Dear All,

Radio B92 is now banned from broadcasting its independent 
news. The Yugoslavia government closed their studio and 
office.

A group of people from Europe and from around the world are
staging a campaign to help B92 continue to provide news
updates about the situation in Yugoslavia as it develops. 
The campaign is centred in Amsterdam, the Netherlands,
through the internet service provider, XS4ALL and the
cultural organisation, De Balie.  The group aim to achieve
this through the establishment of a fundraising campaign, a
website and a Real Audio service.

The current crisis situation in Yugoslavia means that the
potential for B92 continuing its independent news service is
limited.  The recently founded support group intends to take
measures to distribute news by and about B92, from
Amsterdam.  For this purpose a special website has been
established: 

http://helpB92.xs4all.nl

B92 is the backbone of the independent news service in
Yugoslavia.  Without immediate support this last source of
independent news for the inhabitants of this region is
endangered. A campaign has been started by the support
group, with the objective of sending money and equipment to
B92 and other independent radio stations in Serbia and
Kosovo.

There are four key ways that you can assist the group in its
support of B92.

1) Link to our website:

http://helpb92.xs4all.nl

by using the logo from the website and promote the spreading
of this logo in any way you can. This logo is also attached
to this email.

After you've added our logo to your site you can list yourself
on our buttonpage.

Also link to the B92 website:

http://www.b92.net

2) Help us raise funds for B92 and other endangered
independent news services from Serbia and Kosovo. The
special accountnumber that has been  opened for donations is
7676 (Postbank, Netherlands).

by international money order payable to: 
Press Now 
Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10 
1017 RR Amsterdam 
Netherlands

or by international bank transfer to: 
Postbank Amsterdam
Swift address:  INGBNL2A 
Accountnumber:  7676 
in the name of: Press Now (adress above) 
Please specify "Help B92".

3) Distribute the press release about the fundraising
campaign to your local media and politicians. You will 
find the press release at the end of this email.

4) Sign the guestbook on the website if you want to express
your individual support or, if you represent an organisation
that wants to become part of the support group, mail us more
details about the organisation and nature of the support
offered, preferably accompanied by a small logo in
gif-format to include on our website.

The Help B92 Team:

B92:http://www.b92.net/ 
De Balie:http://www.balie.nl/ 
De Digitale Stad:http://www.dds.nl/
Next 5 Minutes:http://www.n5m.org/ 
Press Now:http://www.dds.nl/~pressnow/ 
radioqualia (Australia):http://www.radioqualia.va.com.au/ 
De Waag (MONM):http://www.waag.org/ 
XS4ALL:http://www.xs4all.nl/


Please Note that the following is the new link for B92 
internet audio stream: 

http://play.rbn.com/?b92


================================================== 

Press Release
April 3 1999

THE FREE VOICE OF B92 BANNED: THE STRUGGLE GOES ON
Latest news: http://helpb92.xs4all.nl

The last message from Yugoslavia's most prominent independent
broadcaster -B92 - as government officials and the police moved in on
April 2, 1999, to take over the station and silence the last vestiges of
free speech in Serbia was -  'Keep The Faith!'
 
HelpB92 was launched on March 25, 1999, to do just that. The support
group uses Internet technology to enable  B92 and all other banned
independent media in Yugoslavia defend their right to speak freely, and
the pivotal role of free media to regional stability.

The action against B92 comes at the end of a week of intense media
repression against independent media in Yugoslavia. On March 24,
government officials confiscated B92's transmitter, cutting off direct
radio broadcasts to Belgrade. B92 responded by harnessing the power of
the Internet and Real Audio, satellite, medium wave broadcasts and
solidarity rebroadcasting across the world to its struggle for free
speech. B92 supporters responded in record number - the B92 web site had
15 million visitors in just 7 days.

At the same time, in the past ten days, ten rebroadcasters of B92's news
from the Association of Independent Electronic Media - ANEM have been
closed down by the government. Other ANEM members have the either taken
themselves voluntarily off the air rather than re-broadcast the
propaganda of state radio and TV, which they must do by law when the
country is in a state of war, or have been taken over by the government.

In Kosovo, the offices of the two most important alternative Albanian
language media - Koha and Radio 21 - have also been destroyed and their
staff have fled the country.

The closure of B92, on April 2, 1999, means that the only source of
information left for audiences and viewers in the region is the
state-controlled Radio Television Serbia. 

All the journalists from these banned independent media are now in dire
straits and money is urgently needed to help assist these journalists to
find new means to get news out.

We therefore ask people to please express their involvement and support
this cause by donating money to the special HelpB92 fund, bank account
number 7676, Postbank Amsterdam, Swift address INGBNL2A, in the name of
Press Now. Please specify 'Help B92'

In the last week, HelpB92 has received an enormous amount of support
from around the globe. In Spain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Australia
supporting web sites have been established in their national languages.
Hundreds of people and organisations have
placed the HelpB92 logo and link to the web site on their home pages and
signed the interactive guest book. 

Future actions include benefit concerts, global rebroadcasting
initiatives and Internet Real Audio actions.

HelpB92 was founded by: B92, De Balie, De Digitale Stad, Next 5 Minutes,
Press Now, Public Netbase (Austria), radioqualia (Australia), De Waag
(MONM) and XS4ALL Internet.