Author(s): Safet Bandžović / Language(s): Bosnian
Issue: 34/2005
In the period between the two world wars the daily “Πравда”, as the most influential party and government newspaper in the USSR, dedicated a lot of space to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, i.e. the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In those days, “Πравда” was the spokesman of Soviet policy. Most of its short news from Yugoslavia, with their suggestive headlines, placed in the inside of the paper, were meant to inform readership on the situation in the country, its foreign policy, as well as on the official position of the USSR towards it. Prevalent news were political ones - carefully censored, while other information, such as those on economy and culture, were greatly marginalized.
This daily paper used to call the country Yugoslavia from the very beginning, although that name became official only after the dictatorship imposed 6th of January 1929. In the period between the world wars news on Yugoslavia were rather frequent, although very short and often with bombastic headlines. They were mainly based on selected information from international press and radio stations, as well as on the belated news that came from Yugoslavia itself, primarily through communist channels. “Πравда” offered very little information on the events in Yugoslavia, while those that were published came out with delay, were incorrect and incomplete, never to be corrected later. The predominant information was the carefully filtered and censored information from the sphere of political life, while others, such as economic and cultural ones were marginalized.
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