Croatian TV reporters suspended over Mesić speech

Croatian TV reporters suspended over Mesić speech

Lučić added the three had "sufficient evidence" to believe that the speech was authentic.

Chief editors at the country's state-run television suspended the three on the grounds that they had lacked critical judgment and professionalism in broadcasting the speech.

A Web portal first posted the speech on Saturday, saying it was by Mesić from the early 1990s, when he was a member of the ruling nationalist party of Franjo Tuđman. In the clip, he said that Croats won twice in World War II — in 1941, when they established the Nazi puppet state, and in 1945, when their antifascists crushed the Nazis.

The 30-second recording surprised many in Croatia, where Mesić is known as the most outspoken critic of the pro-Nazi regime, which persecuted hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma and antifascist Croats.

Mesić on Sunday questioned the authenticity of the recording, although he acknowledged that he might have said "something like that."

He said the statement was "wrong and failed" and insisted that the recording should not annul "the effect of my countless statements over the years, which express completely different views."

State-run television aired the recording in its news broadcast late Saturday. The three reporters — two of whom are editors of the main evening news program — were suspended on Sunday.

Critics saw the move as a concession to the president and protested that politics should not meddle with the media.

Mesić insisted Monday he neither sought nor wanted the suspension. "Everyone can write whatever they want about me," he said.

The affair has drawn wide public attention, but it was not likely to seriously endanger Mesić's position: Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, whose party controls parliament and who is often seen as Mesić's only serious rival, has come to his defense.

Mesić, who left Tuđman's party in 1993 in opposition to his nationalist policies, won a second term in office in January 2005. He has been a leading figure in efforts to reform Croatia to make it fit to join mainstream Europe.