Local Media and the Long-term Conflict Transformation: Eastern Slavonia 25 Years since UNTAES

1996-1998 United Nation’s UNTAES transitional administration, deployed for 2 years in Eastern Slavonia (Croatia), is often described as one of the most successful UN peace efforts. Now, 25 years since it was deployed, we are revisiting the region to investigate the long-term developments as they are evident in the writing of local media. This empirical research focuses on the long-term post-conflict cooperative or divisive narratives in local Croat and Serb media in the town of Vukovar, the centre of the region. While some progress was achieved in the media’s commitment to peace journalism, we were still able to observe deeply entrenched long-lasting inter-communal mistrust, accusations and readiness of political elites to abuse delicate divisions. This discovery raises the important question of just how far does the successful and exemplary peacekeeping mission or administration goes in the context of developed local institutions, and to what extent previous patterns nevertheless remain in place.