"The question is, why should anyone send money to George Soros? I think that he has enough already. No doubt the other funds financing the MDLF also have a lot of money already. So has USAID, a US government agency.

"It seems bizarre to send these wealthy organisations money, so that they can control the media in eastern Europe. Probably, the idea is to create the impression of political solidarity with B92 rather than collect money. The Soros funds and other financiers of the so-called "independent media" in eastern Europe have been very successful in presenting their campaigns as grassroots solidarity actions, making good use of the Internet." (From "B92 'solidarity' money goes to Soros Fund " by Paul Treanor, below)

The new FreeB92 website carries an appeal for funds in solidarity. http://www.freeb92.net/donations/index.html

It asks for money to be sent to a New York Bank account of the Media Development Loan Fund. This is a US Foundation, part of the network of Soros' Open Society Institute, and listed as such at their main site: http://www.soros.org/minidir.html

Here is the main MDLF site: http://www.mdlf.org/about.html

Its activities are described as follows:

"MDLF was founded in late 1995 to meet the financial needs of the new independent news organizations that had taken root in the former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. While these news organizations were politically independent and practiced responsible journalism, they lacked access to affordable capital and often were inexperienced in the art of commerce. As a result, they could not subsist and develop with only their own revenues..... From its inception in December 1995 through April 1999, MDLF has made or committed to make low interest loans and other financings totaling approximately US $10.6 million to media institutions in 11 countries."

Staff are listed at http://www.mdlf.org/contact.html

The Board is listed at http://www.mdlf.org/board.html

The Media Development Loan Fund is therefore a main channel for Soros funding of media in eastern Europe. However, as with many of Soros' projects, it has other sources of funds:

http://www.mdlf.org/donors.html

- Eurasia Foundation (http://www.eurasia.org) - J.M. Kaplan Fund - Knight Foundation (www.knightfdn.org) - MacArthur Foundation (www.macfdn.org) - Open Society Institute (www.soros.org) - Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) (www.sida.se)

It works closely with the Swedish Helsinki Committee, which in turn acts as a channel for funds from the Swedish government. Their site says this about its cooperation with the MDLF:

"co-operation with Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF), a Soros institution in Prague, was established during 1997 and will be further developed this year. The aim of this co-operation is to support media orginizations in the region if the former Yugoslavia , through loans and SHC is based on funds provided by the swedish International Development Co-operation Agency, Sida, and Open Society Institute (New York foundation)."

http://www.internews.ru/ICFJ/27/fund.html

"Money loaned would be provided by the Prague-based Media Development Loan Fund, an independent, non-profit agency established in 1995 by the Soros Foundation."

Sasa (Sasha) Vucinic is according to the IWPR site http://www.iwpr.net/iwpr/about.htm

"executive director of the Media Development Loan Fund (Prague and New York) and former director of Radio B-92 in Belgrade"

Vucinic is also an IWPR Trustee.

The MDLF in Praha (Prague) also runs the Center for Advanced Media Prague: http://www.mdlf-camp.net/about.html

"established in early fall 1998 with the aim of introducing new media concepts and solutions to independent media and non-governmental organizations in Eastern Europe"

Now, the question is, why should anyone send money to George Soros? I think that he has enough already. No doubt the other funds financing the MDLF also have a lot of money already. So has USAID, a US government agency.

It seems bizarre to send these wealthy organisations money, so that they can control the media in eastern Europe. Probably, the idea is to create the impression of political solidarity with B92 rather than collect money. The Soros funds and other financiers of the so-called "independent media" in eastern Europe have been very successful in presenting their campaigns as grassroots solidarity actions, making good use of the Internet. But it is certainly an extraordinary hypocrisy to deceive people into thinking they are sending their 10-dollar donation to a struggling "radical" radio station - when in fact it is going to the Foundations of one of the worlds richest men.

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