Goran Milić

Goran Milić (born 24 January 1946) is a Croatian journalist whose work has primarily been on television. With a high-profile career spanning forty years, he's one of the most recognizable media personalities in the countries of former Yugoslavia.

Milić has been the Al Jazeera Balkans news and program director since 2011.^[1][2]

Early life and education

Born in Zagreb, PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia to Croat parents (father Marko Milić from Slano and mother Marija Smodlaka from Dubrovnik),^[3] young Goran spent a couple of months in Prague at the age of six, joining his father who was part of the Yugoslav diplomatic staff in Czechoslovakia. In 1954, his father got reassigned to the observer post in Council of Europe so the family moved to Strasbourg where young Goran attended primary school, grades two through six.^[4]

In 1959, Milić came to Belgrade where his father got a job at the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs and commenced his gymnasium studies. Before graduating gymnasium, he moved to Montevideo, Uruguay as his father became the Yugoslav ambassador there. After coming back to Belgrade in order to graduate, Milić went back to Uruguay one more time and then returned to Belgrade, enrolling at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Law.

In 1968, he served the mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) stint in Titograd and went to live in London for a year.

Journalism career

Radio-Television Belgrade

In 1970 twenty-four-year-old Milić began his career at Radio-Television Belgrade (RTB). For the first several years, the youngster learned the ropes under seasoned journalists Ranko Lozo, Nebojša Popović, and Velimir Popović.^[5] Milić also cites Momčilo Popović as an influence, specifically his style of summarizing news items in a catchy headline before expanding upon the topic.^[6]

Milić was eventually assigned to cover foreign politics where his knowledge of languages came in handy. His first foreign assignment was reporting from the Arab League summit in Algiers in late November 1973. A year later, he reported from the scene in Cyprus in July 1974 during the Turkish invasion where he went after interviewing Greek foreign minister Georgios Mavros.

Milić soon advanced to the position of editor in the foreign affairs department and was among the Yugoslav press pack following president Tito on his foreign trips to Panama, Venezuela, Mexico, Berlin, as well as the United States in 1978.

In late 1979 Milić was named RTB's correspondent from New York City and moved there in April 1980 with his wife Olivera. Only a month after Milić's arrival to the United States, Yugoslav president Tito died. During the mourning period back home, Milić managed to interview the U.S. president Jimmy Carter. Milić later revealed the diplomatic maneuvering behind the interview:

“

Yeah, that interview was actually Carter's conciliatory offering to the people of Yugoslavia after his decision not to come to Tito's funeral where he sent his mother instead. No one in the US administration publicly admitted it, but it was clear he didn't want to be present and photographed at the same function with Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev in the middle of their poor relations and disagreements over Afghanistan. So now he wanted to make amends with the people of Yugoslavia by speaking to them directly and his staffers were offering him to me and Politika's correspondent Jurij Gustinčič. However, the public in Yugoslavia considered Carter's skipping of Tito's funeral to be very disrespectful and even my editor-in-chief back in Belgrade, Dušan Mitević, told me not to do the interview because the powers that be in the country are not keen on putting Carter on our airwaves at this particular time. I on the other hand worried about my future access to the U.S. administration figures, figuring 'if I turn down the U.S. president right now, what am I gonna do here in New York for the next five years' and Mitević gave me some freedom for the final decision. I finally even went to Budimir Lončar, Yugoslav ambassador in the US, asking him what to do, and he told me to do the interview, but also not to tell anyone he gave me the go-ahead to do it.[7]

”

Milić returned from New York in 1985. After returning to Yugoslavia, simultaneously with work at RTB, he lectured at the University of Belgrade's Department of Journalism until 1988.

He also became the host of Saturday's Dnevnik 2, RTB's central daily newscast at 7:30pm, which made him a well-known television personalty all over SR Serbia and SFR Yugoslavia. In addition to reading the news, his Saturday newscasts had a personal imprint with several theme segments and a guest. One of the most enduring moments of his Dnevnik was a live link into the Bijelo Dugme concert at Sajam so that the band performed their "Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo" song for the large television audience.

His popularity and high profile got Milić various one-off jobs on the side. In 1987, communist politician Josip Vrhovec appointed him the president of the information commission for the Universiade in Zagreb.

In 1989 Milić was spokesman for the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Belgrade and also covered the Kosovo miners' strike.

In July 1990, Milić reportedly received a personal offer from Franjo Tuđman, the president of SR Croatia, to transfer to Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT).^[3] At the hour-long meeting Tuđman wanted Milić to run HRT's news division, a network that was undergoing major organizational and conceptual changes including a name change from Radiotelevizija Zagreb (RTZ), but Milić turned down the offer.^[3]

Yutel

In October 1990 Milić became host and editor-in-chief of the newly established Yutel, Sarajevo-based daily newscast founded and financed by the Federal Executive Council (SIV) under the presidency of Ante Marković. It was Milić who got to host the very first Yutel newscast on Tuesday, 23 October 1990 at 10pm, opening with "Good evening, Yugoslavia", which would soon become something of a signature for him.^[5] Alongside Milić, other journalists producing the hour-long Yutel daily newscasts were Gordana Suša, Dževad Sabljaković, Velibor Čović, and Zekerijah Smajić.

