Croatia Satirists Rally For Freedom of Speech

Croatian satirists will gather in a park in the centre of Zagreb on April Fool's Day on Friday to raise their voice in the defence of political satire and freedom of speech.

Naming the protest "Ready for Satire" - paraphrasing the World War II fascist chant "Ready for the Homeland" - the satirists are using Facebook to call on people to voice their concerns for the future of political satire, which they call "an achievement of a free democratic society".

One of the organiser of the protest, Vlado Lucic, editor-in-chief of the influential Croatian satirical website News Bar, told BIRN that they hope many will attend.

"Some will be there physically, some will comment over the internet. We'll put them on the video link. It will be a complete 'satirical front,'" he said, adding that the Croatian Journalists' Association, HND, also supported the protest.

He added that the protesters aim to send a message that they will not tolerate curbs to freedom of speech or the persecution of political satire.

Lucic and News Bar are in the focus after their satirical show, "Montirani process" ("Framed Process") was pulled from national Croatian Radio-Television, HRT in mid-March.

HRT scrapped broadcasts of the show, claiming parts of the script of a non-broadcasted episode incited "religious, national and other intolerance".

Jozo Barisic from HRT's management said that besides saving around 130,000 euros on five episodes that should have been filmed, HRT took exception to a sketch called "Jews Will Destroy the Whole World".

The authors said it was clear that the sketch was not anti-Semitic but made fun of anti-Semitism, which the president of the Jewish community in Zagreb, Ognjen Kraus, agreed was the case.

News Bar received...