Nacional (newspaper)

Nacional was a Serbian daily newspaper published in Belgrade from 2001 until 2003.

Financially supported by publishing company NIP Info Orfej, whose general manager was Milorad Antonić, and by income realized from the sale of items of Ekskluziv magazin, Nacional's first issue appeared on December 4, 2001. Published in the ambitious initial circulation of 60,000 copies, the paper managed to establish itself fairly quickly on the market. With its semi-tabloid content format, the paper was edited by Predrag Popović.

Nacional was published under the mantra Snaga istine (power of truth). Visually, the paper was a carbon copy of Croatian Jutarnji list with almost the same layout and exact same Latin font.^[1] Furthermore, its name was same as that of a Croatian weekly magazine.

The paper was shut down by the government decree during Operation Sablja following the assassination of Zoran Đinđić in March 2003.

History

Maršićanin's extramarital affair

One of the most notable stories the paper published was the revelation of 51-year-old parliamentary speaker Dragan Maršićanin's extramarital affair with a young woman working as a stenographer at the Serbian assembly. The two were caught at Jugopetrol hotel on Mount Zlatibor and the paper ran the salacious details of their relationship for days.^[2]

The story appeared against the backdrop of continuous in-fighting in the ruling DOS coalition in the wake of Maršićanin's removal from the parliamentary speaker position due to procedural issues. The timing of its publishing thus raised suspicions of being politically motivated. Nacional editor-in-chief Predrag Popović later admitted to being tipped off about the Maršićanin story by the Serbian secret police.^[3]

In 2013, talking about the modus operandi and business model of the Serbian tabloids, Serbian Journalists' Association president Ljiljana Smajlović referred to the Maršićanin's 2001 episode in Nacional as "the very first instance in Serbia of an important political or business figure undergoing the character assassination treatment in the tabloids where the target gets dragged through mud in a sustained campaign that goes on day after day and sometimes ends up lasting for weeks or months". She added: "The 'success' of the Maršićanin episode, in that those who started it got what they were after as he resigned his post and basically became political roadkill that within few years left politics altogether, led to the same model being repeated over and over again. Ever since then, Serbian tabloids have become potent and powerful tools for political battle. Specific information is leaked to them by the people in positions of power in an effort to incriminate or defame rivals".^[4]

Folding

On March 18, 2003, using its broad powers under the state of emergency act, Serbian government's Ministry of Culture and Information headed by Branislav Lečić issued a temporary ban on publication of Nacional due to "publishing a number of articles relating to the state of emergency and for questioning the reasons behind the state of emergency".^[5] Then on April 1, 2003, the Belgrade city commercial court started liquidation proceedings against Nacional's publisher in Belgrade, Info Orfej. Despite the fact that they were not met either one of three possible conditions for liquidation of company, that company, by the annual accounts have expressed a profit of around 23 million dinars, that all contributions was paid, the company was liquidated, and 50 employees for indefinite time (of which 32 journalist) and 72 associates, lost their jobs and the means of work (118 computers, 120 desks and other equipment for communications). The company was seized on April 21, 2003, two days before the state of emergency ended. After a year, the Supreme Commercial Court abolished liquidation and the Constitutional Court of Serbia announced that the decision of quench of the media in the state of emergency was unconstitutional.

References