TWO CROAT JOURNALISTS ACQUITTED OF DEFAMATION CHARGES

ZAGREB, Dec 21 (Hina) - The former editor-in-chief of the Croatian weekly "Feral Tribune", Viktor Ivancic, and journalist Marinko Culic were on Monday acquitted of charges of defamation at the Zagreb Municipal Court. The two were charged with defamation and insults against Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. Judge Marin Mrcela pronounced the acquittal explaining that Ivancic and Culic had not offended the president in their articles. They were doing their jobs as journalists and relayed value judgements and not factual claims which could have caused damages to the President's reputation, Mrcela said. Judge Mrcela believes that a photomontage is intended to make people laugh or to mock something but that it cannot be treated as an insult as was presented by the plaintiff's counsel. With the President's approval, the Municipal State Attorney's office charged Ivancic with defamation against President Tudjman while Culic was charged with publishing lies about President Tudjman in his articles on Tudjman's idea that, in line with the national policy of reconciliation, remains of the victims of Fascism and Communism be buried together at the site of the Jasenovac monument, erected in memory of the victims of the Jasenovac concentration camp. Ivancic and Culic were acquitted of these charges by an invalid judgement of Judge Mrcela in September 1996. The Municipal State Attorney's Office lodged an appeal to the Zagreb County Court which annulled the judgement and returned it back for trial to the same judge. Mrcela added that both judgements were founded on practises of the European Courts for Human Rights and provisions set out in the European Conventions on Human Rights. The Municipal State Attorney's Office has eight days to exercise the right of appeal to the County Court. (hina) sp