Nacional (newspaper)

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

Owned by the NIP Info Orfej publishing company whose general manager Milorad Antonić previously made a profit on the Belgrade-based Ekskluziv magazine and Bijeljina-based Ekstra magazin, Nacional's first issue appeared on 4 December 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's chief editor was Predrag Popović while Dragan J. Vučićević was his deputy. Svetomir Marjanović, another prominent journalist on the Serbian daily tabloid scene was a feature editor.

Nacional was published under the mantra 'Dnevni list Srbije' (Serbia's daily). Visually, the paper was a carbon copy of the Croatian Ninoslav Pavić-owned Jutarnji list daily with almost the same layout and exact same Latin font.^[1] Furthermore, its name mirrored that of a Croatian weekly magazine owned by Ivo Pukanić.

The paper was shut down by a 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 2001 revelation of then 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 Hotel Jugopetrol 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 May 2013, talking about the Serbian tabloids' modus operandi and business model, 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 a few years left politics altogether, led to the same model being replicated 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]

In February 2002, the newspaper score a bit of coup when it brought star columnist Bogdan Tirnanić on board.

Ljiljana Buha letters and campaign against Zoran Đinđić

Throughout 2002, Nacional ran a series of stories painting Serbian prime minister Zoran Đinđić in extremely negative light. They started with a piece claiming that Đinđić spent the 2002 New Year's celebrations in Dubai where the bill was footed by known criminals and fugitives from Serbian justice system.^[5] Later that year, the paper began publishing a series of letters from Ljiljana Buha, estranged wife of politically connected Serbian businessman with underworld ties Ljubiša "Čume" Buha, in which purportedly Ljiljana Buha claimed that Serbian organized crime has infiltrated the highest levels of political power in Serbia, specifically singling out prime minister Đinđić and his political circle of friends and allies.^[5]

Though most of the claims were in time proven to be either exaggerations or outright fabrications, including the fact that the letters weren't written by Ljiljana Buha but by members of Zemun Clan,^[5] they managed their primary aim of politically damaging Đinđić and his government.

Many other details of the entire episode came out in the years since. In Miloš Vasić's 2005 book Atentat, the 2001-2003 Serbian deputy prime minister Čedomir Jovanović claimed that in the middle of the Buha letters and accompanying anti-Đinđić pieces being published in the paper, Nacional editor-in-chief Predrag Popović met with Đinđić in October 2002 "admitting to the prime minister sheepishly and remorsefully that he's taken money to publish the Ljiljana Buha letters because he needs to make a living before offering to stop the whole thing for €50,000".^[5] Jovanović added that Đinđić agreed to pay up, but that the Nacional campaign against him continued.^[5]

Folding

On 18 March 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".^[6] Then on 1 April 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 21 April 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