Beauty of the Word; sharp, bitter, the word that suggests hope, assistance, defies censorship and injustice; word that recognizes the other, fake side of Croatian democracy, which has had enough of politicization of the local courts; and finally, the word of numerous friends who offer assistance that has covered numerous pages of letters that have been arriving to Feral’s offices prompted by the situation into which we have been pushed because of our determined loyalty to the value of the written Word (instead of current authorities), its power and critical opportunities it provides.
The rebellion of Feral’s readers against scandalous verdicts in which the judge so and so stated that a horrendous anti-Semitic and pro-fascist article of one of mentally damaged plaintiffs is “written in the nationalist spirit, in the contemporary sense of that term” – the article that should have prompted a reaction of the state prosecutor in 1993, as soon as it was published – is nothing but a rebellion against Racan’s administration. The administration whose passivity and incompetence actually support Tudman’s suppression of free media. If he were smart, Racan would pay attention to that rebellion since, although he apparently does not get it, it is clear that hundreds of supportive letters sent to Feral definitely do not come from HDZ’s supporters, so that thousands of cheated Feral’s readers will not vote for Racan’s party.
For us the rebellious voice of the public – reflected among other in graffiti supporting Feral plastered over squares in Zagreb – testifies that the time of silence is over and that, no matter how powerful, all those judges poisoned by Tudman will not be able to stop the critical Word of the free media or individuals. And precisely that is the most important and strongest message coming from non-governmental organizations, the Croatian Helsinki Committee, the Croatian Association of Journalist, media, Croatian PEN, local intellectuals and intellectuals from abroad, members of academia, writers, artists, actors, students and pensioners and addressed to the current government.
“You must persevere, for the sake of Vlado Gotovac, [Miljenko] Smoje and Vladimir Primorac…” one of Feral’s readers wrote, revealing the true importance of the petition for assistance to Feral that was initiated by the New Generation and non-governmental organizations in Zagreb and signed by many of those who believe in different Croatia that was advocated throughout their lives, regardless of the price, by Gotovac and Primorac, and recorded, with his characteristic humor, by Smoje. And they were with Feral during the difficult, dangerous Tudman’s time, with those who today, in supposedly better times, are prepared to stand together with Feral’s journalists even though they have in the meantime become a part of the authorities. Politicians such as Stipe Mesic or Vesna Pusic demonstrated clearly with their support for Feral that they haven’t lost their respect for the freedom of the Word, even though its blade is today also directed at the authorities of which they are today important parts.
That is why, just like litmus paper, Feral case clearly showed who was who on the Croatian political scene – the Liberal Party, the IDS, and the HNS showed that they view the freedom of the media and the importance of Feral totally differently from the feuding coalition partners from the HSLS and the SDP, whose voice, just like during Tudman’s rule, could not be heard. The political gap in the understanding of democracy and need to finally implement changes in the Croatian judiciary was most clearly expressed by president Mesic, who, as always, correctly guessed the mood of the other, civic Croatia. Croatia that does not anymore forgive terror against free media and does not want to accept the judicial farce about mental anguish of a notorious HDZ’s small-time lawyer or a greedy Tudman’s protégé.
We want to thank that public, rebelling on behalf of Feral, to our readers prepared to put down their own money to prevent financial strangulation of their magazine. We were surprised by their massive response and somewhat confused by the support of public personalities and our colleagues journalists. Over the years we have gotten used to being alone. That is why this avalanche of the Word – the beautiful – is that much more important to everyone here in Feral, regardless of the future developments. Precisely the meaning of those Words simply erased all those others, mean words, that are so few in number so that they can testify only about the insignificance of their authors, such as certain Vladimir Gredelj, president of the Association of Croatian Judges, who, check this!, demands an apology from president Mesic, because of his public support for Feral, and advises us to pull out of journalism and thereby “do a huge favor to [ourselves] and Croatian democracy”. Thus, on behalf of Croatian judges, writes a provincial Tudmanologue who was only a few months ago stripped of his immunity as a judge and who immediately denounced that decision by the State Judicial Council as a “staged political trial”.
Another opponent of the freedom of speech, certain Zeljko Olujic, poor baby, totally stuck in his “better past”, and semi-illiterate, as always, writes pathetic and nonsensical sentences such as “Croatia is endangered”, denounces Feral’s journalists as Yugo-Communists, and detects “maliciousness and ill-intentions of those forces” (those that supported Feral) in the fact that they were joined by Stipe Mesic and (check this out!) “publicly declared supporter of the Yugoslav ideal” Vesna Pusic. Since it is obvious that Olujic really needs medical assistance, perhaps it would be humane to initiate another action and name it “Help him find treatment!” We in Feral, thanks to independent and professional judges, have already given our contribution.