Nacional (newspaper)

For other uses of the term, see Nacional.

Nacional was Daily newspaper of Serbia published in Belgrade from 2001 until 2003.

Financially supported by publishing company NIP INFO ORFEJ, whose general manager was Milorad Antonić, and by income realized from the sale of items of Ekskluziv magazin, Nacional's first issue appeared on December 4, 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 was edited by the Predrag Popović.

Nacional was published under a mantra the power of truth (Snaga istine). Visually, the paper was a carbon copy of Croatian Jutarnji list with almost the same layout and exact same Latin font.^[1] Furthermore, its name was same as that of a Croatian weekly magazine.

On March 18, 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".^[2] Then on April 1, 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 April 21, 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

1. ^ Nacional, novi Srpski dnevnik - Srpsko-Hrvatski plagijat
2. ^ CLOSED BELGRADE PAPER "VICTIMISED"