Tempest,

“might suggest INK, if I directed this question of yours at you and replaced the word ‘western’ with ‘serbian’, would it make sense to you?”

As I have already explained – I am almost infinitely more under the influence of western media than I am of its Serbian analogues. I rarely read “Serbian media” and tend to rely largely on my understanding of the region and my knowledge of Serbia in particular when receiving news about it from the UK media. You on the other hand have rightly admitted to being under a lifetime of influence by the media here…. Now I understand why you have such a superior, high-horse attitude about the west and western society.

As for this site – I don’t regard it as being part of the western news media as such… While it is in English and most posters are from the west one is quite free to read news from China, Pakistan, Russia or India. The news doesn’t got through an editorial process and tends anyway to be second hand information provided by individuals. Not quite the same as The Times or The Sun or the BBC is it? Also, if a poster here writes something you disagree with you have a right of instant reply which will be viewed by everyone who reads that thread…. Similar to the fora of ancient Rome I beleive.

I don’t quite know what your opinion or preconception of Serbian media happens to be but if you beleive that freedom of speech was highly restricted in some draconian sense – you’re misinterpreting the situation. Yes, it is true that under the last administration the state media tended to report what it was told by the government but even under Milosevic local TV stations, radio stations and news mgazines like Vreme could and did write what they wanted. Also, even under Milosevic it was a million times easier to read Time magazine, listen to the BBC World Service and watch CNN in Belgrade than it was to get any Serbian media in London. Similarly, I bet it’d be easier to get western media in Teheran than it would be for you to buy an Iranian newspaper in London.