Informing Citizens in a Highly Restrictive Environment Using Low-Budget Multimedia Communications: A Serbian Case Study

This paper describes an inexpensive network for news exchange between TV stations, as well as a system for news production and distribution in a highly restrictive environment developed by the authors, among others. The system was initially designed in response to the news restrictions established in Yugoslavia by Slobodan Milosevic. During this time, independent media were periodically disrupted or banning. All communication channels in Yugoslavia were controlled under the dictatorship and so were subject to being censored or even turned off. For this reason, the network had to provide high system redundancy. Following the democratic changes in Serbia, the project’s mission evolved into a suitable solution for the network of branch offices. The network involves broadcasters and correspondents from the five successor countries of the former Yugoslavia. In addition, correspondents from other networks are now able to send their news packages and other information.