As Long As Sarajevo Exists - Hardcover

Kurspahi/Acc, Kemal; Kurspahic, Kemal

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0963058770 ISBN 13: 9780963058775

Publisher: Pamphleteers Pr, 1997

Synopsis

Chronicles the survival of the Sarajevo newspaper, "Oslobodjenje", during the seige and the people who risked their lives to safeguard a free and independent press

About this title

Review

...remarkably engaging and readable... Almost as interesting as the professional details of how to produce a newspaper under fire, without money, fuel or newsprint, is Kurspahic's honest depiction of the stresses of communal conflict. -- The Nation, Ian Williams

Since peace makes poor reading, the collapse of Yugoslavia and the resulting Balkan war in Bosnia provides an ample supply of stories of tragedy and courage, hope and despair. During the three year siege of Sarajevo one story stands out as a heroic example of journalism at its best. Sarajevo's only newspaper, Oslobodjenje (Liberation), besieged, battered, and under fire, never missed a day of publication. Its staff of Serbs, Croats, Muslims, and Jews were guided by their grimly defiant and dynamic editor, Kemal Kurspahic, who told them, "As long as Sarajevo exists this newspaper will publish every day." Kurspahic's memoir covers his years as editor (1988-1994), but focuses on the ordeal of the brutal, bloody, and uncertain years of Sarajevo's encirclement by Serbian nationalist forces bent on the city's total destruction. As expected, Kurspahic is a gifted writer, a journalist with a flair for style, clarity and insight. His story is not just newsprint. It is a story of men and women and a newspaper fighting for survival, a story of dedication and human spirit. The staff and reporters of Oslobodjenje endured the same dangers and privations as did all Sarajevo's citizens - hunger, thirst, disease, cold, snipers, shellfire, wounds and death. They also published a daily newspaper despite the Serbs' best efforts to blast them out of business. When their newspaper building was destroyed by artillery fire, the staff published the paper in an underground bunker, distributing it throughout the city themselves, pursued by snipers' bullets and mortar barrages. Five staff members were killed and 20 wounded. Still, throughout those dark days, the paper survived and served (as it still does) as "the voice of multiethnic Bosnia." This is a thoughtful and compelling tale of the tragedy of ethnic war and of journalism the way it should be. -- From Independent Publisher

From Kirkus Reviews

The gripping and poignant account of the survival of Sarajevo's daily newspaper and the abiding ideal of peaceful coexistence that it symbolizes. For over four years, working against material, financial, and personal obstacles (the paper was eventually produced out of the building's bomb shelter), the multiethnic staff of Oslobodjenje kept their paper going. But Kurspahi, its editor in chief during the war, does more than just narrate their story. He places his paper's struggle in the broader context of events in the former Yugoslavia. This was not a civil war, he argues, but one against civilians and their culture, a war against cosmopolitanism. An early chapter covers the initial phase of the paper's ``liberation,'' which saw its transformation from a Communist- controlled daily to one characterized by principles of liberalism and pluralism, and a commitment to peaceful coexistence. For the first time, its staff freely elected editors and selected the stories they would cover, including regular reports on events in other republics. At a time of poor communication and increasing political control, Kurspahi's paper provided perhaps the last true reflection of current events. Kurspahi captures how Sarajevo blossomed, becoming ``an arena for popular self-expression,'' an antidote to the growing chauvinism and intolerance in other republics. In the chapter on the paper in wartime, Kurspahi deftly interweaves the personal and professional, creating a clear parallel between the enormous sacrifices made by Oslobodjenje's staff to keep the paper going and the heroic efforts of Bosnia's citizens to defend their homes, neighbors, and ideals. In the process, he presents the dramatic and often tragic struggles of colleagues, friends, strangers, and public figures. The war may be over and the country divided, but, Kurspahi asserts, a unified Bosnia and its culture will survive as long as the spirit of Oslobodjenje ``defends her essence and keeps faith with memory.'' -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pamphleteers Pr
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0963058770
• ISBN 13: 9780963058775
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248