interview by Robert BAJRUSI
Wherever she showed up during the last 12-13 years, Zinka Bardic changed everything. Everything started in the early 80's when with Silvija Separovic she started broadcasting on OTV a weekly political overview named the Weekly Report. The program soon shifted to Radio 101 and the authors received in those last months of Communism at the time very respectable award named "7 Secretaries of the Yugoslav League of Communist Youth". However, the Week Report became truly popular with Franjo Tudman's and HDZ's assumption of power. It is difficult to assess who deserves more credit for the popularity of the program broadcast every Saturday at 1pm, its editors Zinka Bardic, Natasa Magdalenic and Silvija Separovic or HDZ politicians whose gaffes filled the program.
Zinka Bardic was launched to the center of public attention on the day in the Autumn of 1997 when the Telecommunications Council decided not to extend Radio 101's broadcasting license. She let the public know, sobbing on air, about the HDZ's decision that was responsible for bringing more than 100,000 demonstrators to the center of Zagreb a few days later. These protesters inspired Vlado Gotovac to, addressing the crowd, exclaim that "freedom is so beautiful". However, soon the management of Radio 101 succumbed to mutual recriminations and clashes and the editors of the Week Report left the station at which they had spent a whole decade. In the end they also parted their ways. Silvija Separovic went to Sarajevo, Natasa Magdalenic moved to London and Zinka Bardic stayed in Zagreb.
NACIONAL: In June, in some statements for the media you rather self-confidently claimed that it was unimaginable that Irex would finance a person such as Manjkas and his projects?
BARDIC: During my journalistic career I've turned out to be naive on many occasions. I prefer to play with open cards. I like clear relations, as I've told to the representatives of Irex. I emphasized that my problem is neither in Washington nor in the White House but between Vukovar and Tesla Streets. My problems started when the OTV requested that I transfer half of my team to "Serbus" once the editorial team of "Serbus Zagreb" was dissolved. I refused to do that because my news editor, until recently, Tomislava Sila, is now an editor of "Serbus" and I could not do something like that either to her or her collaborators. A strike of the "Serbus" editorial team followed, our phone lines were cut off, and when I refused the demand not to report about these events in the news program, pressures on myself and my editorial team began. They demanded that I fire some of my best employees because they were supposedly paid too well, while at the OTV they had meetings at which Vinko Grubisic demanded that I be fired.
It is interesting that the views of the American investors and HDZ propagandists Miljanko Manjkas and Vinko Grubisic, who is under threat of an indictment because of business machinations in which he participated for years, are aligned in this case.
However, that indictment is gone now, and I would not be surprised if Grubisic becomes a protected prosecution witness in some of the trials. It is interesting that Irex knew about all of my statements and my every interview and I will not forget that after the publications of my interview in Nacional Vinko Grubisic phoned me for the first time after many years and told me that he had apologized to Doctor and asked me to disown that article. I refused and said that I could not think of anything inaccurate in that interview and I also could not deny that Vinko's representative Demir Vujinovic had physically threatened me.
Journalists in my editorial team earn about $600 [a month]. This applies to those who work daily shifts, while most of them are temp workers and the company does not pay their pensions and health insurance. For that salary they work between 21 and 25 work days a month and in that period produce on average 57 minutes of the final program. For the sake of comparison, journalists who do something at the HTV produce between 15 and 20 minutes of program a month. Our employees frequently come to work at 8am and leave ad 7pm. We have ten journalists while the HTV, according to the information I recently got, employs exactly 501 journalists. In addition to all that, three-month contracts under which our journalists are working are about to expire and, if the most recent agreement is observed, these contracts will be extended. A few weeks a go I had a meeting with the people who produce the news program and informed them about the pressures to which we were exposed, the demand that some journalists be fired, cutting off of our phone lines, and the fact that recently our team traveled to Gospic in my private car. I also informed them about the negotiations Drazen Klaric and I had had just before that meeting, and all of the employees expressed their support for our actions. I am sure that they would not have done that if the whole affair boiled down to a personal clash between Zinka Bardic and some anonymous clerk from Washington or Vukovar St. The public must know that even after January 3 there are pressures on some editorial teams, as well as that all of our problems started once I refused to sign a pact with devil.
Would you dare to comment on the fact that after January 3, the situation in the media hasn't improved at all and all Government's actions are making the already bad situation even worse?
That is an interesting phenomenon, although it does not affect only the media. We have been listening non-stop to this noise about the danger of revanchism, and there is no revanchism anywhere. A typical example was the reaction on the HTV after Nacional recently published an article about careers of Dijana Culjak, Mirjana Hrga, and Ana Jelinic. Mirko Galic [HTV director] called a meeting at which it was agreed that TV journalists be protected from attacks in other media. Since I am a rather experienced journalist, I recall that I watched almost identical situations in 1990. I recall how many journalists changed their teams, fear of revanchism and big changes, although all of us know that all the key people in the public and state-controlled media, such as Mirko Galic on the HTV and Mirko Bolfek in Hina [official state news agency], were senior officials both under the previous and under this regime.
