Culture Minister Hasanbegović Sues Writer and Journalist Ante Tomić

Preliminary hearing was adjourned and will continue in November.

On Wednesday morning, at the Municipal Civil Court in Zagreb a preliminary hearing was held concerning a lawsuit of Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegović against journalist and writer Ante Tomić for an article published in the Serbian NIN weekly, reports Večernji List on July 6, 2016.

In the article, Tomić called Hasanbegović a “retard”, “impossible being”, “political minotaur”, “ideological unicorn”, “Ustasha clown”, “dumb Zagreb Muslim” and “miserable person”. Hasanbegović is seeking 30,000 kuna from Tomić for psychological suffering.

Arriving to the Court, Tomić was greeted by members of the initiative Freedom to the Third Ones with banners and messages: “Do Not Touch Him” and “Audience against Censorship”. While Tomić appeared in court, Hasanbegović did not come, and his lawyer Trpimir Jonjić proposed a series of new pieces of evidence, including expert opinion of the Croatian Institute of History which should determine whether the plaintiff in his works and attitudes advocates totalitarian views and incites to violence. In addition, he proposed five witnesses, including Ivo Banac, Ivo Goldstein and three historians from the Institute.

Tomić’s lawyer Vesna Alaburić said they were not opposed to proposed evidence, but believed that scientific opinion was unnecessary because it was not the subject of the proceedings. “This is about who is a minister in the government and what he is advocating, and it is about the right of a Croatian citizen, a journalist or of any other profession, to comment publicly on the activities of a government official”, said Alaburić.

Jonjić said that the Minister was absolutely committed to media freedom, but believed that they have their limitations in the rights and freedoms of others, including him.

Tomić made a statement to the media after the hearing. “I do not see why we would deal with historical subjects because in this article I did not deal with them. It was essentially a rather moderate and mild article; I wrote it at the beginning of the term of the former government when we have not even known much about Zlatko Hasanbegović. Now, after six months of his thankfully short term, I would probably be sharper in my criticism”, said Tomić.

The preliminary hearing was adjourned until November, because the plaintiff today presented a series of proposals to which the other side has to state its opinion, which means that the trial will likely be held next year.

Tomić added that he wrote the article because it was strange to him how a Muslim could join right-wingers who are mostly Islamophobes.

In April this year, Tomić was attacked in Spit, and the Culture Ministry caused controversy with a statement in which it appeared to blame Tomić for the attack.

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

the fields marked with * are required

Email: *
First name:
Last name:
Gender:	Male Female
Country:
Birthday:	[DD] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 [MM] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 [YYYY] 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Please don't insert text in the box below!