August 7, 2021 - Professor David Marshall arrived in the City of Zagreb to do a WEAA Black Lives Matter Croatia report and TCN reporter Ivor Kruljac meet up with him, providing on-record statements and research assistance as TCN partner up with WEAA to bring this story to the American public.

''So this is the statue of King Tomislav, our first Croatian King,'' I said to the visiting American when we arrived at Zagreb's ''Tomislavac'' (King Tomislav Square). He ruled back during the 10th century and he reigned over the biggest territory that encompassed today's Croatia, as well as what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina.''

''How did you say you pronounce his name?'' asked me the American.

''Tomislav'' I repeated, noticing he had a bit of an issue pronouncing the name, so I broke it down the best way imaginable.

''So, it's Tomi, you know like the name Tommy, and slav, like slavs, as in Slavic people, so its Tomislav,''

''So... Tomi-slav?'' he asked.

''Exactly. Basically, he's a Slavic Tommy,'' I added.

''Slavic Tommy! I love it!,'' said our American visitor to the capital. 

 Professor David Marshall with TCN reporter Ivor Kruljac in Zagreb

Croatia: Expressing solidarity and understanding global problems

Dr. David Marshall is Professor and Chair of the Department of Strategic Communication in the School of Global Journalism & Communication (SGJC) at Morgan State University in Baltimore, USA.

He worked on an assignment for WEAA, a radio station that, under the slogan ''Voice of the community'', brings its audience a programme of jazz, gospel, reggae, and public affairs. In the sea of many interesting issues WEAA covers, they collaborate with Morgan State University on a project entitled ''WEAA on assignment''. One of these assignments takes a look at the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement around the world, which brought professor Marshall to Croatia.

With TCN writing about the 2020 protest in Zagreb in support of BLM triggered by the horrible death of George Floyd which shocked the world, it was only logical to partner up with WEAA on their story in Croatia. Check it out yourself in the video below:

The BLM movement in Croatia may come as a bit of a shock to those who know that Croatia is the most racially pure caucasian country in the entire world (with 99.3% of the population being ethnic Croats). That said, the country still has a black community.

With Total Croatia News being totally about Croatia, we even covered what it's like for black people living in Croatia and listed some unfortunate incidents that black people have experienced in the country. For example, the case of Nigerian students that participated in World InterUniversities Championships who were exiled from Zagreb to Bosnia, as they were thought to be refugees, or the case of two black members of the US Air Force that were attacked at a Nightclub in Zadar (with police reports stating that they were not attacked because of their race, but rather because they were twerking in the club, and attackers thought they were gay, which is just as awful).

Thus, the BLM support protest in Zagreb wasn't just about global solidarity, but about associating the injustice and discrimination in the US with the discrimination in Croatia. Homophobia and the questionable treatment of refugees seeking asylum in Croatia being the most widely known issues of discrimination and inequality here.

Croatia: Full of news stories 

As TCN continues to cover Croatia in the most total sense possible, encompassing both the good and the bad, we were honoured to be recognised by WEAA and we were more than glad to able to assist them in their reporting. If you yourselves are journalists and reporters coming to Croatia to cover a story, don't hesitate to contact us, and we will help as much as we can. The best way to reach us is via e-mail address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., but you can also contact us through Facebook.  

Check out our new Total Croatia website that brings you detailed reports on Croatia, covering destinations, culture, history and much, much more.

For more news about Croatia in English, make sure to follow TCN.

June the 30th, 2021 - A brand new Croatian educational inequality investigation network has been launched with the aim of seeing just what might be behind Croatia's relatively low share of educated people.

As Ivan Tominac/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, according to PISA data, differences in primary school student achievement are related to socioeconomic status, geographic region, and gender. Croatia has a low share of highly educated people (Croatia: 28.7%; EU-28: 39.9%, according to Eurostat) and a very low participation of adults who decide to continue their further education (Croatia: 3%; EU-28: 10.8%, according to Eurostat).

The reasons for this aren't always a lack of desire or motivation, they're sometimes institutional in nature, and the obstacles that arise lead to inequalities in access to education. With the aim of eliminating Croatian educational inequalities and enabling equal access to further learning, a new national network of experts, scientists and civil society organisations has been launched to investigate educational inequalities across Croatia, from kids of pre-school age to people in higher education.

This new Croatian educational network is called "Lifelong Learning Available to All" and is part of a wider project led by the Institute for the Development of Education, and co-financed by the European Union from the European Social Fund. The main aim of their activities is, of course, to make recommendations that will eliminate Croatian educational inequalities and slim down the band of inequality that young people often encounter during their education.

The purpose of the network is to research and solve the problem of social inequalities in regard to access to, attendance and completion of education in Croatia, ie to provide equal educational opportunities to members of socially excluded social groups.

“So far, there has been no network or coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) linking levels of education from pre-school to higher education, including adult education. In addition, so far there has been no structured initiative between CSOs, the scientific community and public administration to address these alarming Croatian educational inequalities.

Currently, CSOs in the field lack the capacity for quality and coordinated action in the field of education: knowledge (on other parts of the education system; on the causes of educational inequalities); skills (for conducting research; for public advocacy); and networking with other stakeholders. By strengthening these capacities and taking a more coordinated action, CSOs can play an important role in the process of publicly pointing out the problems of Croatian educational inequalities and in proposing recommendations for public policies,'' said Mia Lakatos, the TEMCO project manager from the Institute for Educational Development.

The project will advocate, and at the national level, the realisation of equal opportunities at all levels of education (preschool and early primary, secondary, higher, adult education) for members of various marginalised groups (persons of lower socio-economic status, persons with disabilities, refugees, asylum seekers, Roma people, people from rural areas, etc.).

The network consists of a team of 25 experts from 10 organisations, and their goal is to work on the networking and capacity building of at least 12 associations and 3 other institutions in order to work more effectively on policy advocacy across the entire vertical of the education system. Furthermore, scientific research will be conducted in cooperation with the scientific community and associations on the dimensions of educational inequalities at the level of early and preschool education, primary, secondary and higher education, as well as adult education.

Finally, it is equally important to mention that they plan to hold 6 structured dialogues with decision makers (at both a national and local level), educational institutions and users of the education system to identify societal needs, discuss research results and advocate for education policy recommendations.

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