Latinica

"Latinica" is a Croatian television talk show launched on November 11, 1993 and currently aired Mondays at 20:10 CET on HRT 1.

Hosted by Denis Latin, it discusses various current events and its guests are the people who have knowledge or experience about the topic under discussion. The show also contains five outside reports showing the actual cases connected with current discussion.

"Latinica" is also the longest-running weekly talk show in Croatian television with more than 350 broadcasts so far. Its title, besides being derived from the host Latin's surname, literally means "Latin alphabet" in Croatian.

"Latinica" started on HRT, but was briefly aired on Mreža, first private Croatian TV network in 1997 and 1998, owned by Miroslav Kutle and other businessmen close to the regime of Franjo Tuđman. In late 2005 it was speculated that the show would be transferred to another private network, Nova TV.

Recently, Latinica became the subject of great controversy due to the show dealing with the legacy of Tudjman. The treatment of the late president provoked a 12-hour debate in the parliament and was criticised by his followers, most notably Andrija Hebrang and other high-ranking members of ruling Croatian Democratic Union party. Hebrang went as far to accuse the show of causing the death of a Patriotic War veteran who committed suicide after allegedly being upset with the show's contents in this episode.

When the veteran's daughter, a young HRT reporter, disputed the story, Hebrang attributed that to HRT management pressure and tried to use this as an argument for Parliament's (and his party's) tighter controls of the media. Latin, vilified by right-wing sections of the Croatian public, had to endure few weeks without his show on the air with his sacking seen as a done deal, but HRT leadership in the end decided to keep "Latinica" on the air.