Latinica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Latinica is a Croatian television talk show launched on November 11, 1993 and currently aired Mondays at 20:10 CET on HRT 1.
Hosted by Denis Latin, it discusses various actual topics and its guests are the people who have a vast knowledge or experience in connection with discussed topic. The show also contains five outside reports showing the actual cases connected with current discussion.
Latinica is also the longest-running weekly talk show in Croatian television with more than 350 broadcasts so far. Its title, besides being derived from the host Latin's surname, literally means "Latin alphabet" in Croatian.
Latinica started on HRT, but was briefly aired on Mreža, first private Croatian TV network in 1997 and 1998, owned by Miroslav Kutle and other businessmen close to the regime of Franjo Tuđman. In late 2005 it was speculated that the show will be transferred to another private network, Nova TV.
Recently, Latinica became subject of great controversy due to the show dealing with the legacy of Tuđman. The treatment of the late president was criticised by his followers, most notably Andrija Hebrang and other high-ranking members of ruling Croatian Democratic Union party. Hebrang went as far to accuse the show of causing the death of a Patriotic War veteran who committed suicide after allegedly being upset with the show's contents in this episode.
When veteran's daughter, young HRT reporter, disputed the story, Hebrang attributed that to HRT management's pressure and tried to use this as an argument for Parliament's (and his party's) tighter controls of the media. Latin, vilified by right-wing sections of Croatian public, had to endure few weeks without his show on air with his sacking seen as a done deal, but HRT leadership in the end decided to keep Latinica on air.
According to Croatian media reports, 2005/06 season of Latinica is going to be the last, because Denis Latin accepted the offer of becoming Croatian ambassador to Spain.
