ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - The steering board of the Croatian PEN centre has joined in slamming the Zagreb municipal and county courts, which ordered the Feral Tribune weekly to pay high fines. The fines gravely endanger the freedom of
public criticism in Croatia, PEN maintains. The weekly was fined for an article, published in 1993, in which art historian Zvonko Makovic claimed that Marica Mestrovic was not competent to head the Ivan Mestrovic Sculptors Foundation. The weekly was also fined for an article, published in 1998, in which journalist Viktor Ivancic criticised the standpoints of attorney Zeljko Olujic. The Zagreb courts ruled that Feral Tribune must pay 200,000 kuna (EUR27,000) in damages for allegedly inflicting emotional pain, with default interest. The PEN steering committee maintains that Zvonko Makovic, as one of the best art critics and a university professor, is entitled to criticise occ
ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - The steering board of the Croatian PEN
centre has joined in slamming the Zagreb municipal and county
courts, which ordered the Feral Tribune weekly to pay high fines.
The fines gravely endanger the freedom of public criticism in
Croatia, PEN maintains.
The weekly was fined for an article, published in 1993, in which art
historian Zvonko Makovic claimed that Marica Mestrovic was not
competent to head the Ivan Mestrovic Sculptors Foundation.
The weekly was also fined for an article, published in 1998, in
which journalist Viktor Ivancic criticised the standpoints of
attorney Zeljko Olujic.
The Zagreb courts ruled that Feral Tribune must pay 200,000 kuna
(EUR27,000) in damages for allegedly inflicting emotional pain,
with default interest.
The PEN steering committee maintains that Zvonko Makovic, as one of
the best art critics and a university professor, is entitled to
criticise occurrences which he deems are harmful.
The steering committee also maintains that Viktor Ivancic's
critical commentary, which quotes "Zeljko Olujic's anti-Semitic
statements, labelling them as racist and pro-fascist," does not
constitute slander.
"Nobody in the world would dare to label Olujic's statements as
nationalism in the contemporary meaning of the word, as the court
claims, but would denounce them as historically revisionist,
racist, and along nazi lines," the PEN steering committee said in a
statement.
The centre maintains the fines represent a judicial repression of
the freedom of public speech. They "are characterised by value
standards which are contrary to the humanistic values of the
European civilisation, and reflect a disastrous personnel policy
which, under the influence of the ruling party, was implemented in
our judiciary during the 1990s," read the statement.
Commenting on the latest Feral Tribune scandal, the president of
the Association of Croatian Judges, Vladimir Gredelj, said the
Split-based weekly "cries out for a new spectacle in order to
restore the citizens' interest."
The weekly's intent is "to foment mass hysteria from which the
public could conclude that 'Feral' is the victim of a corrupt and
incompetent judiciary," Gredelj said in a statement.
Maintaining that 1,200 slander lawsuits was too much for "a small
society like Croatia's," Gredelj wondered if it meant that "we have
a repressive judiciary or irresponsible and incompetent
journalists."
(hina) ha sb