Control of the Press in Croatia 1848-1849: From Censorship over Unlimited Freedom of the Press to the First Croatian Press Act
Control of the Press in Croatia 1848-1849: From Censorship over Unlimited Freedom of the Press to the First Croatian Press Act

Summary/Abstract: Using a comparative perspective, this paper analyses radical changes in conditions under which the press functioned in Croatia in the revolutionary years 1848-1849. In a time span of more than a year, a rigid system of preventive censorship in Croatia was briefly replaced by unlimited freedom of the press (proclaimed in mid-March 1848), which was restricted by a very stringent Press Act in early May 1849. The paper analyses circumstances under which “The Provisional Press Act” (1849) was adopted. The Act's provisions are considered in the context of press regulations in effect in other European countries of the time, especially in the German speaking area. It has been established that the first Croatian Press Act applied solutions from press regulations of other European countries, although they were modified and adapted to Croatian political and economic circumstances, mainly through the mediation of the Austrian Press Act.

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