October 7, 2022 - Last night, at the traditional conference of tourism workers - the Croatian Tourism Days (DHT) in Šibenik, the first part of this year's awards was given to the best in tourism. Osijek received the most successful Continental City Tourism Destination award, while Slavonia, with all five counties, was declared the most successful rural tourism destination.

As Radio Osijek writes, another award has arrived in Slavonia, more precisely to the Vukovar-Srijem County. Rujana Bušić Srpak, director of the Vukovar-Srijem County Tourist Board, is the employee of the year in the Tourist Board system. And Varja Guttert from Nature Park Kopački Rit was the best tourist guide.

Country club Terra Negra also received recognition as a finalist in the category of a unique gastronomic experience of the year.

"This award is the result of the work of all Osijek tourism workers, restaurateurs, and citizens because they make our city an authentic destination," said Osijek Mayor Ivan Radić, thanking for the award, which declared Osijek the most successful continental city tourism destination.

Hrvoje Jelavic / PIXSELL

"Skyrocketing numbers confirm that Osijek is the most successful continental city tourism destination. For example, this year's September is 30 percent better in overnight stays compared to the record year of 2019. Even for last year's Advent, Easter, and until the summer months just finished, the previous records for the number of arrivals and overnight stays were broken," continued Radić and pointed out that the city is investing in tourist infrastructure: "We renovated the swimming pools at Copacabana in Osijek, which in a month and a half attracted more than 30 thousand visitors. We also landscaped the Drava beach at Kopika. We are restoring the historical core of Tvrđa, which will soon become the pearl of Osijek tourism again. We are building a concert hall. The major renovation of the Osijek Airport is also underway. And the promenade along the Drava - our famous Promenade - will, once we connect the Lower and Upper Towns, become the longest promenade in this part of Europe. We also renovated the pedestrian bridge, a symbol of Osijek and a favorite photo point of our guests," said Radić.

He emphasized that numerous and well-organised sports and cultural and entertainment events contribute to excellent results. "Because that's what Osijek is - a city of sports, a city of culture and entertainment, a city of delicious food, good wines, and authentic socialisation. A city of parks, walks, bicycles, good and open people, and a pleasant place during all four seasons. A city that does not have a season, but a good year-round dynamic, from competitive adrenaline on the sports fields, through summer refreshments at Kopika, to the inner warmth of Advent", the mayor of Osijek stated with satisfaction.

The second part of the awards will be presented today, October 7, for the best in tourism, and among them is the "Anton Štifanić" award in the company/institution/association and individual category, the lifetime achievement award, and special recognitions for exceptional contribution to the promotion of the Republic of Croatia and application of the principles of sustainable development.

As questionable as some of the Croatian Tourist Board's choices are, like their official promo video, the awards given out to Slavonia and Osijek were more than deserved. Congratulations to the recipients!

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

September 2, 2022 - The 3^rd Media In Time journalism festival organised by the Center for Media Culture in Vinkovci is starting today with a panel discussion on the topic "Small" media, big topics".

As Press 032 reports, the festival in Vinkovci will carry a central theme dedicated to local journalism and the doubts and problems that exist in the local media when opening of certain topics, from problems with sources to attempts at political and other pressures and distractions, which sometimes come from their own employer and editorial staff.

The central part of this year's Media In Time festival will be the awarding of the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) awards for the best local journalistic works, which bear the names of two exceptional Croatian journalists, Anđelko Erceg and Siniša Glavašević, and the Media In Time journalism festival will be the permanent venue for their awards in of the future.

These are the newly established awards of the Croatian Journalists' Association, which are intended to recognise journalists who self-sacrificingly and professionally do their journalistic work in local media, and who know how to remain in the shadow of their colleagues who deal with topics of national importance. It can be pointed out that the laureates are journalists from Dubrovnik to Vukovar. The award ceremony in the lapidary of the Vinkovci City Museum will be broadcast live on HND's Facebook and YouTube pages.

HND

After awarding the award for the best local journalistic works, the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Franjo Fuis: from comics to theatre and film and back" by Veljko Krulčić will follow, which will be staged in the gallery of the City Theater of Jotza Ivakić as part of the collaboration between the Media In Time festival and Fra Ma Fu festival of Reporting and Reporters of Virovitica and Daruvar.

