisation providing technical, programming, legal and training assistance to its members and seeking to promote democracy through the dissemination of independent information and closer links with other non-governmental organisations in the country and the region. ANEM consists of the ANEM Radio Network of 28 independent local radio stations, the ANEM Television Network of some twenty local television stations, ANEM Internet Media and the ANEM Legal Service, which provides defence for the media and journalists and has tackled a number of local and international actions to support media and journalists under repression.

During 2000, he launches and leads one of surely the biggest projects within regional networking – in order to overcome the banning of B92 in Belgrade, and with the assistance of its partners from Romania and Bosnia & Herzegovina, he founded a network covering largest part of Serbia, which has done its best to help in informing the citizens regarding the big Belgrade march, which brought about silent change of power. In this way, Television B92 has been born, broadcast first via satellite and through regional networks, starting its daily broadcasting in Belgrade as well, on October 5, 2001.

After the democratic changes have taken place, Radio & Television B92 continues to develop its independent professional journalism.

In December 2000, RTV B92 organized the conference about electronic media, in cooperation with the Council of Europe, entitled the "Media for a Democratic Europe" (http://www.b92.net/events/conference/)

In May 2001, RTV B92 organizes conference dealing with the issue of ‘’Truth, Responsibility and Reconciliation’’, entitled “In Search of Truth & Responsibility – Towards A Democratic Future”
(http://www.b92.net/trr/eng/)

In February 2002, RTV B92 organized international conference in cooperation with the Centre for Anti-War Action, on the Opening of Secret Police Files, held in Belgrade.
(http://www.b92.net/konferencije/dosije/)

Veran Matic received the following awards:

· 1993 - the Annual Award of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
· 1998 - As chairman of ANEM and Radio B92's editor-in-chief, he shared the Olof Palme Memorial Fund's prize for professional journalism and promotion of international understanding with Viktor Ivancic, the chief editor of Croatian independent weekly Feral Tribune and Senad Pecanin, the editor-in-chief of Sarajevo's independent weekly Dani
· 1999 - At the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting, he was proclaimed one of this year's hundred Global Leaders for Tomorrow, along with Veton Surroi, the publisher of Koha Dittore a daily newspaper in Kosovo, and Sasa Vucinic, director of the Prague-based Media Development Loan Fund, as representatives from the Yugoslav Region
· 1999 - USC Annenberg School for Communication Dean's Award for Courage in Journalism
· 1999 - the Social Justice Award from the US-based Children Uniting Nations
· 1999 - The Ilaria Alpi Award, dedicated to the memory of Ilaria Alpi, a reporter of TG3 Rai killed in Mogadiscio under obscure circumstances
· 2000 - The International Press Institute selected him one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes.
· 2004 - The City of Belgrade Award for Journalism in 2003. In the explanation, it is said that Veran Matic has been given the award because, as leader of a large team, he has fundamentally contributed to the preservation of the independent editorial concept of RTV B92

A list of other awards recieved by B92 and its employees is available here

Publishing activities

Veran Matic’s articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, Index on Censorship, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Le Monde, The Nation, and elsewhere.

Other contributions

The conferences Veran Matic has addressed include:

· Turbulent Europe: Conflict, Identity and Culture, EFTSC, London, July 1994;
· Virtual Diplomacy: the Global Communications Revolution and Conflict Management, the US Institute for Peace, Washington, April 1997;
· Lifeline Media: Protecting Civilians In Conflict, the International Centre for Humanitarian Reporting, Boston, April 1997;
· News Traditions and Transitions, Freedom Forum European Media Forum, London, May 1997;
· The Cantigny Conference Series: the Information Revolution and its Impact on the Foundations of National Power, McCormick Tribune Foundation and Center for Strategic & International Studies, September 1997;
· Broadcasting to People in Conflicts, United States Institute of Peace and Voice of America, Washington, October 1997.
· Future Architecture of Europe, organized by the Liberal, Democratic and Reformers' Group of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly in Baden Baden, Germany, January 23-24, 1999
· 1999 International Studies Association Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., February 1999.