ZaMirZine - Electronic Bulletin of Civil Society

Project duration - from 1997 until today and further on…

Purpose and goal of the project
The intention of the ZaMirZINE project is to provide the space for topics usually ignored by the mainstream media.
The topics include human rights, women's rights, peace building, nonviolence and tolerance. Also, the project aims to raise the awareness in mainstream media about the importance of the presence of these issues in the media, in order to support further democratization of the society.

Towards 1997 and from 1997 towards today…
Larger emergence of NGOs in Croatia was a reaction to the emerging of war in the region of former Yugoslavia in 1991.
In the early '90s, the new nationalist governments blocked communication between former Yugoslav republics, especially Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The anti-war movement in Croatia organized itself into the Antiwar Campaign of Croatia, a network of 30 organizations for protection of human rights.
The ZaMir network, which functioned as a BBS (Bulletin Board System), was the electronic tool created in 1992 to meet the needs of these organizations, enabling exchange of e-mail in the region. The other media that promoted non-violence and was used as an initiator of progressive ideas was Arkzin - the printed magazine of the Anti-war Campaign. Although at that time, awarded for excellent graphical design, Arkzin "metazine for the politics and culture of civil society", after a few years stopped its publication because of lack of funding.

Currently, except for simple mailing lists, there is a significant lack of media that would support interaction, cooperation and exchange of opinion in the civil society. Further on, non-governmental organizations are not sufficiently present in the public sector because the profit media promote sensationalism or give their public space to those that are news by themselves (politicians, sportsmen…). The lack of journalistic experience by members of non-governmental organizations has contributed to the fact that there is no media that constantly publishes news from the civil sector (except from the Catholic church). The lack of public awareness about NGO accomplishments, as well as the lack of media which would offer space for expression of the third sector political tendencies, are preventing the NGOs in gaining enough influence to be able to use it in accomplishing their goals.

In order to relieve the insufficient impact of the third sector on public politics and the insufficient visibility of organizations in the public, ZaMirNET started, together with some NGOs, ZaMirZINE - the electronic voice of the civil sector.

Based on its experience in creating an electronic newspaper, the positive image within the sector and its position that enables the exchange of information received through various mailing lists and networks, ZaMirNET will, in accordance with its mission, in the same way tend towards developing region