HND adds that on the second day of the festival, September 3, the program continues in Vukovar with a lecture by communication and media expert Tomislav Levak, a lecturer at the Academy of Arts and Culture of the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University from Osijek on the topic "How and why is misinformation and fake news produced and spread?". The panel discussion "Fake news – how to fight it" will follow, which will be opened with a presentation by a young computer scientist from Vinkovci, David Buday, an expert in OSINT (open source data), on finding information from publicly available sources.

In addition to Croatian journalists, the participants of the 3^rd Media In Time festival will also be the president of the European Federation of Journalists and the Union of Croatian Journalists, Maja Sever, and the president of the Croatian Journalists' Association, Hrvoje Zovko, fellow journalists from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, as well as students from the Department of Culture, media and management of the Academy of Arts and Culture of the University of Josip Juraj Strossmayer from Osijek, with which the Center for Media Culture recently signed a cooperation agreement.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

April 9, 2022 – Numerous social and demographic measures and activities carried out in the city’s institutions have been recognized at the European level. Koprivnica Mayor Mišel Jakšić announces the European Capital of Inclusion and Diversity Award. 

Last week, as Lokalni.hr writes, Koprivnica received great news from the European Union capital, Brussels: confirmation of entry among the 23 finalist cities in the run for the European Capital of Inclusion and Diversity Award. As many as seven Spanish cities entered the final for this important award, including Barcelona and Bilbao; four cities from Germany (Cologne, Mannheim), three from Italy (Bologna), two from Romania, Belgium, and Sweden, and one each from France, Croatia, and Luxembourg.

Koprivnica was among the cities that have shown a high level of responsibility in promoting and supporting inclusion and diversity in their local communities. The city government believes that learning about diversity from an early age ensures a lasting attitude, a life without prejudice, and coexistence in which diversity is a normal part of everyday life. Koprivnica is known as a friendly and smart city.

Ten percent of its population have disabilities, and the city received the Employer of the Year for People with Disabilities Award in 2008. The city administration's strategy for a unified policy for people with disabilities creates preconditions for equalizing opportunities for people with disabilities and preventing social exclusion, they explain.

The Council of National Minorities also protects the rights of minorities such as Roma who receive a different kind of support, including kindergarten. Data on assistance, programs, and activities implemented by the city administration are monitored and collected as part of quality assurance.

“Koprivnica is the only Croatian city that entered the finals of the European Capitals of Inclusion and Diversity. This is the result of numerous social and demographic measures, activities, programs, and projects that we implement in our institutions, and which are recognized at the European level. Koprivnica has been nominated in two categories, which makes us extremely happy”, emphasized the Mayor of Koprivnica, Mišel Jakšić.

For a long time, the city has been working to include members of the Roma national minority in all spheres of life, providing them with affordable kindergartens and including them in preschool education. For example, children who are still learning Croatian are provided with Roma translators. These and other measures, such as financial support, have resulted in more Roma children in pre-school, primary, and secondary education.

In cooperation with the Roma association Kali Sara, the city administration has built a children's park and a sports playground in the Reka suburb, home to many Roma. At the Pučko Otvoreno Učilište Koprivnica, founded by the City, the emphasis is on teaching children and youth that diversity is a normal part of everyday life. Their efforts include re-education and vocational education programs. The ceremony to announce the winners will take place in Brussels on April 28 this year.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

May the 14th, 2021 - As the new public tender by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media was met with the outrage by writers community, a Croatian poet ranting about writers ranting about the culture ministry is quite the turn of events. TCN reporter and slam poet Ivor Kruljac approves but also debates parts of the petition launched against the aforementioned ministry.

The ever-unfortunate literary scene in Croatia, which is sadly not represented as it should be neither in Croatia nor abroad, took heavy blows as a result of the coronavirus pandemic - much like the majority of other sectors. Popular literary events such as Interliber, and many more fairs ended up being cancelled, the blow to this specific branch of cultural industry that generally receives poor investments and poor profits thus became even more challenging.

To jump to the rescue, The Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media issued a public tender for both writers and translators. As Jutarnji list reported, the tender for the provision of financial aid to authors and translators for the best books and translations in 2019/2020 introduced a little novelty along with it.

''With the commissional value of the books, which in previous editions [of such tenders] was the only criterium of assigning financial support, this new tender also has a numerical valuing of literal works“, reported Jutarnji.

This numerical valuing is assessed by the number of awards, the level of participation in literal manifestations and festivals, and critical responses.

