Bosnian newspaper crosses ethnic divide

Zeljko Kopanja, a Bosnian Serb, is probably the most feared journalist in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As editor of Banja Luka's daily Nezavisne Novine, or The Independent News, he keeps watch on every politician and writes about every indicted war criminal, regardless of ethnic background.

As a result, many Muslims and Croats hold him in wary awe - and many fellow Serbs despise him as a traitor. But more and more people across the country are reading his newspaper anyway.

"I have a mission," Mr. Kopanja says in his gravelly bass. "I want our newspaper to reach all the people of this country: Serbs, Muslims, and Croats.... It will not stop at ethnic boundary lines."

In Bosnia, where newspaper readership - like the Army, schools, sports and just about everything else - is divided along ethnic lines, Kopanja is demonstrating the transcendent power of the pen.

In the past two weeks, Nezavisne Novine has published in-depth articles about war-crimes proceedings at The Hague: the indictment of two Croatian generals for crimes against Serb civilians; the sentencing of a Bosnian Serb general to 46 years in prison for his role in the execution of 7,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995; and, on Friday, the extradition of three Bosnian Muslims to The Hague for war crimes committed primarily by foreign Islamic fighters in Bosnia.

"We must investigate all the war criminals of Bosnia and Herzegovina," Mr. Kopanja says. "We write about Serbian war criminals, even though I am the editor in chief and I am a Serb. My nationality is irrelevant."

Despite threats and fierce political resistance, Kopanja, who himself survived a bomb attack, swore last year that he would give Bosnia a nationwide paper.

"I hope he makes it," says Emir Suljagic, a Muslim reporter for Sarajevo weekly Dani. "That may be the only chance for unity this country has got."

In a state made up of two autonomous regions with a fractious Council of Ministers instead of a central government, unity is rare.

"Most newspapers in Bosnia have strong links to nationalist political parties," says Kenneth Boone, an American media consultant working in Banja Luka. "If you're in a Croatian area, your paper is pro-Croat. If you're in a Serb area, you are generally pro-Serb. Nezavisne doesn't fit that mold."

The other Banja Luka papers, Reporter and Glas Srpski, blatantly favor nationalist Serb politicians, while the major Sarajevo papers, Oslobodenje and Dnevni Avaz, are both tabloids catering to Muslims. Dani and its main competitor, Slobodna Bosna, are less biased, but they are weekly magazines that reach a mainly upper-class Muslim readership.

Kopanja's Nezavisne Novine is the only print medium in Bosnia and Herzegovina with nationwide distribution. It has bureaus in the Muslim political center of Sarajevo and the Croat political center, Mostar. Two years ago the paper switched from the Serbian Cyrillic script to the Roman alphabet used by the rest of Bosnia.

Since 1995, the paper has expanded from 3,000 copies every 15 days to 11,000 copies daily, with a weekly edition selling 18,000 copies, and a popular radio station. Boone and other media watchers report that Nezavisne ranks as the second most-read paper in Bosnia, where each copy of a newspaper is typically shared by 8 to 10 people.

But a policy of ethnic neutrality can be dangerous in the Balkans.

In August 1999, Nezavisne Novine began a series on war crimes with an article about the 1992 murder of 200 Muslim civilians by six Serb policemen. It was the first time an investigative report on Serb war crimes had come out in the Bosnian Serb press, and it shook Banja Luka, releasing a torrent of threatening letters and phone calls against the paper.

On Oct. 22, Kopanja, heading to work, turned the key in his ignition. The car blew up. The journalist lost both legs above the knee. When he awoke in the hospital, he immediately asked for a telephone to call his newsroom. "I got this idea in my head that it would be a good story for the paper," he recalls with a hint of a smile.

Bosnian Serb police have made no arrests in the case, but Mr. Kopanja says most clues point to agents of ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. "The important thing is that our work is not affected by this attack at all," Kopanja says.

Threats and harassment from what Mr. Kopanja calls "extremist circles" continue in letters and phone calls. Several distributors have been beaten and robbed, but Nezavisne's circulation continues to grow, especially among Muslims and Croats.

Muslim and Croat media are also subject to threats.

In 1998, the Dani offices in Sarajevo suffered a grenade attack and a raid by an armed gang, after the magazine ran stories on Bosnian Muslim organized crime.

"Many people on all sides are still infected by the war mentality," Mr. Kopanja says. "The media started the hatred in this country by publishing nationalist propaganda, and now it is our responsibility as journalists to pioneer a path out of this mess."