As Long as Sarajevo Exists: The Editor-In-Chief of Bosnia's Leading Newspaper Chronicles...

This is the dramatic story of a heroic journalistic feat. During the recent Bosnian Serb siege of Sarajevo, the city's Oslobodjenje newspaper, of which Kurspahic was editor-in-chief, hit the streets on schedule every day but one (May 14, 1992). This book is both a history of the paper dating back to the years before WWII and a personal account of getting the news out under the worst possible conditions. Beginning in April 1992 and continuing for more than three years, the Bosnian Serbs and their allies effectively bottled Sarajevo up and subjected it to regular, disastrous artillery and sniper attacks. During that time, the paper's circulation dropped from 80,000 to 3500 as enemy gunfire leveled the press building's towers and eventually demolished the entire building. Kurspahic, who came to the paper as a cub reporter at 16, not only tells how he and his beleaguered staff did it but also discusses earlier struggles: the paper's anti-Nazi past, the effort in 1990 to free it from Communist Party control, the subsequent moves to keep it independent of any nationalist faction--Croatian, Muslim, Serb. Despite all the drama, Kurspahic's story provides a level of detail that may not greatly interest general readers. Christopher Hitchens of the Nation magazine and Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist Roy Gutman contribute long and admiring introductory essays. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)