ZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - Croatia's Science, Education and Sport Minister, Dragan Primorac, will today forward a letter to all secondary schools in the country instructing them to withdraw the film "The Silent Cry" from religion
classes in line with a recommendation by a competent commission, which believes that the film is not appropriate for showing in secondary school religion classes in Croatia.
ZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - Croatia's Science, Education and Sport
Minister, Dragan Primorac, will today forward a letter to all
secondary schools in the country instructing them to withdraw the film
"The Silent Cry" from religion classes in line with a recommendation
by a competent commission, which believes that the film is not
appropriate for showing in secondary school religion classes in
Croatia.#L#
The commission has established that the film may have negative
psychological consequences for persons of high school age, Minister
Primorac told reporters on Tuesday.
Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said that Minister Primorac had
presented the report of the expert commission to a co-ordinating body
for social activities and human rights, which accepted it as a
valuable opinion of competent people.
Primorac confirmed that he had a phone conversation with the
archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanic, during which he informed
the cardinal of his position on the film, which was based on the
commission's opinion. The minister said that Cardinal Bozanic fully
agreed with the commission's opinion and the view that methodology
regarding the population-boosting policy and abortion required a more
adequate curriculum.
The film "The Silent Cry", showing the course of an abortion in
graphic detail, was made in 1983 in the United States. It was shown
this February to third-graders of a Zagreb secondary school, provoking
very emotional reactions of several students and subsequently their
parents.
(Hina) rml sb