''Forty points goes to the winners of the awards: Janko Polić Kamov, Fric, Ksaver Šandor Gjalski, Edo Budiša, Vladimir Nazor, Kvirin, Judita etc. While rewards such as Post Scriptum, going to Fran Galović, Sfera, Tea Rimay Benčić etc, are worth only half of those points. Fifteen points can be received by participating in some festivals and manifestations, while the lower rank of such events is worth ten points. Ten points are also added for reviews in certain media while for others (this sometimes includes expert magazines), the critical review is worth only seven or four points,'' wrote Jutarnji List.

The literary community rebelled, and they started a petition called "The Right to Quality" against these propositions, demanding for the tender to be cancelled, which is supported at the time of writing this article with 233 signatures of Croatian writers and other concerned citizens.

''Public funding support for the best work has significant importance for the number of authors, which is why the authors themselves fought for the existence of this type of support with the initiative ''The Right to a Profession'', reads the text of the petition. The petition also welcomed the description of the criteria to improve transparency but determines that the quantification of literary value, which is a qualitative category in itself, ''disables the authors of a high aesthetic value to get the support their work truly deserves.''

Additionally, playwriters aren't even mentioned in this tender (despite grading rewards which are reserved for playwrites, poets, and essay writers, who are also in a bad position), and the winners of some of these awards will be known only after the ministry's tender closes.  

The Culture Ministry could make many, many improvements, but, having the (mis)fortune of being present on the writing and more particularly, the poetry scene for the last six years (publishing and performing at various events, publishing short stories, and for better or worse, even being covered by the media for my work) I can't say, as a Croatian poet, that the arguments are really on the side of the writer's community either.

Here are several arguments regarding to petition (in bold), as well as counter-arguments (not in bold) from the most annoying Croatian poet in the country. I have no doubt my other colleagues will most likely hate me for it, but you, the reader, are free decide what seems to have more sense. Given the fact that Croatia is a democracy, the pluralism of opinions and civilised public debate is always welcome. Despite the fact that I will not sign the petition, you should sign it yourself if you feel it to be the right thing.

pixabay

Assigning the funds by the number of sold copies of books borrowed in libraries is problematic as it's not showing the work's actual quality. Readership is affected by various factors, which don't always come because of a book's quality, but from the previous visibility of the author and the budget the publisher has.

Well, how exactly do we determine the value of literary work? I'm no literature academic, and literary academics don't really communicate these ''legitimate criteria that makes a good book'' all that well. Additionally, these books which are labelled as being good, are so boring to the average reader, and then the reader often gets insulted by ''the intellectuals'' for reading such garbage. When you look at other arts, such as music, you can see that music academics favour some music over other types but then again, some music, known as pop, is made for common people and the artists don't focus on achieving some melodic masterpiece but rather to entertain their audience or send a brief message.

Why do writers who do the same get so ridiculed by academic circles?

Why are they ignored by Croatian publishers? Why do writers then insult the readers, making literature more repulsive to the audience, and then get shocked when there isn't a lot of reading done and consequently not much money to be had from the book business? This also makes the Croatian literary offer very poor, and often its style and topics end up being very similar as a result of this unexplained criteria. In return, there's very little Croatian crime fiction, SF, fantasy, love stories, and other genres, and the readers turn to foreign writers in search of such stories (Jo Nesbo, Stephanie Meyer, J.K Rowling. Lois McMaster Bujold and many, many more). Such writing makes them popular and also visible. That's the answer as to whose work gets most bought and borrowed in Croatia, give them the cash!

Poets are at a disadvantage from the very beginning. There are far fewer rewards for poetry than there are for prose, which means the poets can do nothing else but achieve fewer points. There's also less poetry writing in general, which means a lower amount of points coming from critical reviews. Child authors, essay writers, and comic book artists are in a worse position than poets as well.  

The above gets right to the heart of the point from the perspective of a Croatian poet. But, why is it like that, exactly? Before the coronavirus pandemic took the world by storm, there were so many poetry events filled with poets performing and the audience coming to watch them perform. Be it slam poetry, open mics, or some other poetry events, be it in the libraries, bars, or clubs, it was apparent that Croatia doesn't lack poets, nor does it lack an audience for it. These events were in the majority and were always very open to newcomers.

Social media is also filled with people, either quoting their favourite poets or posting their own, personal poetry. So, why are there no more rewards and why is there not more extensive interest from the publishers (with some honorable exceptions) to invest in poetry and keep up with the trends? Culture journalists working for various media outlets should focus more on poetry as well, and coming from TCN's perspective, poetry articles really do attract an audience, as we saw on March the 21st (assuming that reporting on poetry, an important artistic and historical heritage of the linguistic form, isn't rewarding enough in itself).