That is an interesting phenomenon, just like the relation between Europapress holding [publisher of weekly Globus and daily Jutarnji List] and the SDP. As far as we know, everything started immediately after the elections, when EPH and the SDP distributed awards for the development of democracy. It is interesting that Viktor Ivancic [editor-in-chief of Feral Tribune], Ivo Pukanic [Nacional's editor-in-chief], or journalists from Radio 101 were not among the recipients of the award. Everything went in the wrong direction at that point. Unlike the HDZ, who needed several years for that, the new authorities were already aware of the importance of the media. Observing everything that has happened since, I am simply sad because I dreamt of the freedom on the air waves and a normal media market in which everyone had a chance to start a new newspaper, radio station, or a TV station.
That is a personal choice for all of us. Ivo Loncar is a good example. It is well known that Loncar was one of the candidates for the editor-in-chief of the Croatian TV but he did not make the final cut because of his outspokenness. But, these authorities obviously like sycophants. That is why even Feral Tribune has remained on the margins, exactly because they continued to criticize the current authorities after January 3, just as they used to attack the HDZ in the past, and it is obvious that the current government does not like that approach. Just recall the first interview given by Sime Lucin [Minister of Internal Affairs - Police] to Nacional in his new role. He promised to open all dossiers compiled by the Secret Police about journalists and other individuals and open them to public scrutiny. However, less than ten days later this was denied by the chief of the secret service SZUP Franjo Turek. He referred to an article of some law and the secret service dossiers about journalists are still secret.
Did the HDZ ever try to bribe you?
I cannot say that. It is not a secret that during the crisis regarding Radio 101 some of our people negotiated with Ivic Pasalic and Zlatko Canjuga. They tried to "reason" with us and convince us, the editors of the Week Report, to lie low for a few weeks, to stop prodding Tudjman, and they were going to give us a broadcasting permit. Perhaps it is sometimes necessary to compromise, especially taking a long-term view, but I think that it is far more honest to stick to principles.
What do you today think about the Week Report, the program that make Silvija Separovic, Natasa Magdalenic and you famous?
I terribly miss that program and ever since January 3 I have a strong urge to put together a radio jingle with [Prime Minister] Racan, [president] Mesic, [leader of the HSLS] Budisa, [HDZ politician] Pasalic or [leader of the HDZ] Sanader. I loved that program because we used it to explain to our listeners that the point is not only that a bad government should be replaced by a better government, but also that each one of us can affect the change of government with his or her views and votes. Media serve to keep watch over the authorities, and according to some theories they are a fourth branch of the government as a voice for the public. Besides, I still have ambitions to produce a TV version of the Week Report of the sort I produced on the OTV before that TV turned into what it is today. It is less known that in 1990 I produced the late-evening news on the HTV with Dubravko Merlic and Hloverka Novak-Srzic [HTV editor-in-chief under the HDZ] until Antun Vrdoljak shut the door. When in 1988 we started with the Week Report, Hloverka was our first news anchor and we met Merlic through his wife Zeljka Ogresta, who worked at Radio 101. At that time we were still a team and it is well known what happened later. People forget that in the first election Hloverka supported Slavka Dabcevic-Kucar. Later we cooperated for a while in "Picture to Picture" and working on a documentary film that has never been shown, also because of Antun Vrdoljak. I'll never forget that event; after we rejected his demand to cut out parts of the film, Vrdoljak banned our film and instead talked to a guest in the studio.
You gained certain media notoriety in the late 80's when you received the award "7 Secretaries of the Yugoslav League of Communist Youth". That was unusual as that award was usually given to individuals and groups who were anything but advocates of the socialist mode of thinking.
The award given in 1989 was the last one ever. Silvija and I got the award for journalism, for the Week Report. I am extremely proud of that award because it was received in a country with 22 million inhabitants. Also, the list of recipients from that year is very impressive: Darko Hudelist for literature, Penezic and Rogina for architecture, Kreso Dolencic for theater, Jugoplastika or Monika Seles for sport, I do not recall exactly, but all of them later excelled in their professional work. Besides, the fact that we, as some sort of saboteurs received the award indicated that the so-called humane socialism was loosing control. The award ceremony was held in the "Janja" hall in ZKM and entrance was allowed only with an invitation. When Silvija and I showed up, the guards refused to let us in and when we tried to convince them that we were also award recipients they burst into laughter. The organizer had to intervene to have the guards let us in. Oliver Mlakar was the MC and just before the beginning of the ceremony someone started a rumor that we were going to be asked the names of the 7 secretaries. We panicked because none of us knew the names. Fortunately, someone was just joking.
Where are Silvija Separovic and Natasa Magdalenic today and what are they doing?
Natasa is working in London as a producer on some projects of the BBC Croatian language program, and her husband Nino Bantic, a former member of Zlocesta Djeca [evil children, another popular Radio 101 show] is a producer with the APTN. Both of them are very successful, but Natasa misses Zagreb a lot. Silvija married one of the chief officials in the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia-Hercegovina in charge of the media. They live in Sarajevo and she has worked on the experimental project of the Federation TV and on the project in connection with the fight against corruption.
