In 1990, dissatisfied with the media climate in SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia's largest constituent unit, a group of liberal Serbian intellectuals, including prominent lawyer Srđa Popović, decided to start a weekly news magazine.

Following a seven-month preparation throughout the year, Vreme was launched with its first issue coming out on 29 October 1990,[1] a little over a month before the 1990 general election in SR Serbia as the entire country of SFR Yugoslavia was transforming its governance from a one-party system under the Yugoslav Communist League (SKJ) to a multi-party one.

It characterizes itself as "a magazine without lies, hatred, or prejudice" and opposed nationalistic mobilization for the Yugoslav wars.

[2][3] During Slobodan Milošević's reign, Vreme was one of a handful of independent Serbian media outlets which resisted his influence and control and tried to counterbalance nationalist rhetoric.

[4] In May 1992, it published articles on the destruction of cities in Bosnia and Croatia, and in November 1992 described attacks on cultural heritage sites (by both Serb and non-Serb forces).