Evaluating work by the number of reviews is problematic as books that are more visible, in principle, receive more reviews. The authors whose books are published by smaller editors, who have fewer resources to invest in their promotion, are in a less favourable position. In addition, evaluating the number of reviews where three negatives are worth more than two positives is also illogical in order to evaluate the quality of a piece of work.

On top of that still, the amount of points based on the media site on which the critic is published seems to be very random. The result is the unusual circumstance in which, if the same critic writes two reviews of two different books and publishes them on two different sites, depending on where the critic published the review, one writer will receive 10 points, and the other one four even if the first review was positive, and the other one - negative.    

Again, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and there's no empirical way to determine which book is a good book and which isn't. If there were such a righteous empirical way of determining the quality of a book, we wouldn't have the difference between positive and negative reviews. Bad would always be bad, and good would always be good, and there wouldn't be any debates.

Take a look at the empirical field of physics and the definition of friction; ''Friction is a force between two surfaces that are sliding, or trying to slide, across each other“. This definition will always be the correct definition regardless of culture, personal preferences etc. Furthermore, positive reviews, even if done correctly by the rules of the still ''unclear criteria of literature scholars“, that wouldn't be set in stone.

When the poetry volume ''The Flowers of Evil“ by Charles Baudelaire was originally published back in 1857, the academics of the time condemned it as immoral and wrong, and of a poor quality, but today it is celebrated by the successors of that same academia, as one of the best poetry books ever. So, no writer should even care if the reviews are good or bad in terms of quality. That being said, reviews will raise a publication's visibility, attract readership, and inspire critics to write more reviews (combined with the PR done by the publisher). All of this shows the writer's ability to spark a reaction with their work. As such, whether a review is good or bad is irrelevant, but reviews do show the impact and public importance of the book, and therefore it seems to be quite the right direction to go in assessing books by the ministry.

That being said, the tender benefiting the publishing of one review in one media outlet over another is problematic if it doesn't better elaborate why some media outlets are favoured over others in the tender.

Furthermore, big publishers publish more books in larger quantities, and invest more in their promotion, and they already have a name that attracts the press. That is absolutely true. But, today, with the development of social media (which allows promotion without high expenses), and while journalists strive to discover new things, new names, new approaches - small publishers have never before been in a better position to push themselves and the writers they represent out into the public arena and develop and expand to the level of ''big players“. The only question is - do they have the will to do it?

It's not adequate that the esthetical value of a book is evaluated by attending events and manifestations. Festivals more often call upon already established authors who then have an unfair advantage. Additionally, every organiser mostly invites his own authors who again have an advantage over the others. The tender doesn't value international festivals, which causes a paradoxical situation in which the promotion in the organisation of the publisher is evaluated, but it's not evaluated when the promotion happens during an established international festival.

The term ''the presenting of the book“ is problematic for multiple reasons. First and foremost, the majority of these festivals don't present the book (and its a problem to prove that by participating in these festivals, the book was actually presented). Last, but not least – this is discriminatory towards authors of a weaker state of health, who are older (with the risk of the novel coronavirus still large) or busy with family and work obligations and are unable to travel.

Festival organisers do discriminate against writers, but whose fault is that exactly? Are these festivals organised by the Republic of Croatia, by the Ministry of Culture? If they are, then it's problematic, but if these festivals aren't organised by the ministry, then this whole petition is barking up the wrong tree. If the festival organisers aren't willing to be more fair and open to new names, then we, the writers, need to show solidarity with our colleagues and negotiate with festival organisers to invite our colleagues who are less presented to participate. If you're a writer/publisher seriously concerned with this issue, but you're among the lucky ones who get invited, use your position to help others out a little.

On the other hand, it's too bad international festivals aren't valued in the tender, and the ministry should work more in helping Croatian writers become more visible on the international scene. Regarding ''vulnerable writers, the old, the sick, and those too pre-occupied to attend'', they should be presented by their publishers, and an additional problem is that often the expenses of travelling to festivals aren't covered for the writer, and their participation costs money.

Awards such as the VBZ award, the Dragutin Tadijanović award assigned by (HAZU) etc aren't mentioned in the tender. Relevant international awards Croatian authors frequently are awarded, such as the Bridges of Struga (Macedonian award), the European Union Literature Award, the European Poet of Freedom, etc, are also ignored.

