Nacional was a Serbian daily newspaper published in Belgrade from 2001 until 2003.
Owned by the NIP Info Orfej publishing company whose general manager Milorad AntoniÃÂ previously made a profit on the Belgrade-based Ekskluziv magazine and Bijeljina-based Ekstra magazin, Nacionals first issue appeared on 4 December 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's chief editor was Predrag PopoviÃÂ while Dragan J. VuÃÂiÃÂeviÃÂ was his deputy. Svetomir MarjanoviÃÂ, another prominent journalist on the Serbian daily tabloid scene was a feature editor.
Nacional was published under the mantra 'Dnevni list Srbije' (Serbia's daily). Visually, the paper was a carbon copy of the Croatian Ninoslav PaviÃÂ-owned Jutarnji list daily with almost the same layout and exact same Latin font. Furthermore, its name mirrored that of a Croatian weekly magazine owned by Ivo PukaniÃÂ.
The paper was shut down by a government decree during Operation Sablja following the assassination of Zoran ÃÂinÃÂiÃÂ in March 2003.
In 2001, Nacional revealed the fifty-one-year-old Serbian parliamentary speaker Dragan Marà ¡iÃÂanin's extramarital affair with a much younger female stenographer employed at the Serbian parliament. After ostensibly being caught by Nacional reporters at Hotel Jugopetrol on Mount Zlatibor, the tabloid ran salacious details of the adulterous relationship for days.
The story appeared against the backdrop of continuous in-fighting among the member parties of the ruling DOS coalition in the wake of an attempt to have Marà ¡iÃÂanin removed from the parliamentary speaker position for supposedly breaking procedural rules. The timing of the story's release thus raised suspicion of being politically motivated. Nacional editor-in-chief Predrag Popoviàlater admitted to being tipped off about the Marà ¡iÃÂanin story by the Serbian secret police.
In May 2013, while talking about the Serbian tabloids' modus operandi and business model, Serbian Journalists' Association (UNS) president Ljiljana Smajloviàreferred to Nacionals 2001 Marà ¡iÃÂanin story as "the very first instance in Serbia of an important political or business figure undergoing character assassination in the tabloids where the target gets dragged through mud via a sustained campaign that goes on day after day and sometimes even ends up lasting for weeks or months". She added that "the 'success' of the Marà ¡iÃÂanin episodeâÂÂin that those who started it got what they were after as he soon resigned his post and from that point on basically became political roadkill that would within a few years leave politics altogetherâÂÂled to the same model being replicated over and over again" and that "ever since then, Serbian tabloids have become potent and powerful political tools whereby specific information is leaked to them by the people in positions of power in an effort to incriminate or defame rivals".
In February 2002, the newspaper score a bit of coup when it brought star columnist Bogdan TirnaniÃÂ on board.
Throughout 2002, Nacional ran a series of stories painting Serbian prime minister Zoran ÃÂinÃÂiàin extremely negative light. They started with a piece claiming ÃÂinÃÂiàrang in New Year 2002 at a lavish party in Dubai where the bill got footed by known criminals and fugitives from Serbian justice system. Later that year, the paper began publishing a series of letters supposedly written by Ljiljana Buha, estranged wife of politically connected Serbian businessman with underworld ties Ljubià ¡a "ÃÂume" Buha, in which she purportedly claims that Serbian organized crime has infiltrated the highest levels of political power in Serbia, specifically singling out prime minister ÃÂinÃÂiàand his political circle of friends and allies.
Though most of the claims from Nacionals Ljiljana Buha letters were in time proven to be either exaggerations or outright fabrications, including strong likelihood that the letters weren't even written by Ljiljana Buha but by members of the Zemun Clan, the letters managed their primary aim of politically damaging ÃÂinÃÂiÃÂ and his government.
More details of the entire episode came out over the years since. In Miloà ¡ VasiÃÂ's 2005 book Atentat, the 2001-2003 Serbian deputy prime minister ÃÂedomir Jovanoviàclaimed that during the publishing of the Buha letters and accompanying anti-ÃÂinÃÂiàpieces, Nacional editor-in-chief Predrag Popoviàmet with ÃÂinÃÂiàin October 2002 "admitting to the prime minister sheepishly and remorsefully that he had been paid to publish the Ljiljana Buha letters because he needs to make a living before offering to stop the whole thing for â¬50,000". Jovanoviàadded that ÃÂinÃÂiàagreed to pay up, but that the Nacional campaign against him continued.
On 18 March 2003, using its broad powers under the state of emergency act, Serbian government's Ministry of Culture and Information headed by Branislav LeÃÂiÃÂ 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". Then on 1 April 2003, the Belgrade city commercial court started liquidation proceedings against Nacionals 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 21 April 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.