Feral Tribune

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Feral Tribune is a political weekly newspaper in Croatia. Despite the English-sounding name, it is written entirely in Croatian. It started as a political satire leaflet, transformed into a satirical weekly paper, and evolved into a popular political weekly.

Today's Feral Tribune commonly includes a provocative cover page, followed by recent short news ("Informbiro"), editorials, interviews, satirical section ("Feral Tromblon"), sections on music, books and the Internet. Of special note are the cover page which almost always has a photoshopped photograph ridiculing some current event, and the "Greatest Shits" section, where the editors collect the most ludicrous statements made in the Croatian media, politicians and other public figures in the previous week. The whole newspaper is usually between 50 and 100 pages in total. It was originally printed in black and white, later changed to fully colored glossy paper, but then reverted to black and white.

Contents

[edit] History

Feral Tribune's name is probably a play on Herald Tribune. The term "feral" typically refers to qualities associated with a wild or undomesticated animal and it is probable that the title was chosen to emphasize the paper's independence and to show that their perspective on Yugoslavian society and politics is 'untamed' in contrast to traditional reporting. "Feral", in dalmatian dialect, also represents a petroleum or gas lamp.

The paper was founded in 1984 by a trio of young journalists Viktor Ivančić, Predrag Lucić, and Boris Dežulović. The trio named itself by combining letters in their names to form "VIVA LUDEŽ", meaning "long live madness". Their works appeared in weekly humour supplement of Split daily newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija, as well as weekly newspaper Nedjeljna Dalmacija. Some of its saucier articles brought public condemnation from local Party officials, as well as criminal proceedings which ended with the arrival of democracy. Some of VIVA LUDEŽ members were also active in Omladinska Iskra, Split magazine published by local organisation of Socialist Youth League.

Feral didn't really come to the spotlight until Yugoslavia broke apart in the early 1990s. Due to the change in the political system, there was basically nationwide confusion on many issues. This of course left a lot of room for "financial engineering", corruption etc. Add the renewed independence to that, and you get changes in the government and a burst of patriotism as well, which in turn opens a window of opportunity for nationalism, xenophobia etc. You get fear and uncertainty, which is fertile soil for warmongering, profiteering etc. All this, as you may imagine, provided a bounty of material to cover in a political satire paper such as Feral.

There begins the true story of Feral. As the political situation got more and more serious, the contents of Feral Tribune could no longer be mere satire -- the country was at the threat of occupation, and yet there were people who needed to be exposed. The editors had the daring to criticise dominant political figures and tendencies even at such critical times, and even to spice it up with satire. The government took over Slobodna Dalmacija in early 1993. A few months later, Feral was introduced as an independent paper.

Feral was among the first Croatian newspapers to openly report on various topics that the state-controlled newspapers wouldn't touch with a proverbial "ten foot pole": war crimes perpetrated by Croatian soldiers, Croatian army's involvement in the war in Bosnia, Franjo Tuđman's opinions of the Ustaše in the context of generic Croatian nationalism, the Herzegovina profiteer lobby, connections of the government and the Catholic Church etc. Arguably the most important moment in Feral history came with the cover page which featured digitally altered images of Tuđman and Milošević as homosexual lovers in bed - magazine's symbolic condemnation of policies leading to division of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 1994, Feral had put out so much information to the public that was detrimental to the HDZ government, that something had to be done about it. The harassment began with the imposing of a 50% sales tax normally inflicted on porn press, under the pretense of Feral including pornographic content; but in 1995 the Constitutional Court (Ustavni sud) overturned that decision. In 1996, HDZ passed a law under which public criticism of the highest officials was punishable (?!), and of course Feral's editors were first on the list to sue.

Feral Tribune continued to publish freely, despite repeatedly getting sued for slander. The lawsuits went back and forth in the courts, as not all judges would apply the draconian laws. The government pressured Feral with other means as well -- the largest newspaper distribution company "Tisak" was getting looted by a tycoon and Feral was of course last on the list of creditors to pay off. Campaign also included series of death threats, vandalism to Feral property, but the most notorious incident was mobilisation of editor-in-chief Viktor Ivančić immediately after public threat against his life made by a high-ranking HDZ officials.

Despite all this, Feral Tribune managed to survive, but not without donations from abroad.

Franjo Tuđman died in 1999 and his party was voted out of power on 2000 parliamentary elections. While new left-centre government of Ivica Račan was supposed to be friendlier to the paper, judiciary, still filled with Tuđman loyalist cadre, continued to release unfavourable rulings, making financial position of Feral difficult. Magazine also encountered other problems - loss of Tuđman, who was its most iconic target, left many of the authors without inspiration and quality of humour decreased. Attempt to replace Tuđman with George W. Bush also led to magazine embracing strong ideological profile and promoting radical left views which alienated some of its old readers. Other Croatian weeklies, most notably Globus and Nacional, proved to be better adapted for new circumstances. Feral was also affected by personal changes and departure of one of its founders. All this affected magazine's circulation and influence.

On the other hand, Feral Tribune in that time maintained strong critical approach to the government - it criticised Račan for his unwillingness to distance himself from Tuđman legacy and exposed many corruption scandals related to his government. Feral Tribune's fortunes appear to be changing again after return of HDZ to power in 2003.

In December of 2005, Drago Hedl, the paper's editor, received an anonymous death threat by mail, for his reporting on the abuduction and murder of ethnic Serb civilians in Osijek in 1991 and 1992. This year, the International Center for Journalists is awarding Hedl a Knight International Award for excellence in journalism.

In 2007 it was reported that due to financial difficulties Feral Tribune was to be bought by Europa Press Holding (EPH), the largest publisher in Croatia (Globus, Jutarnji list) provoking speculation regarding the future of Feral's independence.

[edit] Awards

Feral may be controversial, but it is definitely not yellow journalism: it has won several important awards over the years.

[edit] Quotes

Weekly journal of Croatian anarchists, Protestants and heretics
God likes them, but Devil doesn't dislike them, either.
Feral Tribune is owned by those who write and read it.

[edit] External links

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