PROPAGANDA WAR (http://www.freemedia.at/index1.html) there are some articles on-line, too! and a couple of lbo-contributors among the authors. About the Book
The past decade has seen a plunging spiral of violence in the Balkans. The media has
tragically become entwined in this deadly cycle. Flames of hatred have been fanned by
biased journalists, and those reporting objectively have often faced appalling consequences.
Nato’s decision to attempt to bomb Serbia into respecting human rights and accepting a
peace settlement in Kosovo attracted universal media attention. With the alliance’s colossal
might towering over a war-torn and sanctioned Yugoslavia, the military outcome was clear
from the onset.
But the battle could have been won and lost in the trenches of public opinion. Both parties
buried inconvenient information and deployed deceit and implication to win the sympathies
of a sceptical audience.
The war was punctuated with accusations from the media and against the media. Claims of
censorship, propaganda purveying, distorted and suppressed information were met by
allegations of media treason, sensationalist reporting, cheerleading and appeasing.
This book details the media aspects of the military conflict in the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia from various perspectives. Several opinions have been collated from news
professionals on the issues of the flow of information and the media coverage of the conflict
- in FRY itself, in the bordering countries, in key Nato countries and in selected neutral
countries.
The contributors appraise issues such as the quality of coverage, focus of attention, levels
of impartiality, the parameters of the media debates and the general presentation. Several
journalists who reported from the field have contributed their media-related observations and
personal experiences during the period of the Nato airstrikes.
The Kosovo News and Propaganda War examines and challenges the media’s coverage of
the conflict; questions the sources of information; outlines the obstacles that were erected
to impede free reporting; asks where and how truth got lost or distorted; and probes for
media lessons worth learning from this tragic experience.