June 12, 2003
THE NETWORK OF INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS FOR CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE (NIJ)
A Message to NIJ Users and Colleagues from the Editor-in-Chief
Dear NIJ users, Dear colleagues,
Ten years since its founding and after seven years of continuous publication in the form of a weekly service, The Network of Independent Journalist (NIJ) faces serious financial difficulties that we hope temporarily will force it to suspend publication.
As you know, NIJ is not a commercial project and its numerous users have received it free of charge thanks to its sponsor, the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe, through grants of the National Endowment for Democracy.
Unfortunately, due to sudden stop in the NEDs support, it is not possible for us to continue with undisturbed and continuous service at this moment.
Therefore the NIJ newsroom, in consultation with IDEE, decided to make a short break in service and engage in a new fundraising in order to secure finances necessary for the NIJs continuation and improvement.
The NIJ newsroom has already been planning for a while to re-organize the service and improve it with new content based on new pressing issues and areas in transition. We will work on this project systematically during the summer.
For this period, NIJ will publish only special issues, i.e. significant analytical and research materials which are covering issues or countries of special interest. Issue no. 321 of the Weekly Service is an example.
We know that this is not the most desirable solution and that our decision will cause certain difficulties to many of our clients, for which we deeply apologize, but once again we would like to emphasize that we expect this suspension to be only a temporary measure and that we truly expect NIJ to continue with its successful mission.
Your suggestions and ideas are welcome (please email: [email protected]).
Sincerely yours,
Stojan Obradovic,
Editor in Chief