CROATIA-INFORMATION: Don’t Insult the President!

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric-Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Sep 30 1996 (IPS) - When public prosecutor Ivanka Tramoziljka urged the jailing of two reporters last week she invoked no national security provision, nor did she cite any press code violation as a basis for the demand.

Instead the prosecutor wanted the two men sent to jail for insulting President Franjo Tudjman.

“It is not a trial against freedom of speech but against a reprehensible act against the historic work of President Tudjman, whose honour has been tarnished,” she told the Zagreb Municipal court. “Criticism and satire must protect the integrity of the person targeted.”

In the end, the court acquitted the two Croatian journalists who could have been imprisoned for one to three years if found guilty. The trial of Viktor Ivancic and Marinko Culic was regarded by independent journalists as a test for freedom of press.

Ivancic (36) editor-in-chief of Croatia’s only independent satirical weekly Feral Tribune and Culic (45), a columnist for the weekly, were the first journalists accused under a new press law calling for criminal charges against those who insult the head of state and highest state officials of Croatia.

The Croatian Journalist Society and domestic journalist associations strongly criticised the law before it was passed last March. International media organisations described it as “repressive”. Opposition analysts said the measure was intended to muzzle the few independent news organisations that had managed to avoid takeovers by interests fronting for Tudjman’s nationalist Croatian Democratic Party (HDZ).

That did not stop the authorities from pressing ahead with charges against Ivancic and Culic on May 20. At issue was an article titled “Bones in Blender”. It described as “morbid” a suggestion by Tudjman that Croatian World War II fascists be buried next to their victims in Jasenovac concentration camp, east of Zagreb.

The idea of “reconciliation among the dead” put forward by the Croatian leader triggered international condemnation, particularly among the American Jewish community.

The trial opened briefly in June before being adjourned until Sep. 25. A team of eight lawyers defended the journalists. They asked the court to dismiss the charges, describing them as the remnants of communist era.

“These charges would be valid if we were living in 1936 in the Soviet Union but we are in 1996 and Croatia is a country open to the modern world,” said Nada Bulic, one of the attorneys.

Croatia has been under pressure over its record of press freedom. It has been unable to join the Council of Europe largely because of that. Observes say a review expected later this month might have prompted the court to acquit the journalists.

The Council promotes democracy and human rights in Europe, especially in the formerly communist east.

In the end, the judge, Martin Marcela, ruled that “the elements which characterise libel have not come together in this case” and dropped the charges against the two indicted journalists.

Contacted by IPS in Zagreb, Marinko Culic said after the trial he “was glad that the acquittal came at this moment, when the pressure on the independent media was tremendous in Croatia”.

Stevan Obradovic, an independent journalist from Culic’s home town of Split said that “it was important to see whether this will become a practice, or it was just a step back (by the authorities) ahead of the review of Croatia’s possible membership in the Council of Europe”.

“It’s important to know that (Croatian president Franjo) Tudjman has lost to Feral” he added.

“The judge had the courage to deliver this verdict and we must also take into account international pressure,” said Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, head of Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO). Cicak, a top human rights activist, has been frequently denounced by the state-run media.

“We consider the free, independent media to be one of the precondition of basic human rights” Cicak told IPS. “With this, we can now be 99 percent sure that Croatia will be admitted to the Council of Europe next month,” he added sarcastically.

Feral Tribune, with a circulation of some 70,000, has a name that is a play on the Paris-based International Herald Tribune. The word “feral” means “lantern” in the Dalmatian jargon of Croatian language. The weekly is printed in the coastal town of Split, regional centre of once prosperous tourist riviera.

The satirical, muckraking articles and irreverent photo montages of Feral have been a thorn in the side of the nationalist government. Besides Tudjman, the favourite target of the satirical weekly is Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.

Yet even if with this acquittal Croatia passes the test of the Council of Europe membership criteria, domestic analysts wonder what to do with the other regulations which violate freedom of the press.

Most of them point out that only last week Croatian authorities made a further move to strengthen control over the media with the adoption by the lower house of a law on “public information.”

It guarantees journalists “the right to obtain information” but demanded that they be responsible for “the truthfulness of the information published and for respecting the right to privacy.”

According to Karl Gorinsek, an official of the main opposition Croatian Social Liberal Party: “This law prevents the publication of information unfavourable to Croatia. The state is again exerting pressure to prevent articles appearing on Tudjman and his family.”

In fact, human rights activists say there has been a crackdown on the independent press in Croatia for several months now, spearheaded by Tudjman’s ruling HDZ. They say its aim is to quell the growing disaffection with allegations of corruption ahead of key regional elections due to be held later this year.

HDZ, which is sternly nationalist, won the first multiparty elections in Croatia in 1990 and led the country into independence in 1991.

Only a few independent media exist in Croatia: the daily, Novi list, and several weeklies like Feral Tribune, Panorama, Globus, Nacional and Arkzin. Croatia has one state-controlled news agency, HINA, mostly dealing with official statements. There is also a small independent news agency, STINA, based in Split, that has developed news exchange with independent agencies and other media in ex-Yugoslav republics.

The central Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) is under strict state control and there are no independent TV or radio stations, except popular Zagreb radio “101”. But that outlet is under threat of losing its licence.