In July 1991, along with other Yutel personalities, Milić emceed the Yutel for Peace concert.

Government of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

After the dissolution of Yutel in May 1992, simultaneous with the start of the Bosnian War, Milić remained in Sarajevo and got employed by the government of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition to filing news reports for the government-run television BHTV, he also ran the international press center under the government auspices.

In July 1992, he was the head of the Bosnia and Herzegovina delegation at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The engagement provided him with the opportunity to get out of war-ravaged Sarajevo and once the Olympics ended, he never returned to the besieged city and went to live in Zagreb.

1992-1997

Arriving to the newly independent Croatia, despite a wealth of experience and a famous name in journalism, Milić was conspicuously absent from the most prominent Croatian media outlets during this time and in later interviews admitted to being essentially blacklisted in the country's top outlets due to his previous association with Yutel and pro-Yugoslav political views.^[8]

As a result Milić worked a series of lower profile jobs such as local TV productions in Umag as well as an 18-month columnist stint in Slovenian newsmagazine Mladina followed by writing for Marinko Božić's controversial^[9] right wing weekly newspaper Slobodni tjednik.^[3] Milić later revealed that during this time he turned down an offer from Soros Foundation due to "being well aware of what they're all about".^[3]

In early 1993 Milić wrote an accusatory open letter directed at Serbian journalists, his former colleagues, and Serbian society as a whole. In the letter Milić talked of his "illusions about the Belgrade democrats all of whom had the Greater Serbia idea in their heads" and dismissed the country's movement opposing Slobodan Milošević as "nothing but cackling and lighting candles".^[10] Serbian media largely ignored the open letter, except for newsmagazine Vreme that published it in full along with a rebuke by their journalist Stojan Cerović who took issue with a number of views Milić expressed in the letter.^[10]

In 1996 Milić was involved in consulting capacity in the OHR's and EU's creation of Televizija OBN in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Milić's unofficial ban in Croatia reportedly began to thaw in late 1996 when he got invited to a state-organized Christmas dinner, along with some other prominent individuals in Croatia known or perceived to hold unpopular political views such as Igor Mandić, where the Croatian president Franjo Tuđman made a point of being seen and photographed with Milić. Within months, Milić got hired at Croatian Radio Television (HRT), the state-run broadcaster

Croatian Radiotelevision

In 1997 Milić started at Croatian Radio Television (HRT) as a contractor.

In 2002 he got his own show on HRT called Brisani prostor.

From 2004 he worked as host and editor of the Sunday edition of Dnevnik, HRT's daily newscast. He has attracted attention for his travelogues from Europe, Russia, North America, Asia, Australia and South America. He is a speaker of multiple languages including English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Russian. He was named Best Journalist in Croatia in 2007.^[11][12][13]

He retired from HRT in early 2011, signing off his last Dnevnik on 23 January 2011.

Controversy

Alleged extortion attempt

In September 2003, Milić was accused by Formula One Management CEO Bernie Ecclestone of an extortion attempt:^[14] "That man, Goran Milić, rang me up several times over the last few months. He told me he wants to help me because things can go very badly for me, badly for me in Croatia, bad for my image. He didn't mention specific amounts, but it was obvious he's talking about money and absolutely obvious that it's extortion". In support of his claims Ecclestone showed two letters he received from Milić, dated March and June 2003, respectively.^[15] Reportedly, the financial compensation Milić was asking from Eccelstone had to do with Srebrenka Herold-Mijatović, HRT journalist, who on 20 July 2000 fell down a flight of stairs on Eccelstone's yacht named "Petara", getting severely injured with a skull fracture. The yacht was docked in Bol on the island of Brač and Herold-Mijatović was reportedly invited due to her husband Vlado Mijatović being friends with Ecclestone's then wife Slavica Radić.^[14]

Ecclestone continued: "I told Milić if someone wants to sue us they're free to do so. He insisted that would be bad for my image, and that he doesn't want to destroy it. He said that Herold-Mijatović is unable to work and that someone should compensate her".^[14]

Personal

In 1977 Milić married Olivera Katanić, a fellow journalist and a colleague at Radio-Television Belgrade (RTB). In 1980 when Milić became RTB's foreign correspondent from New York, the couple, along with Olivera's son Igor from a previous marriage, moved to the United States.^[16] In 1984 their daughter Lana Marija Milić was born. Katanić, already diagnosed with cancer since 1978, died in 1988.^[16]

In 1992 Milić married Ana and in 1993 they had a son Marko.

References

• Thompson, Mark (1999). Forging War: The Media in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. ISBN 1860205526.