full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sasa Vucinic: Why we should invest in a free press

Unscramble the Blue Letters


My story strats — the story I want to share — starts in 1991. At that time I was running B92, the only independent, for that matter the only electronic media, in the country. And I guess we were srainhg — we had that regular life of the only independent media in the country, opteniarg in hostile eirvoemnnnt, where government really wants to make your life miserable. And there are different ways. Yeah, it was the usual cocktail: a little bit of threats, a little bit of friendly advice, a little bit of financial police, a little bit of text control, so you always have somebody who never leaves your office. But what they really do, which is very powerful, and that is what governments in the late '90s started doing if they don't like independent media cnmiopeas — you know, they threaten your aiertdrvess. Once they threaten your advertisers, market forces are actually, you know, destroyed, and the advertisers do not want to come — no mtetar how much does it make sense for them — do not want to come and advertise. And you have a problem mankig ends meet.

Open Cloze


My story ______ — the story I want to share — starts in 1991. At that time I was running B92, the only independent, for that matter the only electronic media, in the country. And I guess we were _______ — we had that regular life of the only independent media in the country, _________ in hostile ___________, where government really wants to make your life miserable. And there are different ways. Yeah, it was the usual cocktail: a little bit of threats, a little bit of friendly advice, a little bit of financial police, a little bit of text control, so you always have somebody who never leaves your office. But what they really do, which is very powerful, and that is what governments in the late '90s started doing if they don't like independent media _________ — you know, they threaten your ___________. Once they threaten your advertisers, market forces are actually, you know, destroyed, and the advertisers do not want to come — no ______ how much does it make sense for them — do not want to come and advertise. And you have a problem ______ ends meet.

Solution


  1. companies
  2. environment
  3. operating
  4. sharing
  5. matter
  6. starts
  7. making
  8. advertisers

Original Text


My story starts — the story I want to share — starts in 1991. At that time I was running B92, the only independent, for that matter the only electronic media, in the country. And I guess we were sharing — we had that regular life of the only independent media in the country, operating in hostile environment, where government really wants to make your life miserable. And there are different ways. Yeah, it was the usual cocktail: a little bit of threats, a little bit of friendly advice, a little bit of financial police, a little bit of text control, so you always have somebody who never leaves your office. But what they really do, which is very powerful, and that is what governments in the late '90s started doing if they don't like independent media companies — you know, they threaten your advertisers. Once they threaten your advertisers, market forces are actually, you know, destroyed, and the advertisers do not want to come — no matter how much does it make sense for them — do not want to come and advertise. And you have a problem making ends meet.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
independent media 6
media companies 5
boris nikolayevich 4
independent newspaper 3
daily newspaper 3
media systems 2
media company 2
million dollars 2
developing world 2
respected newspaper 2
great story 2
people running 2
press freedom 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
independent media companies 2

Important Words


  1. advertise
  2. advertisers
  3. advice
  4. bit
  5. companies
  6. control
  7. country
  8. destroyed
  9. electronic
  10. ends
  11. environment
  12. financial
  13. forces
  14. friendly
  15. government
  16. governments
  17. guess
  18. hostile
  19. independent
  20. late
  21. leaves
  22. life
  23. making
  24. market
  25. matter
  26. media
  27. meet
  28. miserable
  29. office
  30. operating
  31. police
  32. powerful
  33. problem
  34. regular
  35. running
  36. sense
  37. share
  38. sharing
  39. started
  40. starts
  41. story
  42. text
  43. threaten
  44. threats
  45. time
  46. usual
  47. ways
  48. yeah