Prime Time Crime: The Media and the Balkan Wars
Current Issues Briefing
Date and Time
Tuesday, March 4, 2003
2:00–4:00 PM
Location
U.S. Institute of Peace
2nd Floor Conference Room
1200 17th St, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Directions
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the flames of war in the Balkans were fanned by newspapers and electronic media controlled by ultra-nationalist governments. Of the few journalists who maintained their independence, the most prominent was editor of the antiwar Sarajevo daily Oslobodjene Kemal Kurspahic—recipient of the 2000 International Press Institute World Press Freedom Hero award and 1999-2000 Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
On March 4 the Institute held a briefing to explore the lessons from this Balkan catastrophe as described in Kurspahic's new book Prime Time Crime: Balkan Media in War and Peace (United States Institute of Peace Press, 2003). Kurspahic was joined at the briefing by a panel of distinguished experts including award winning journalist Roy Gutman and former Voice of America director Sanford Unger. The panel explored issues including:
- Ways to foster independent media voices in situations of ethnic and religious conflict;
- How to promote non-nationalist media in post-conflict environments and during transitions to democracy; and
- The use of "media intervention" as a key element of the international community's effort to replace cycles of conflict with principles of justice, accountability and reconciliation.
Co-moderated by Balkans expert and Institute executive vice president Harriet Hentges and Institute Fellowship Program director Joseph Klaits, the presentations were followed by questions from the floor.
Speakers
- Kemal Kurspahic
Spokesman, UN Office on Drugs and Crime; former Institute Senior Fellow; and author Prime Time Crime (U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2003)
- Roy Gutman
Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, Newsweek; and current Institute Senior Fellow and Director of American University's Crimes of War Project
- Richard Kauzlarich
Director, Special Initiative on the Muslim World, U.S. Institute of Peace; and former U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Sanford Ungar, Moderator
President, Goucher College; and former Director, Voice of America
- Harriet Hentges, Moderator
Executive Vice President, U.S. Institute of Peace
- Joseph Klaits, Moderator
Director, Jennings Randolph Fellowship Program, U.S. Institute of Peace
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