Although I own Radio 101 shares, I've parted with those people a long time ago and have no influence at Radio 101. A poll has been conducted recently among the Radio 101 fan club members and it turned out that the two most hated characters, as far as the members were concerned, were Zrinka Vrabec-Mojzes and Silvije Vrbanec [directors of Radio 101]. The conflict on Radio 101 was between the creative staff and those who represented our work. With our departure, the quality of the program was drastically reduced. I am bothered that today in Zagreb there is no station that plays the music I like or that I cannot hear anything interesting at least once a month in their news programs. By the way, my strongest impression in all these events regarding the radio is the meeting of the Telecommunications Council when they voted to take our broadcasting license away. The meeting was held in the building of the former Communist League Central Committee. Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, who likes to today present herself as a democrat, voted to take away the Radio 101 broadcasting license. Ivic Pasalic voted for Zagrebacki Krugoval, today's Plavi 9 where Miljenko Manjkas is working, and Marko Sapunar, who still teaches journalism, also voted against us.
Milan Bandic used the footage of the demonstrations in the SDP election campaign as if he had organized the demonstrations himself?
No one, not even Bandic, has the right to use symbols that do not belong to him. The HDZ used to do that with pictures of Croatian soldiers, as if the HDZ deserved all the credit for the victories in the "Storm" and the "Flash". Similarly, the gathering on Ban Jelacic Square did not belong to Bandic. The fact that the opposition leaders supported Radio 101 is irrelevant as they failed to assure that at least one of their mayoral candidates be confirmed, while Radio 101 won its broadcasting license back.
Why did the Forum 21, the organization which at the time had a lot of media exposure, also fail in its mission?
Silvija Separovic and I were the first among 22 founders of Forum 21 to leave that organization. We proposed a 21-point program but instead, the organization was mostly active in promoting the careers of several of its members. No one cared about local radio and TV stations that were taken over [by the HDZ] away from the media spotlight, no one provided assistance to the [state news agency] Hina's journalist when they expressed their support for Forum 21, and in the end Galic's and Merlic's lobbies clashed. During and after the election both lobbies paid visits to the SDP headquarters and demanded new appointments and new jobs on the HTV. It is a fact that politics determined the new director and editor-in-chief of the state TV. It is a fact that HTV continues to produce lousy news programs in spite of the enormous investment in that program. For example the new stage sets for the main HTV news program cost more than a quarterly budget of my editorial board. It seems that above all the HTV is controlled by financial lobbies.
Did you ever meet Franjo Tudjman?
As far as I know, my interview with him was his first media appearance. He gave the interview during the first election campaign, while the teams of HDZ and another political party were playing a soccer match in the Sports Auditorium. At half time Goran Pirsl and I caught Tudman and he gave us a live interview. That interview on Radio 101 was his first live media appearance. That was also the last conversation we had, so that I only recently visited the President's Office for the first time when Vjera Suman [president Mesic's chief of staff] invited me over for a coffee.
You know all the leading Croatian politicians very well. Did you expect them to behave differently [after the January elections] or are you not surprised by their actions?
I am not terribly surprised. I have followed [Prime Minister] Ivica Racan's career ever since he became the leader of the Croatian Communist League (SKH) in December 1989. After the last SKH congress Racan was a guest at Radio 101 and that day was also remembered as the last day on which the doors between Radio 101 and OTV were opened. Ivo Druzic was another candidate for the SKH leadership post and Nikola Gamilec was the head of Radio 101 at the time. Gamilec was believed to be "Druzic's man", just like Vinko Grubisic. However, Racan won and everyone was surprised and I took him through that open door to meet Vinko Grubisic. We should recall the situation at the time. Grubisic was a member of the Zagreb Alliance of the Socilaist Youth of Croatia and Nikola Gamilec saw him as the "best youth" among us and appointed him to manage the new project, the Youth TV [Omladinska TV, OTV]. Then in 1990 Vinko Grubisic recalled his roots [Hercegovina] and turned into a nationalist and a HDZ supporter. As we now know, a few days ago he offered to cooperate with Milan Bandic and the SDP, which means that he keeps switching sides. Namely, Bandic offered assistance to the "Serbus" team. The team requested a separate bank account and Bandic initially agreed with that. However, after only ten days, Bandic cut his contacts with the journalists and started talking only to the OTV owner, Vinko Grubisic.
How close are you to Drazen Budisa, having in mind that you orchestrated his presidential election campaign? What do you think about his image as one of the chief "bad guys" on the Croatian political scene?
I've had many personal contacts with Drazen Budisa and I do not see him in that way. However, all my editors and journalists who reported about the Stipetic affair and some other affairs in which Budisa was involved can testify that I never tried to influence their reports, although from time to time I had information that differed from theirs. I admire Drazen Budisa's adherence to principles. It is not a secret that he could have benefited both during Tudman's rule and even before, but he always rejected such offers. If I have any criticism of him that is that his judgment in the choice of collaborators is often bad, and I've told him about that several times already.