Kerum and Milanovic: journalists are UDBA puppets

Supposedly democratically oriented politicians see journalists as a promoters of socialism and UDBA's paranoid rhetoric.

Until today, one could say that Zagreb politician, Zoran Milanovic, and Split politician, Zeljko Kerum, barely had anything in common. But it turns out they share the same, ‘archaic’, views on the role of journalism in today’s society.   

Kerum’s statement that 70 percent of journalists in Croatia were Yugoslavs was further enforced during  the session of the Central Committee of the SDP. Out of all people, this came from the so-called pro-European, civic leader and democratically oriented Milanovic. He, in fact, compared journalists to Yugoslav equivalent of KGB, calling them UDBA promoters. However, he was not as precise as his Split colleague, Kerum, who added percentages to his strange statement. Milanovic, instead, focused his attack against those who create titles and publish lies on the meetings of the SDP Presidency.

He also added that UDBA cannot be fought with conventional weapons and that SDP is not in a possession of any biological or nuclear means to fight them. This is fortunate since journalists who write lies and untruths about the SDP, would mostly likely be sitting in some sort of mini-concentration camp.

The only problem for Milanovic would be how to choose those journalists. Kerum explained that he knows which journalists are Yugoslavs, Serbs or Croats – he, apparently, counts their blood cells and knows them by their last names. Milanovic would probably assess if they are UDBA members by their articles. If they write against the SDP, then they are most certainly paid by the UDBA. Perhaps he would specify how certain journalists should be eliminated as well? Those publishing the worst articles about SDP, deserve the slowest, most painful death. Those publishing moderately critical articles can, perhaps, get a faster and less painful death.

Milanovic’s response was probably a reaction to recent articles regarding the SDP’s conflict at a meeting of the party presidency when delay of the regional election was proposed. The head of the SDP made the suggestion because he wanted to ease Milan Bandic’s presidential candidacy, but other party members did not feel comfortable with the delay.

But why, then, Milanovic who until recently did not mind when the party leaders had different opinions from his, suddenly found himself offended to the point where he allowed a complete nonsense to escape his lips and accused Croatian journalists for working for UDBA? Considering the fact that he worked as a high-profile civil servant his whole life, he should know better than that.

But regardless of what he should or should not know, the fact that the recent rhetoric of our politicians has lost all democratic features, still remains. For accusing someone to be defending interests of a secret service of following somebody’s orders is no small thing in a country with history like ours.

And so, smooth and refined Milanovic who wears Dior on the outside, but loves 'country' on the inside, became very close to his Split counterpart Kerum.