Perica Vučinić, 1959-2005
Sorry to see via East Ethnia that Perica Vučinić died last week, aged only 46. I remember him launching his magazine Reporter/Репортер in Banja Luka back in 1997 when I was living there; it was soon the best independent source for news analysis in the entire Serbian cultural space (though as this was at the peak of Milosevic's power, this is not saying very much). Although these are easier days, it's still one of the leading media sources in the region. I don't think I ever met him (and have certainly no idea what caused his early death), but I just wanted to acknowledge his contribution and his courage in opening up the space for political discourse under the peculiar circumstances of Bosnia and Serbia in the late 1990s.