The paper's chief editor Petar Curic said they were protesting as the society's secretary Zorislav Lukic confiscated about 2,000 copies of the latest issue without any explanation, although he had no powers to do something like that.
"We expect the 'Matica' presidency to convene on Monday and decide that 'Mat' can be distributed at (Zagreb) university. We believe that the ban is absolutely unjustified," Curic said at the rally.
The society's secretary, Zorislav Lukic, told Croatian Television on Saturday night that he regarded it "incompatible with the Matica's practice that its publications contain standpoints which revise the historical truth".
According to the press of Sunday, Lukic referred to an editorial written by Petar Curic in the latest Mat which questions the criminal nature of the idea of Communism and which alleges that the ideology of the Ustasha movement was not criminal according to Ustasha's theoretically relevant documents.
A member of the 'Mat' editorial board, Ivan Planinic, said the board refuted Lukic's statement on the television, adding that 'Mat' editors' assertions were pulled out of the context and misinterpreted.