ZAGREB/NEW YORK, March 21 (Hina) - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement sent to Hina on Thursday it was very concerned about two recent libel judgements against the satirical weekly Feral Tribune.
ZAGREB/NEW YORK, March 21 (Hina) - The Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement sent to Hina on Thursday it
was very concerned about two recent libel judgements against the
satirical weekly Feral Tribune. #L#
The Committee says that the judgements were issued in two separate
libel suits filed by Marica Mestrovic, the daughter of a famous
Croatian sculptor, and Zeljko Olujic, an attorney for the late
president Franjo Tudjman. The judgements, fining the Split-based
paper a total of 200,000 kuna (US$25,000), were recently upheld by
the Zagreb District Court.
"There judgements jeopardise the future of a respected independent
magazine and erode the hard-fought freedoms journalists have
gained in the post-Tudjman era," said CPJ executive director Ann
Cooper, calling on Croatian judicial authorities to "review these
unjust and punitive verdicts."
The Zagreb District Court affirmed the Zagreb Municipal Court's
decisions that Feral Tribune was guilty of inflicting 'sustained
mental anguish' on both Mestrovic and Olujic. On March 11, the
weekly's bank account was frozen. Since then, the weekly has been
unable to pay its staff.
The Committee says that throughout the 1990s, "Feral Tribune
strongly criticised the nationalist policies of the late president
Tudjman, whose allies filed numerous libel cases against the
satirical weekly."
The Committee quotes Feral Tribune director Zoran Erceg as saying
that the paper would appeal both rulings to the Supreme Court, but
could only do so legally once the fines had been paid in full.
CPJ is a New York-based, non-profit organisation dedicated to the
defence of press freedom around the world.
(hina) rml