“Alternative Information Network” (AIM)

In October 1992, thirty professional journalists from the different republics of former Yugoslavia participated in a conference organised by the European Civic Forum in Uzhgorod, Ukraine. They were all aware of the disastrous role state-controlled and nationalist media played in fanning the conflict’s flames. They established the “Alternative Information Network (AIM)”, based on a specifically developed electronic communication system with a central computer in Paris. The aim was to gather independent journalists, facilitate communication between countries within former Yugoslavia, support existing independent media and promote the creation of new media outlets, by providing those outlets with free high-quality articles. The network went on-line in June 1993, with the support of the European Civic Forum and other organisations. The group also encouraged foreign media to use its material, and a selection of articles was regularly published in English in the bi-montly “AIM Review”.

There have been different other international initiatives to support independent media in BiH and other successor states of Yugoslavia. One example is the Media Centar created in 1995 in Sarajevo by the Open Society Fund BiH. Another example is the organisation “Press Now”, established in May 1993 in Amsterdam by the Dutch Association of Journalists and other groups, and which for example provided important financial and material support to Radio Zid in Sarajevo,