Every single award, be it Croatian, European or international, should be valued in the tender, but VBZ really shouldn't be. For those who don't know, the VBZ award is the annual award for the best-unpublished novel, and the winner sees their manuscript published, and there is a financial 100,000 kuna prize that goes with it too. With a huge monetary prize and the chance to have that piece of work published, why would VBZ be part of a tender whose goal is to financially help those writers who have run out of money?

The bigger problem is the question of how fair are these awards in the first place. Are they transparent? Are there no biases from the judges appointing these awards? Interestingly enough, there used to be an award called ''Kiklop'', which was given to the most purchased book in Croatia, but was cancelled in 2009 because the winning book by Nives Celzijus (about what's it like to be the wife of a Dinamo footballer) was considered by writing community to ''not be intellectual enough''. When in reality, for a book that can appeal so much to the Croatian readership, in a country that doesn't read much, such rewards should still be respected.

The final item of the tender that tries to consider the books that went unnoticed isn't going to accomplish too much. From the whole tender, it's visible that the emphasis is being placed on the work that received the most media attention and follows the old principle - The more attention something gets, even if it isn't good attention - the better.

Again, books should be visible to the public, and visibility should be awarded. The majority of publishers seem to see the distribution of a writer's work as their only job, and then they're surprised when despite distribution, the books just sit there not being snapped up by eager readers. Knock on doors, contact people, contact the press, everyone. Prepare a decent press release. Scream from the rooftops that you published a book from the top of your lungs and afford your writer the attention their work deserves. With the aforementioned development of social media, there's truly no excuse to be lagging in that respect today. Then, you'll get the media attention, and half of this tender would not be problematic at all. The problem is the policy of publisher's work and not the criteria by the ministry for this particular item.  

Overall, the Ministry isn't without sin in this saga, but the Croatian writing community (particularly publishers, and event organisers) also needs to act differently to benefit the writers themselves, especially the new generations (and poets, stop forgetting the poets!).

Poets and writers deal with language, and you can learn more about the ins and outs of the Croatian language on our TC page.

For more about culture in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 10 May (Hina) - The GLOBALLOCAL award has been bestowed on the eastern Croatian county of Osijek-Baranja for being successful in creating an enterprise-friendly atmosphere in Central and Southeast Europe, the county authorities reported on Monday.

The project of conferring this award is aimed at drawing attention to successful local communities and public institutions that apply original solutions and creative measures to boost sustainable entrepreneurship.

This year, 122 anonymous proposers nominated 263 candidates for this award and the award hopefuls came from seven countries.

County Prefect Ivan Anušić was quoted as saying that this prize was yet another proof  of the good policies pursued in the county to boost SMEs.

The award-giving ceremony is to take place in Dubrovnik later this year.

For more, follow our lifestyle section.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 25th of May, 2019, Dinko Lucić, CEO of Privredna banka Zagreb (PBZ), which is a member of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, is the winner of the prestigious CEO Today's Europe Awards for 2019 for his remarkable contribution to the presentation of Privredna banka Zagreb in the Republic of Croatia.

Every year, CEO Today recognises and honours the most prestigious companies and their C-level executives in today's business world. The CEO Today's Europe Awards rewards the success, innovation and strategic vision of CEO's in numerous sectors and industries across Europe (the IT sector, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, banking and finance, energy, mobile technology and communications, transportation services, etc.). CEO Today identifies the most successful, innovative, and future-oriented company leaders.

On the occasion of the announcement, Dinko Lucić, the CEO of PBZ, stated:

"I'm extremely proud of this truly special award, which is a historical and permanent record of recognition and success of our entire PBZ Group team. One of my basic beliefs, which has been confirmed during my long-standing managerial practice, is that the real difference is the people. I'm proud of our team and on this occasion, I'd like to thank all of our employees and also all of our clients for their constant efforts to be even better and to provide the full spectrum of financial services at the highest global level.''

The CEO Today Europe team has recognised a number of achievements by Mr. Lucić and PBZ in the past twelve months. The research team looks at the attitudes of many stakeholders, including investors, analysts, employees and media professionals around the world in order to properly create the basis for their annual award.

The results are then used as guidelines for considering and publishing the best management practices and critical performance factors, as well as the determination of eligibility based on achievements, which can be revenue growth and/or profit, a successful turnaround, good performance in difficult and complex times for the economy and industry, expanding onto new markets, leading market share(s), successful M&A integration, new products and services, and new business models and strategies.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business pages for much more.

The young doctor and director of the Rovinj ''Martin Horvat'' hospital has won recognition in Finland, and his extensive research will be presented in May in Canada.

A praiseworthy award for Dubrovnik's Tourist Board!