Feral Tribune Mocked Croatian President
For Plan to Revise WWII Monument
ZAGREB, May 4 (Reuters) — Two Croatian journalists were charged with criminal libel on Tuesday after criticising a plan by President Franjo Tudjman to rebury the remains of World War Two fascists near their victims. The state news agency said the Zagreb prosecutor charged Viktor Ivancic, editor of the satirical and investigative weekly Feral Tribune, and Marinko Culic over an article the paper published last month. It mocked Tudjman for proposing to turn a monument to Jews and Serbs murdered by the 1941-45 Croatian fascist regime into a memorial for all Croatian victims of war and postwar communist terror.The prosecutor said the article "rudely and falsely slandered" Tudjman who had personally approved the indictments. The journalists face fines or up to three years imprisonment if convicted.
Police went to Feral Tribune's premises last Friday in an unsuccessful attempt to question Ivanovic. "I refused to answer any questions. The police explained to me that they were applying the new libel law under which the state prosecutor is writing an indictment based on the person (Tudjman) who suffered damage," he saidr.
The Croatian parliament, dominated by Tudjman's ruling HDZ party recently enacted a libel law that seemed meant to stifle criticism of HDZ leaders. The law, together with other measures against the Croatian media, prompted criticism of Tudjman's autocratic style. The government recently fined a leading independent newspaper $2.5 million for alleged tax evasion and closed another weekly on legal technicalities.
The Croatian Journalists' Association said "Croatian authorities are showing an extremely unpleasant and nervous face meant to scare journalists and silence critics." Periodic government moves to curb the media have set back Croatian efforts to win acceptance by West European countries since it won independence from communist Yugoslavia in 1991.
In 1994, Feral Tribune briefly ceased publishing after the authorities imposed a punitive "pornography" tax that critics said was intended to bankrupt the weekly. The courts rescinded the tax after the paper appealed. Critics say there is less free press in Croatia today than in the waning days of Yugoslav socialism. Tudjman's party has total control over state television and has blocked attempts to introduce private TV channels.
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