E-novine is a web portal that covers events in the Balkan countries that formerly used to be parts of SFR Yugoslavia.

Stationed in Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

 with Petar Luković as editor-in-chief, E-novine publishes commentary and news

News

News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...

 in Serbo-Croatian-Bosnian language with the emphasis on critical

Criticism

Criticism is the judgement of the merits and faults of the work or actions of an individual or group by another . To criticize does not necessarily imply to find fault, but the word is often taken to mean the simple expression of an objection against prejudice, or a disapproval.Another meaning of...

, anti-war

Anti-war

An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...

 and anti-nationalist content. It is also known for its willingness to print defamatory and controversial stories in the vein of UK's Private Eye

Private Eye

Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...

or Canada's Frank

Frank (magazine)

Frank is a bi-weekly Canadian scandal or satirical magazine published since 1987 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.A separate publication in Ottawa, Ontario, of the same name was published from 1989 to 2004 and then revived from 2005 to 2008...

.

There are three libel law suits pending against E-novine, two filed by Emir Kusturica

Emir Kusturica

Emir Nemanja Kusturica , is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician, recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films...

 and one by Stojan Drčelić.

Editorial Office

Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

n journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 Petar Luković is the editor-in-chief of this media portal. Branislav Jelić is its Director. Editorial office drew together a dozen of junior editors and journalists from Belgrade, in addition to whom many authors from the region are contributing to E-novine, such as Emir Imamović, Andrej Nikolaidis

Andrej Nikolaidis

Andrej Nikolaidis is a Montenegrin-Bosnian writer, columnist, and current adviser to Ranko Krivokapić, speaker of the Montenegrin Parliament.-Biography:...

, Filip David, Mirko Kovač

Mirko Kovac (writer)

Mirko Kovač is a Montenegrin, Croatian, and Serbian writer....

, Vladimir Arsenić, Nenad Veličković

Nenad Velickovic

Nenad Veličković is a prose writer and playwright from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He lives in Sarajevo.-External links:**...

, Dženana Karabegović, Ljubomir Živkov and many others. The portal reunited the former staff of Feral Tribune

Feral Tribune

Feral Tribune was a Croatian political weekly magazine. Based in Split, it first started as a political satire supplement in Nedjeljna Dalmacija before evolving into an independent satirical weekly paper in 1993...

from Split

Split (city)

Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...

: Heni Erceg, Viktor Ivančić

Viktor Ivancic

Viktor Ivančić is a Croatian journalist, best known as the founding member and long-time editor-in-chief of satirical weekly Feral Tribune....

, Boris Dežulović

Boris Dežulovic

Boris Dežulović is a Croatian journalist and writer, best known as one of the founders of the now defunct satirical magazine Feral Tribune.Dežulović studied art history at the University of Split....

 and Predrag Lucić.

Editorial policy

E-novine articles employ a subjective writing style, with elements of gonzo journalism

Gonzo journalism

Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative. The word "gonzo" is believed to be first used in 1970 to describe an article by Hunter S. Thompson, who later popularized the style...

, and are abundant in quotations, sarcasm

Sarcasm

Sarcasm is “a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt.” Though irony and understatement is usually the immediate context, most authorities distinguish sarcasm from irony; however, others argue that sarcasm may or often does involve irony or employs...

, satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 and profanity

Profanity

Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...

. E-novine's editorial policy is not aimed at objective and global journalism; it mostly publishes critiques and opinion pieces that scrutinize the day-to-day politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

 of former Yugoslav republics (now independent states) as well as wider trends within the respective countries' societies.
E-novine devotes special attention to war crimes and criticism of the role that Serbian media had in Yugoslav wars. The majority of articles it publishes are harsh political satires (Lukovic, Markovic, Dezulovic, Lucic and others), and the most common targets are politicians and parties in power in regional countries. A significant number of articles is being written by its readers from their own perspective. Apart from politics, this portal also deals with isuues concerning society

Society

A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...

, culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

, economy

Economy

An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...

, sports and entertainment

Entertainment

Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...

.

E-novine unofficially refers to itself as "small heretical

Heresy

Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...

 medium" due to its perceived marginalized position on the Serbian media scene.

History

E-novine was founded in November 2007 with Srđan Kusovac

Srđan Kusovac

Srđan Kusovac is a Serbian-Montenegrin journalist.Currently, he's the editor-in-chef of Montenegrin government-owned daily newspaper Pobjeda, the post to which he was named after being the media adviser to Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović....

 as its first editor-in-chief.

Petar Luković took over on May 30, 2008, gathering a group of people that became the new editorial staff. That day is considered to be the birthday of e-novine. By the end of 2008, visits to the site dramatically increased. The number of visitors went up several hundred percent in comparison to the previous period. Over a half of those weren’t from Serbia, rather from countries in the region.

In mid-2009 E-novine faced serious possibility of having to shut down for financial reasons, due to the pressure from the Serbian regime, but remained in business with the help of its readers' donations. The beginning of 2010 led to another critical point under the pressure of regime

Regime

The word regime refers to a set of conditions, most often of a political nature.-Politics:...

 through its advertisers, and E-novine appealed to the readers again.

Petar Luković claims that only the media loyal to Serbian president Boris Tadić

Boris Tadic

Boris Tadić is the President of Serbia and leader of the Democratic Party. He was elected to a five-year term on 27 June 2004, and was sworn into office on 11 July. He was re-elected for a de facto second five-year term on 3 February 2008 and was sworn in on 15 February...

 are allowed to be profitable, and furthermore says that the web advertising in Serbia is monopolized by a handful of agencies, all owned or operated by people with close professional and personal ties to Tadić and his party. Nevertheless, he points out that E-novine will continue to be completely independent and keep reexamining any regime that may be in power.

Criticism

E-novine is being criticized by Serbian nationalists and other authors.
Critics assume that repudiations of objectivity

Objectivity (journalism)

Parent article: Journalism ethics and standardsObjectivity is a significant principle of journalistic professionalism. Journalistic objectivity can refer to fairness, disinterestedness, factuality, and nonpartisanship, but most often encompasses all of these qualities.- Definitions :In the context...

 and other side show how E-novine‘s editorial office understands the freedom of the press: “there’s no freedom for the enemy of freedom.” They state that e-novine uses “appealing humor as a political resource against those who are not like-minded", namely nationalists, as a rule. They are further criticized for allegedly not allowing the hate language from right-wing while allowing the same from the left-wing.

Some authors accuse E-novine of “vulgarity” and “profane insults”, stating they are in the service of the Liberal-democratic Party (LDP), which is usually spared of their criticism. On the other hand, LDP member Nenad Prokić

Nenad Prokic

Nenad Prokić is a playwright, theatre director, a member of the Presidency and founder of the Liberal Democratic Party and an MP in the Parliament of Serbia....

 made veiled accusations that E-novine caused the party to flop at the local elections in the Belgrade municipality of Voždovac

Voždovac

Voždovac is an urban neighborhood and one of 17 municipalities which constitute the City of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.- Location :...

.

External links

• E-novine Homepage