EXHIBITION ON GLORIOUS SERBIAN HISTORY OPENS

PALE, NOVEMBER 11 /SRNA/ - An exhibition titled "Between News and Propaganda: Lead Type and War Posters in World War I" has opened at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Istočno Sarajevo.

The exhibition's author, Vladimir Barović, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Novi Sad, said it presented the glorious history of their ancestors, of which the Serb people could be proud.

"The Serbian army and people managed to do something few others have managed - to literally rise from the ashes, liberate themselves and unite their enslaved brethren," Barović told SRNA.

He said the exhibition presented Victory Day in World War One by using French newspapers to show all the key aspects of the struggle of the Serb people and the Serbian army for freedom.

Barović said the exhibition included a large number of original items from World War One, including medals, a French officer's cap, cavalry boots and an artillery shell.

"We have various original items brought from the Salonika Front, and we even have a helmet captured on that front, a German soldier's helmet," Barović said.

Those who did not learn their own history would learn someone else's, he said, adding that the glorious Serbian past, both beautiful and difficult, should be a pledge for the future.

Vladan Bartula, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, said it was a great honor to mark 20 years of the journalism program and 108 years since the end of World War One with the exhibition.

He said the newspapers on display related to World War I, to the French-Serbian alliance and friendship, and to the great Serbian struggle, ordeal and suffering, and finally victory.

"Thanks to Professor Barović, who brought us all these artifacts and showed and proved that the memory of all our ancestors who fought on the Salonika Front, and who fought for the freedom of Europe and not just for our freedom in the Balkans, is still alive," Bartula said.

Vuk Vučetić, vice dean for teaching, said the exhibition was one of a series of events organized to mark 20 years of the journalism program.

"With this exhibition, we have managed to bring history and the media together," Vučetić said. He added that it was important for people to see that the media did not actually report on events and reality, but created reality.

The choice of words and interviewees, and of what ended up on the front page, was one of the ways public opinion was shaped and formed, he said.

The exhibition was organized by the University of Istočno Sarajevo's Department of Journalism and Political Science and its Institute of Historical Sciences to mark 20 years of the journalism program and 108 years since the end of World War I.