TRIAL OF "FERAL TRIBUNE" EDITOR AND JOURNALIST OPENS IN ZAGREB

ZAGREB, June 14 (Hina) - The editor in chief and a journalist of the Split-based satirical and investigative weekly "Feral Tribune", Viktor Ivancic and Marinko Culic, went on trial on Friday for defaming and insulting Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. After the reading of the indictment and opening defence statements, Zagreb Municipal Court Judge Marin Mrcela adjourned the hearing for September 25. The eight-member defence asked Mrcela to reject the indictment filed by the state attorney with Tudjman's consent. The Judge did not accept defence objections that the consent was incorrect. Ivancic was charged with libel and defamation of the President for an article published in the April 29 edition in the investigative part of the weekly and a photo montage in the satirical part, displaying Tudjman and Croatian World War II Ustasha leader Ante Pavelic. Culic was accused of libelling the President in an article published in the same issue under the headline "Bones in a Mixer." Ivancic said that the state attorney wanted to outlaw any criticism of an idea of a joint memorial at Jasenovac, an Ustasha- run concentration camp during WWII. "That idea has been highly criticized at home and abroad and it has done great damage to the Croatian people," he said. Commenting on the controversial photograph, Ivancic said that it was a satirical photo montage which could be interpreted in several different ways. "According to the state attorney it shows the President of the Republic as a follower of the fascist regime, but some arguments are needed to support such a claim and the state attorney has failed to provide them," Ivancic said. Noting that libel meant a presentation of untrue facts, Culic said that the sentence from his article which was the subject of the indictment did not present facts but the journalist's opinion of the idea of national reconciliation and a joint memorial at Jasenovac. In the autumn hearing the court will decide on defence requests for hearing President Tudjman, Foreign Minister Mate Granic, Defence Minister Gojko Susak, Social Liberal member of Parliament Bozo Kovacevic and Tomislav Badovinac, and for expert opinion of linguistic and artistic messages of the articles and photograph. The trial was followed by about a hundred people, including domestic and foreign journalists, international observers and human rights activists, who applauded some statements during the hearing. (hina) vm jn 141909 MET jun 96