*** 01-Jul-97 *** CROATIA:

Independent Media Faces Persecution Under The Rule Of Law

By Drago Hedl in Osijek

SPLIT, Croatia, Jul 1 (IPS) - Feral Tribune, Croatia's best-known weekly political magazine, has been overwhelmed by a spate of legal suits and barely a day goes by without a new one coming in.

The magazine, based in Split, faces some 50 claims for compensation, totalling 2.6 million dollars. The plaintiffs are seeking damages for 'psychological injury' caused by Feral's barbed, often satirical coverage.

They include the speaker of the Croatian parliament, Vlatko Pavletic, and Croatian president Franjo Tudjman's daughter, Nevenka, who apparently needs a million German marks (588,000 dollars) to soothe her shattered nerves. If the government- controlled courts uphold all the claims, Feral Tribune will go under.

Most of the claims come from senior officials of the ruling party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), suggesting a concerted strategy to destroy the independent magazine.

The Croatian government has suffered considerable western criticism for its persecution of independent media in general and Feral Tribune in particular, most recently from U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during her visit to Zagreb in June.

The new strategy seems to be to demonstrate to world opinion that while Feral enjoys freedom of expression, government officials also enjoy the freedom to sue for damages, which is, of course, in full conformity with Croatia's laws.

President Tudjman, however, demands stronger remedies for recalcitrant journalists. He is demanding prison sentences for two Feral staff, the chief editor Viktor Ivancic and columnist Marinko Culic (a past contributor to IPS).

Tudjman recently ordered the High Court in Zagreb to overturn a regional court's decision to acquit the two on charges of insulting the president. The case will resume in the autumn, but Ivancic and Culic say they have no intention of appearing in court. The stage is thus set for a spectacular police arrest of these two, who could be jailed for up to three years if convicted.

Feral Tribune is probably unique in that, although it is banned from advertising on state television, Tudjman makes up for this by regular diatribes against the magazine in his broadcasts to the nation.

There is now a virtual symbiosis between the two: Feral could not exist without Tudjman, the constant subject of its satirical and political barbs, while Tudjman would find life equally difficult without Feral as the object of his televised fits of rage.

In his broadcasts, Tudjman parades Feral Tribune as the main enemy of the state, a nest of 'Yugo-communism' and ''a refuge of Chetnik (Serb) bandits'. It is, he alleges, part of a dark conspiracy against the free, independent and democratic state of Croatia, which aims to return it to that prison of nations, the former Yugoslavia.

Taking his cue from Yugoslavia's dead president Josip Broz Tito, Tudjman calls this a ''conspiracy between enemies both within and without.''

First, he says, the magazine receives financial support from ''the number one enemy of an independent Croat state -- U.S. philanthropist George Soros' Open Society Foundation''; second, every year Feral receives an important international award.

This, says the president, is obvious proof of a global conspiracy against Croatia. Both arguments are easily dismissed, but there is nowhere to present the case to the public because of the state's strict control of nearly all other media.

In fact, Feral Tribune has not been financially dependent on Soros for some time. His help was welcome in launching the magazine, and for the stability of the company that publishes Feral, but is not essential now that weekly circulation has reached 55,000, allowing the magazine to finance itself

As for international awards, Feral has indeed won many over the years. In 1996 it won the International Press Directory's International Award for Press Freedom; it also won the Tenzera award and the Stefanel award in 1992.

In the same year, chief editor Ivancic received an award from the Council of Europe for his contribution to the media campaign towards promoting tolerance and understanding and working against hate and violence.

On Jun. 2 this year, Feral received the Golden Pen of Freedom award in Amsterdam. The following day, Croatian television raised a hue and cry against the magazine and its ''foreign sponsors''. Feral did not receive these awards because of some global conspiracy against Croatian democracy, but rather for boosting this democracy, and for good journalism.

If the court cases lodged by Tudjman and the HDZ succeed, Feral will sink without trace. It is hard to say whether those who sued the magazine will find more comfort in the financial awards they demanded, or in the fact that Feral's light ('feral' means lamp in the Split dialect) will no longer burn.

• - Drago Hedl is a journalist for Feral Tribune and author from Osijek. This item comes to IPS via the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in London.

Origin: Amsterdam/CROATIA/ ----

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