Friday, March 22, 2002

A Bard College Web Site Streams and Archives Video of Milosevic Trial By SCOTT CARLSON For some, it's the comeuppance of a devil; for others, the persecution of a hero. Bard College has put together a Web site that offers something rare for those interested in the strife of the former Yugoslavia: an opportunity to watch Slobodan Milosevic, once Yugoslavia's president, stand trial on charges of using torture and genocide in an attempt to create an ethnically pure Serbian nation. Bard officials say it is the only online English-language archive of the trial, which is taking place before a war-crimes tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands. At the site, users can browse through a day-by-day summary of the trial or click on a link and watch the archived proceedings on a small video screen. The site also features links to a live video feed of the trial and to articles, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations that offer information about the Yugoslavian war and Mr. Milosevic's rise and fall. The site is part of a research-and-teaching department at Bard called the Human Rights Project. Thomas Keenan, the director of the department, says that he became interested in broadcasting video from the trial after a colleague in the Netherlands -- Frank Tiggelaar, who runs a Web site for the Yugoslav diaspora -- suggested that it might be possible. "We decided that it would make as much sense not only to stream it but to archive it, not only as an historical record, but also because it's a pain in the neck for Americans to wake up at 3 in the morning to see it," he says. The Hague courtroom is wired for television and radio. A computer digitizes the video feed, which streams live on Mr. Tiggelaar's site and at the same time is saved to a server in the Netherlands owned by Bard. When Mr. Keenan and his colleagues arrive at work in the morning, they format the video and check for errors, then post it on the Bard site. For now, only the video and links to externally produced articles are available on Bard's site, but Mr. Keenan says he plans to add other elements. He is commissioning journalists who covered the Yugoslavian conflict to watch the trial and write commentaries. Members of his technical staff are also compiling a database that will allow keyword searches so users don't have to sit through hours of video to find specific moments. "We're adding video at the rate of six or seven hours a day, so we're trying to dream up ways to make it more navigable and useful," Mr. Keenan says. And Mr. Keenan must contemplate accommodating that video for years to come. At the beginning of the trial, when Mr. Milosevic wasn't expected to offer a defense, experts estimated that the trial would take two years, Mr. Keenan says. "Now, no one knows how long it will take because Milosevic is spending an incredible amount of time talking." Mr. Keenan started the project with two $75,000 grants, from the Glaser Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He expects the project to cost $100,000 a year. He says that the site has been popular among people from the former Yugoslavia. "One Bosnian wrote to say that he wanted to buy a copy of the archive so that he could show it to his children," Mr. Keenan says. "It was a very touching letter." The video has been popular among Milosevic supporters because it gives them a chance to see the former president speak. However, Mr. Keenan says, some of them believe that the court is a NATO-sponsored setup, and that Mr. Milosevic's best moments have been edited out. The archive has also found regular viewers in academe. Eric D. Gordy, an assistant professor of sociology at Clark University, has directed his students to the site. Some of them are writing papers on the trial and follow it every day. "The tribunal doesn't archive the video, so if someone wants to see the trial live, you've got wake up at 3 in the morning, and my students didn't want to do that," he says. "Fortunately, I was able to send them to [Bard's site], much to their relief." "One nice thing about the Bard site is that it's run by researchers," he adds, "so it's a good place for coverage other than what you can get on the regular daily newspapers and other places online." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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