From: draskovi@usc.edu (Zoran Draskovic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Croatian media
Date: 10 Oct 1992 12:38:16 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: sal-sun35.usc.edu


    PM-CROATIA-MEDIA     10-08 0570

Government Seeks to Control Croatia's Media
By NADA BURIC
Associated Press Writer

    ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) - After the government of President Franjo
Tudjman sent state-appointed directors to run one of Croatia's
largest newspapers, the paper ran a black mourning band on its
masthead.
    The ``protest edition'' Slobodna Dalmacija (Free Dalmatia) put
out Monday was a defiant slap by employees angered over a
government campaign to wrest editorial control of Croatia's media
from journalists and turn the power of the press over to political
hacks.
    The newspaper, published in the port city of Split with a daily
circulation of 100,000, was the latest of several major Croatian
media to have new directors assigned by the government.
    Others include the daily Vjesnik, with a circulation of 50,000
in Zagreb, and the daily Novi List, with a similar circulation in
the port city of Rijeka.
    Zagreb authorities say the naming of the new boards is legal and
an integral part of the country's post-Communist privatization
process. They say it is aimed at protecting public property during
the transformation.
    But many people think it is a cover for efforts by the
nationalist government of Tudjman, a former Communist, to take over
the media and silence critics.
    The campaign also could damage Croatia's image abroad as it
struggles to win Western aid to rebuild the economy, shattered by
the war that followed secession from Serbia-led Yugoslavia.
    Slobodna Dalmacija had persistently criticized Tudjman's
political and economic policies, and his handling of the costly war
with Yugoslavia last year that left at least 10,000 people dead.
    At least one paper, the weekly Danas, stopped publishing after
it refused to accept outside directors. Its owner, Tedeschi Novine,
said he was forced to close the paper after a state-controlled
printer and distributor canceled contracts.
    Danas, which often found itself at odds with the Communist
government, now finds itself stymied by elected leaders.
    The opposition Croatian People's Party called the decision to
put Slobodna Dalmacija under government supervision, ``a sign of
direct pressure on the media which a democratic society must
resist.''
    Another opposition group, Dalmatian Action, called Tudjman's
government a ``leadership of looters ... which wants to be not only
the absolute owner of our thoughts but also ... of the entire
Croatian property (and) cannot allow itself the freedom of the
press.''
    In a front-page editorial on Sunday, Slobodna Dalmacija accused
the government of using methods reminiscent of ``classical state
terrorism,'' and said the authorities had sent ``executioners to
accomplish another dirty job: killing Slobodna Dalmacija.''
    The paper is known for its editorial independence. A four-page
Wednesday insert, called ``Street Light Tribune,'' is filled with
biting satire and criticism often aimed at the government.
    As in the other cases, the government-appointed board already is
testing its ability to exert editorial control.
    But the journalists are resisting.
    When the board ordered that the color of the paper's masthead be
changed to blue from the traditional red - which some associate
with Yugoslavia's Communist era - the staff refused and added black
as a sign of mourning.
    Reporters are threatening to strike if the situation continues.