ZAGREB, Aug 9 (Hina) - If 'Vjesnik' editor-in-chief Igor Mandic believes that an article should be published despite opposition by the daily's six key editors, there is nothing else for those editors to do but resign, Vjesnik deputy
editor-in-chief Josip Antic told Hina on Wednesday. Antic is one of the six Vjesnik editors who today submitted their irrevocable resignations because, as they said, editor-in-chief Mandic did not take into consideration their opinion that the commentary 'Ecumenism' on Zagreb Archbishop Josip Bozanic's visit to the Serb Orthodox Church, by part time reporter Kresimir Dujmovic, not be published. The article was published in today's issue of the Zagreb-based daily. The editors believe the article does not "meet the minimum of professional standards". They also said they would continue carrying out their duties as resigned editors so that the daily could be published
ZAGREB, Aug 9 (Hina) - If 'Vjesnik' editor-in-chief Igor Mandic
believes that an article should be published despite opposition by
the daily's six key editors, there is nothing else for those editors
to do but resign, Vjesnik deputy editor-in-chief Josip Antic told
Hina on Wednesday.
Antic is one of the six Vjesnik editors who today submitted their
irrevocable resignations because, as they said, editor-in-chief
Mandic did not take into consideration their opinion that the
commentary 'Ecumenism' on Zagreb Archbishop Josip Bozanic's visit
to the Serb Orthodox Church, by part time reporter Kresimir
Dujmovic, not be published.
The article was published in today's issue of the Zagreb-based
daily.
The editors believe the article does not "meet the minimum of
professional standards". They also said they would continue
carrying out their duties as resigned editors so that the daily
could be published regularly.
Antic said the resigned editors did not want to support "insulting
articles such as Dujmovic's."
In the disputable article, Dujmovic says, among other things, that
ecumenism has been reduced to "frightfully boring rhetoric".
The problem of unification of the churches does not exist but rather
the problem of protection of clannish interests, Dujmovic says,
calling the church "megalomaniac institutional machinery."
Editor Anic believes the ecumenical visit of Zagreb Archbishop
Josip Bozanic to the Serb Patriarch Pavle had been misinterpreted
in the article, which includes insulting elements both for the
Catholic and the Serb Orthodox Church.
Bozanic's meeting with Patriarch Pavle carries much weight because
it is a meeting of the religious leaders of the two peoples, who
after the war are trying to re-establish trust between them, Anic
said.
In a statement distributed to reporters, Vjesnik editor-in-chief
Igor Mandic said the point of today's dispute was not the resolution
of the question of ecumenism, but rather "certain intolerance
toward the style and spirit of writing of the new generation of
journalists, of whom some are not letting themselves be bribed by
mere phrases and are therefore not using tired clich?s."
Mandic also says that "any open-minded polemist will be given room
in Vjesnik to react at an appropriate level."
The problem of resignations will be solved within an internal
regular procedure, he added.
(hina) rml ,