(CPJ/IFEX) – Zagreb Municipal Court Judge Marin Mrcela on 21 December 1998 once again acquitted “Feral Tribune” editor Viktor Ivancic and reporter Marinko Culic on charges they insulted Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in an April 1996 article and photomontage in the satirical weekly, CPJ has learned. **Updates IFEX alerts of 21 December, 24 November, 30 […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – Zagreb Municipal Court Judge Marin Mrcela on 21 December 1998
once again acquitted “Feral Tribune” editor Viktor Ivancic and reporter
Marinko Culic on charges they insulted Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in
an April 1996 article and
photomontage in the satirical weekly, CPJ has learned.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 21 December, 24 November, 30 September and 19 May
1998, 19 December, 21 October and 6 May 1997, 10 October, 26 September, 19
September, 14 June, 12 June and 8 May 1996**
If convicted, Ivancic and Culic could have faced jail sentences under
Articles 71 and 72 of the Croatian penal code for defaming President Tudjman
in an article titled “Bones in the Mixer” and a photomontage titled
“Jasenovac—the Largest Croatian Underground City.” The trial was
repeatedly postponed since 5 May 1997, when an appeals court overturned the
journalists’ previous acquittal on the same charges. Judge Mrcela had
acquitted Ivancic and Culic on 26 September 1996.
“Feral Tribune” and other independent newspapers in Croatia face hundreds of
criminal and civil libel suits filed chiefly by public officials and
individuals close to the ruling party with the aim of silencing their
critical coverage of the regime.
