Veran Matić

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Veran Matić (Serbian Cyrillic Веран Матић), born in 1962, is the Chief Executive Officer of B92.

[edit] Career

Matić has been engaged in journalism since 1984 with alternative and youth media in Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana. He began his career with NTV Studio B. In May 1989 he founded Radio B92.

The station was banned several times, but managed to continue broadcasting until it was taken over by a group close to the government in April 1999. On March 24 1999, just hours before the NATO air strikes against FR Yugoslavia began, the station was banned and Matic was briefly detained by police. Despite the ban, the station continued to broadcast via the Internet until the take-over.

Under his guidance, Radio B92 had set up and developed its numerous sectors:

Internet centre - OpenNet.
a publishing division which produced more than 30 titles, including books of research and commentary on the wars in the former Yugoslavia and minority rights, and three magazines
the Cinema REX cultural centre, a venue for the alternative and progressive culture scene
a film and video division, the winner of a number of national and international awards
a CD label which featured young and progressive artists in FR Yugoslavia.

During 2000, he launches and leads one of surely the biggest projects within regional networking – in order to overcome the banning of B92 in Belgrade, and with the assistance of its partners from Romania and Bosnia & Herzegovina, he founded a network covering largest part of Serbia, which has done its best to help in informing the citizens regarding the big Belgrade march, which brought about silent change of power. In this way, Television B92 has been born, broadcast first via satellite and through regional networks, starting its daily broadcasting in Belgrade as well, on October 5, 2001.

[edit] Awards

1993 - the Annual Award of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
1998 - As chairman of ANEM and Radio B92's editor-in-chief, he shared the Olof Palme Memorial Fund's prize for professional journalism and promotion of international understanding with Viktor Ivančić, the chief editor of Croatian weekly Feral Tribune and Senad Pecanin, the editor-in-chief of Sarajevo's weekly Dani.
1999 - At the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting, he was proclaimed one of this year's hundred Global Leaders for Tomorrow, along with Veton Surroi, the publisher of Koha Dittore a daily newspaper in Kosovo, and Sasa Vucinic, director of the Prague-based Media Development Loan Fund, as representatives from the Yugoslav Region.
1999 - USC Annenberg School for Communication Dean's Award for Courage in Journalism
1999 - the Social Justice Award from the US-based Children Uniting Nations
1999 - The Ilaria Alpi Award, dedicated to the memory of Ilaria Alpi, a reporter of TG3 Rai killed in Mogadiscio under obscure circumstances.
2000 - The International Press Institute selected him one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes.
2004 - The City of Belgrade Award for Journalism in 2003. In the explanation, it is said that Veran Matic has been given the award because, as leader of a large team, he has fundamentally contributed to the preservation of the independent editorial concept of RTV B92.