page_title: Propaganda during the Yugoslav Wars
section_title: Croatian media
hierarchical_section_title: Propaganda during the Yugoslav Wars / Croatian media
caption_attribution_description: English: A refugee girl holds her doll as she arrives with her family in Travnik, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1993.
context_page_description: During the Yugoslav Wars, propaganda was widely used in the media of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in Croatia, and in Bosnian media. Some analysts have also claimed that propaganda tactics were used by the Western media in its coverage of the wars, particularly in its portrayal of Serb side in the conflicts.
context_section_description: The war in Croatia was the second secessionist conflict in Yugoslavia, following the conflict in Slovenia. The Tudjman government portrayed the conflict to the United States as a war of democracy versus communism and good against evil. The Croatian ministry of information grew in size and the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party strengthened its influence over Croatian television, radio and print media. At the time, the Western media was based in Croatia, leaving them susceptible to being influenced by the Croatian government. In the summer of 1991, Croatia hired Ruder Finn whose services included communications with U.S. government representatives as well as the international news media, to bolster its public image. The strategy had included mobilising the 2.5 million Croats in the US to lobby their own representatives in Congress. The firm organized trips to Croatia by U.S. congressmen, combining the visits with videos of death and destruction. The dominant perspective in Western media and discourse remained that Serbian expansionism, not Croatian secessionism, caused the conflict. In London, Croatian representatives entered negotiations with lobbying firms, including Hill and Knowlton, offering 500,000 pounds for the creation of a media campaign to win official recognition and raise the profile of Croatia.
  The Croats also used propaganda against Serbs and against Bosniaks during the 1992-1994 Croat-Bosniak War, which was part of the larger Bosnian War. In its 1993 report, the OHCHR warned that a major Croatian TV media was under the government control and that the state of the media was a one of "prevailing climate of national and religious hatred which is often encouraged through misinformation, censorship and indoctrination". During the Croat-Bosniak conflict, the Croatian media called Bosnian Muslims "aggressors". A report by Vjesnik alleging that 35 Croats were hanged near the Catholic church in Zenica on 9 August 1993 was later proven to be false.
  During the Bosnian War, Croat forces seized the television broadcasting stations (for example at Skradno) and created their own local radio and television to broadcast propaganda. In the same incident, they seized the public institutions, raised the Croatian flag over public institution buildings, and imposed the Croatian Dinar as the unit of currency. According to ICTY Trial Chambers in the Blaškić case, Croat authorities created a radio station in Kiseljak to broadcast nationalist propaganda. A similar pattern was applied in Mostar and Gornji Vakuf (where the Croats created a radio station called Radio Uskoplje).
  Local propaganda efforts in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina controlled by the Croats, were supported by Croatian daily newspapers such as Večernji List and Croatian Radio-Television, especially by controversial reporters Dijana Čuljak and Smiljko Šagolj who are still blamed by the families of Bosniak victims in the Vranica Case for inciting the massacre of Bosnian POWs in Mostar, when broadcasting a report about alleged terrorists arrested by Croats who victimized Croat civilians. The bodies of the Bosnian POWs were later found in a Goranci mass grave. Croatian Radio-Television presented the Croat attack on Mostar, as a Bosnian Muslim attack on Croats who were aligned with the Serbs. According to the ICTY, in the early hours of 9 May 1993, the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) attacked Mostar using artillery, mortars, heavy weapons and small arms. The HVO controlled all roads leading into Mostar and international organisations were denied access. Radio Mostar announced that all Bosniaks should hang out a white flag from their windows. The HVO attack was well prepared and planned.
  During the ICTY trials against Croat war leaders, many Croatian journalists participated as the defence witnesses trying to relativise war crimes committed by Croatian troops against non-Croat civilians (Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbs in Croatia). During the trial against General Tihomir Blaškić (later convicted of war crimes), Ivica Mlivončić, Croatian columnist i
caption: Refugees in Travnik, a town in the Lašva Valley, 1992-1993. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev
exif: {}