(CPJ/IFEX) – The seditious libel trial against deputy editor Viktor Ivancic and correspondent Marinko Culic of the satirical weekly “Feral Tribune” was once again postponed by a Zagreb city court during a 28 September 1998 hearing, CPJ has learned. **For background information see IFEX alerts of 19 May 1998, 19 December, 21 October and 6 […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The seditious libel trial against deputy editor Viktor Ivancic
and correspondent Marinko Culic of the satirical weekly “Feral Tribune” was
once again
postponed by a Zagreb city court during a 28 September 1998 hearing, CPJ has
learned.
**For background information see IFEX alerts of 19 May 1998, 19 December, 21
October and 6 May 1997, and 10 October, 26 and 19 September, 14 and 12 June,
and 8 May 1996**
The judge scheduled the next hearing for 21 December after the prosecution’s
expert witness, a historian specializing in the ideology and policies of the
late Spanish dictator, General Francisco Franco, failed to show for the
trial.
Background Information
The journalists face charges of insulting Croatian President Franjo Tudjman
in an April 1996 article and photo montage satirizing his plan to bury the
bones of Croatian fascists alongside their victims at the site of a World
War II death camp by comparing it to a similar plan by Franco. In May 1997,
a higher court overturned their September 1996 acquittal on the charges,
which can carry a sentence of up to three years in prison. Since then, the
trial has repeatedly been postponed. The independent Split-based “Feral
Tribune” faces nearly 60 pending criminal and civil libel cases, filed
mostly by officials and individuals close to the regime (see IFEX alerts).
