“I was a paid propagandist” for President Tudjman in ex-Yugoslavia: Joe Tripician

“On the Barricades” s06e53

On this weekend’s release of “On the Barricade”, host Maria Cernat invites Joe Tripician, an American Emmy-award-winning filmmaker with very interesting Balkan connections. In 1997 Joe accepted a job to write the "official" biography of the president of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman. He had to decide whether to write what the Croatian government wanted and help the president escape a war crimes indictment, or to tell the truth and become an enemy of the State. He shares his personal experience of being a paid propagandist for a Balkan war criminal– which lends some insights and reflection on the workings of the Croatian state propaganda campaign after the break-up of Yugoslavia and a bloody fratricidal war.

Joe wrote about his experiences in the book “Balkanized at Sunrise” which is soon to become a documentary, “I Was a Paid Propagandist”, linked below.

Book:
https://www.amazon.com/Balkanized-at-Sunrise-Joe-Tripician/dp/0557494516/

Documentary:
https://www.thefilmcollaborative.org/fiscalsponsorship/projects/iwasapaidpropagandist

Joe’s website
https://joetripician.com