Vjesnik

Before the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, Vjesnik was the most influential daily in Croatia. Since the independence, it has become a mouthpiece for the Croatia government in its war against Serbs and local opposition. Vjesnik regularly publishes commentaries and editorials which aim to justify government policies (or sudden changes in govermnent policy) or discredit prominent opposition figures. A good example of such attacks is a series of articles in which dr. Ivo Banac and Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, prominent Croatian human rights activists were accused of collaboration with the enemy (Serbs), intolerance, communist leanings etc. The consequence of Vjesnik's editorial policy was a steady decline of circulation and sold copies, so that the paper ended up relying on the government for its survival. After the death of Franjo Tudman and the defeat of HDZ in the January 3, 2000, elections, Vjesnik as a state-owned publication went through dramatic changes. Hrvatski Obzor, a low circulation "patriotic" political magazine ceased publishing immediately after the elections. Furthermore, Nenad Ivankovic, the paper's editor-in-chief, and one of late president Tudman's favorite journalists, tendered his resignation. Igor Mandic, one of most pro-Yugoslav and pro-Serb journalists in Croatia was appointed for a new editor-in-chief. In the months since the change the paper has modified its editorial line to a centrist, fairly ordinary outlook. One of the amazing aspects of the recent changes in Croatia was to have an opportunity to witness a total turnaround in the writing of some of the finest examples of "patriotic" journalism in Croatia. Vjesnik continues to experience troubles with circulation and the new government has announced that it seeking a buyer for the paper. Nacional, an independent Croatian weekly, expressed interest in acquiring Vjesnik, while Mr. Mandic tried to convince the authorities to keep the paper under state-ownership. In late October 2000, Igor Mandic was fired from the post of the editor-in-chief of Vjesnik after implementing a thorough change in the editorial policy of the newspaper. The most striking changes took place in the editorial section of the paper. Mr. Mandic introduced several new commentators, for example Davor Gjenero and Tomislav Jakic, as well as Boris Buden whose articles appeared for the first time on the pages of a mainstream Croatian publication. The new editorial page frequently addressed controversial topics and equally controversial opinions. However, since the dismissal of Mr. Mandic Vjesnik has reverted to its good old bland self. Commentators from the Tudman's era are again chief contributors to the editorial pages (Aleksandar Milosevic and Gordana Juresko) and the news coverage has again taken a "patriotic" turn. Vjesnik's web site offers selected articles from the printed edition in hypertext format as well as the complete printed edition in Acrobat reader (pdf) format, in Croatian.

The following articles are stored in the Chicago-Kent College of Law BosNet archive and other sites:

CROpatpress
Last Update 11/26/2006