ВЕЧЕРЊЕ НОВОСТИ, ГИНТЕР ГРАС И НАТО БОМБАРДОВАЊЕ СР ЈУГОСЛАВИЈЕ 1999. ГОДИНЕ
VEČERNJE NOVOSTI89, GÜNTER GRAS AND THE NATO BOMBING OF FR YUGOSLAVIA IN 1999

Summary/Abstract: During the bombing of FR Yugolsavia in 1999, Večernje novosti were a significant agent in the war propaganda against North-Atlantic Alliance. Targets of the media criticism by this well-known Belgrade daily paper were, among others, high state and military clerks of NATO alliance countries, as well as intellectuals and public persons from the Western world that supported this military intervention by any means. After famous German writer Günter Grass had supported air strikes on FRY during the Bookfair in Lepzig, Večernje novosti initiated the action of collecting and returning his books. Numerous libraries from Serbia, Montenegro and Republic of Srpska (more than 40), publishing houses, bookstores, academicians, university professors, germanists, translators, writers, literary critics, poets, librarians, people from the world of culture and art, but also “regular” citizens, students and pupils all took part in this action. Protest against Grass‘s statement was being expressed in various manners, including harsh and hard casifications. There were often exaggerations on account of consequences of the uttered words, thus he was being linked to the totalitarian ideologies of fascism and nazism and accused of being American vassal. Propaganda attacks of Večernje novosti on him surpassed in amount even those addressed towards certain people who were, by command and politically, direct agents of the agression on FRY. As a reason for such stormy reaction of the readers, it was said that he Grass was not expected to do such a thing and that he had betrayed his humane approach and principles. Reasons for the media campaign were, however, also present in the accumulated anger and dissatisafaction of the FRY citizens who could not express those feelings to the real agents of the bombing. This way they simbolically, and also in a concrete manner, contributed to the mass protest against bombing. Finally, this action was used to homogenize and mobilize the attention of the Serbian public, thus redirected from war daily routines, sufferings and destruction.

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