Comments on: Croatia: “Feral Tribune” Shuts Down

By: Melanie Petranovic

Melanie Petranovic — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 11:11:37 +0000

Sharp, honest, fearless, intelligent and endlessly entertaining that was our Feral Tribune. Always a highlight of my week! If this paper disappears off the Croatian media scene, it says a lot about Croatia and its ‘democracy’. Come Mr. Mesic, resurrect our Feral and show us that you are President of us normal Croats too, not only of those crooks and primitive morons who want to dance on Feral’s grave! Of those there are too many, of journalists like Feral Tribune’s alas too few!

By: Avni

Avni — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:50:44 +0000

You have to be a stupid retart or brainwashed zombie not to realise that this is a huge loss for freedom of speach, a lost for all who believe in freedom. And all those with two brain cells still working together (sorry Dave) will undoubtetly see that this is a victory of the state and ‘big brother’ agains you and I as individuals.

By: Milos

Milos — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:18:04 +0000

I am a serb from croatia, and Feral Tribune was the only printed material that made any sense to me during the early 90s. After moving abroad I still followed their online edition until their recent closure. They will be sorely missed.
To anyone who claims they were not selling well due to poor journalism they are very mistaken. Their excellent investigative journalism was the cause of their demise, but the paper kept in the spirit of its original satirical predecessor which was a 2 page section in the “Slobodna Dalmacija” a local paper from Split. This was pure satire hence “Shit of the Week” and stories of Robi K. 3a (both absolutely hilarious} but their serious articles are the ones that were a thorn in the side of successive right leaning governments in Croatia

By: Denis

Denis — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:42:48 +0000

Hi!
I just had to pitch in.
Dave; you obviously have absolutely no idea about FT or the draconian hunt on it due to its content, which, although partly satirical in nature, was the ONLY beacon of non-sponsored truth in Croatia. They ednured MERCILESS witch-hunting in a climate which prefers obedience and the party line. The fact that you center around one word (shit) and one party line (pay taxes) shows just how informed your commentary is.
If you really want to contribute, get a couple of issues and read them; 90% of FT is NON-satirical and very upright and honest. It doesn’t pander, it doesn’t flinch. And now it’s gone, and NOT just because of back taxes.
And hopefully, there is no “end of story”.
Ignorance shall set you free.

By: News drought | Doctor of Journalism

News drought | Doctor of Journalism — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 11:14:44 +0000

[...] In Croatia, a new big citizen journalism project is being launched (see here) – interesting, considering that the Croatian government’s attitudes to citizen journalists (indeed, journalists of any kind) have not been that permissive (see here). [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:30:38 +0000

Karl

Calling people “shits” is poor journalism. End of story. Hate speech in fact.

Did George Soros – who used to fund Feral – ever feature as shit of the week? For his conviction in France if nothing else? Did they attack him for that?

And I think people who dodge taxes could be called shits, no? Did Feral support others not paying their taxes and begging for the taxpayer to bail them out?

How has Feral got itself into such a massive debt? I trust they will be investigated, as every company in Europe would be if they got into such debt.

Or should Feral be exempt from that too?

By: Karl

Karl — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:13:29 +0000

Dear Dave, if YOU had in fact read Feral you’d know that Greatest Shits is not “poor journalism”, but a satirical collection of the most stupid, nationalistic and primitive statements from the public life in Croatia. Those comments say a lot about their creators, and it is good that Feral cares to show them to all of us.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 23:45:35 +0000

Hmmm…

Feral failed because of bad sales. If it actually sold, then it could pay taxes. Other Croatian magazines do so.

It was never that popular, because its journalism was actually rather poor. “shit of the week” and so on. Many of of its western admirers had not in fact read it.

It’s not comparable to state media, which are government owned. Feral is not state owned, nor should it be.

Feral is private sector. If they don’t have to pay tax, then nor should any other private media, or indeed anyone else.

Feral would have much to say if others were requesting a similar tax dodge.

Feral are basically trying to dodge their taxes, cheating Croat citizens of the money they are owed.

By: Ljubisa Bojic

Ljubisa Bojic — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:49:05 +0000

Great text Sinisa. I didn’t know about the magazine before.

By: Sarah Beer

Sarah Beer — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:35:23 +0000

I congradulate you on the choice of theme. With pleasure I read all your posts. Continue in that way!

By: Daniel Duende

Daniel Duende — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:24:26 +0000

It’s a very interesting story. I’ve just translated it to portuguese in the GVLingua-Portuguese site.

I’m curious about some things.
Doesn’t Feral Tribune have a website? Why don’t they go on with the good work online? I know that maybe a large part of the faithful readers may have poor or no access to the internet, but if they publish nice printable PDF’s, people who has access to the ‘net can download them and print/redistribute the journal among their peers…
Shuting up an important voice in the region shouldn’t be so easy.

One more question: what about using a picture of one of the magazine covers in the post? I’ve got a good one here: http://feral.mediaturtle.com/cgi-bin/get_img?NrArticle=13082&NrImage=1

I almost used it in the translation, but it’s bad form to change the content and editorial choices of the original writer so… what about we both using the image in the two posts, the original and the portuguese translation?

Congrats for the post.

By: Rollo

Rollo — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:00:11 +0000

This magazine sounds like exactly the kind of institution that ex-Yugoslavia need more of. However, I would be concerned if the Ex-YU Press really believed that “The magazine, to our knowledge, has no counterpart in the West. Its satire is too daring for mainstream advertisers, its reporting too uncompromising for mainstream politicians.” Um, Private Eye? Le Canard Enchaîné? It is not cultural chauvinism to point out the obvious here: rigorous investigative journalism was hardly invented in the Balkans.