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Date: 27 Sep 1996 00:23:06
Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat" 
From: Ivo Skoric 
Subject: Feral Tribune Trial Verdict
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From: "Ivo Skoric" 

                      The Committee to Protect Journalists
                     330 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001 USA
    
    
    For Immediate Release       Contact: Catherine Fitzpatrick or Amanda Onion
    Sept. 26, 1996              Phone: (212)465-1004, x 101 or 110     
                                E-mail: Europe@cpj.org 
    
             CPJ Hails Not Guilty Verdict for Feral Tribune Journalists 
                        Victory for Press Freedom in Croatia
    
     
    New York: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) hailed 
    today's acquittal of two Croatian journalists who were accused of 
    defaming Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and called for the 
    elimination of Croatia's criminal libel. 
    
    "We hope that the verdict in the Feral Tribune trial signals an 
    expansion of press freedom in Croatia," said William A. Orme, Jr., 
    executive director of CPJ. "The next step is to ensure that 
    criminal libel statutes, which are designed to discourage 
    aggressive political journalism are banished from the law books."
    
    Judge Marin Mrcela delivered his verdict at a Zagreb Municipal 
    Court, saying that the offending materials in Feral Tribune were 
    obviously absurd and merely intended to pass judgment on political 
    activity. The charges against Viktor Ivancic, the editor in chief 
    of the satiric newspaper Feral Tribune, and Marinko Culic, a 
    reporter with the weekly, stem from an April 29 article 
    criticizing Tudjman's proposal to rebury the remains of World War 
    II Fascists alongside their victims. This was the first 
    application of a law passed by the Croatian Parliament on March 29 
    which effectively criminalizes any critical reporting or satirical 
    commentary on the president, the prime minister, the parliament 
    speaker or the chief magistrates of the supreme and constitutional 
    courts. 
    
    "Such laws have no place in any country, and are especially to be 
    condemned in a self-proclaimed democracy such as Croatia," noted 
    CPJ in a legal brief presented to the court. "No journalist in any 
    Western democracy is in prison as a result of a conviction of 
    seditious libel."
    
    Adjourned June 24, the criminal trial against the Feral Tribune 
    journalists reopened yesterday. The defendants faced up to three 
    years in jail had they been convicted. 
    
    At least two more cases are pending against two other newspapers, 
    Novi List and Nacional for charges under the same criminal code 
    articles applied in the Feral Tribune case. CPJ has protested the 
    charges against these newspapers and continues to call for the 
    elimination of the articles from the Croatian Criminal Code. 

Ivo Skoric ***** iskoric@igc.apc.org

212.369.9197  

PO Box 46, NYC NY 10029, USA

http://www.peacenet.org/balkans/

ivo.html