Political Censorship in Dubrovnik Newspapers Crvena Hrvatska, Dubrovnik and Prava Crvena Hrvatska (1905–1914)

Sa？etak Crvena Hrvatska, Dubrovnik and Prava Crvena Hrvatska, newspapers issued by political parties in Dubrovnik, were subject to continuous censorship on behalf of the Austrian authorities, which cleansed the printed issues from, in their opinion, inappropriate content. The censorship procedure was carried out by the State Attorney Office and District Court. Once the controversial content was removed, the papers had to be issued anew, while the censored copies were destroyed and the typesetting dismantled. Instead of the censored parts or even whole articles, in the second edition stood a void space marked as zaplijenjeno (confiscated). Among the documents of the District Court filed at the State Archive in Dubrovnik, original newspapers have been found, whose parts or whole articles the censors marked as inappropriate for the readership of Dubrovnik. Also examined are the censored issues of the newspapers which, to date, have remained undetected in historiography, and have been compared to the first edition. In the period 1905-1914, some 250 articles were censored. The analysis of censored and printed newspapers has provided a fresh insight into the attitude of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy towards the policy and writing of the Dubrovnik newspapers, and thus brought to light all the banned topics that were never to be presented to the Dubrovnik public. On account of open advocation of the Kingdom of Serbia and its political views, the authorities most often confiscated the texts of the newspaper Dubrovnik, issued by the Serb-Catholics. Crvena Hrvatska, the newspaper issued by Narodna stranka (People’s Party) in a number of politically tense episodes was subject to heavy censorship, while Prava Crvena Hrvatska, newspapers issued by the local section of the ？ista stranka prava (Pure Right Party), was not in the focus of the censorship authorities as it promoted the political ideas of the Monarchy