 Front page of the first issue (19 February 1922) | |
| Type | Weekly (1922–1929); (1942–1943) Three times a week (1941) Dailynewspaper (1944–2009) Monthly (2020–) |
|---|---|
| Format | Berliner |
| Founded | 19 February 1922; 103 years ago (1922-02-19) |
| Political alignment | Communist Party of Yugoslavia |
| Headquarters | Zagreb (1922–1929) Užice (1941) Drinić (1942–1943) Priluka (1943) Belgrade (1944–2009, 2020–) |
| ISSN | 0350-7440 |
| OCLC number | 12303752 |
| Website | borba |
Borba (Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic:Борба) was a newspaper published informer Yugoslavia andSerbia, best known from the period when it was the official gazette of theLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) until 1954 andSocialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia thereon until its dissolution. Its name is theSerbo-Croatian word for 'fight' or 'combat'.[1]
The first issue ofBorba was published inZagreb on 19 February 1922.Đuro Cvijić andKamil Horvatin were the editors of the newspaper at its founding.[2] It was the official gazette of theLeague of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY),[1] a banned political organization since December 1920 that nevertheless operated clandestinely in theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later Kingdom of Yugoslavia. From 1924, the editor ofBorba wasVladimir Ćopić, who was soon arrested for his articles against the government. Functioning as the banned Yugoslav Communist Party's propaganda piece, the paper played in important part in disseminating information among the party members, activists, and sympathizers.
On 13 January 1929, a week following the proclamation ofKing Alexander's6 January Dictatorship,Borba was banned.
DuringWorld War IIBorba was published in theRepublic of Užice. After theWorld War II liberation by thePartisans, its publication moved toBelgrade.
From 1948 to 1987, the newspaper was also published simultaneously inZagreb. For a long time,Borba alternated pages inSerbian Cyrillic alphabet andGaj's Latin alphabet in the same edition.
In July 1986,Stanislav Staša Marinković became the editor-in-chief ofBorba, and soon afterwards, he started rebranding the anachronistic Communist government newspaper into one of the most liberal daily newspapers in Yugoslavia. After Marinković's death in 1989, Manojlo Vukotić kept the same policy, so in the beginning of theYugoslav Wars,Borba journalists took an anti-war stance, and in 1992 and 1993Borba became one of the most important strongholds of the opponents toSlobodan Milošević war policies. In 1993, after an internal conflict, Vukotić is replaced bySlavko Ćuruvija, and in 1994, government took overBorba overnight, changing the editorial staff, and 120Borba employees left the magazine, which, after that, became the proponent of Milošević's regime under the new editorDragutin Brčin. Yet the core ofBorba journalists continued publishing different anti-Milošević publications - soon after the 1994 government takeover, a group of formerBorba journalists started publishingNaša borba. In 1997, most of theNaša borba journalists establishedDanas, which is still published today. In 1996, formerBorba editor Manojlo Vukotić startedBlic, which is also still published today, and in the same year Slavko Ćuruvija started publishingDnevni telegraf, which was published until Ćuruvija's assassination in March 1999.
Meanwhile,Borba's reputation rapidly deteriorated under Brčin, and the newspaper lost almost entire readership in a few years. After the2000 overthrow of Slobodan Milošević,Borba had to face complete transformation. In 2002,Borba along with its distribution network were purchased by Serbian businessmanStanko "Cane" Subotić who bought the government shares in the paper. However, under Subotić, the dailyBorba barely survived, printing no more than several hundred copies a day while according to business records, the company's monthly revenues never exceeded €30,000.[3]
RedesignedBorba got announced in December 2008 withIvan Radovanović presented as the paper's new owner after reportedly buying it from fugitive Serbian businessmanStanko "Cane" Subotić.[4] Before the first issue of the redesigned paper appeared, Serbian deputy prime ministerMlađan Dinkić accused Subotić of still beingBorba's true owner with Radovanović only serving as the front man.[5]
Though announced for December, the first redesigned issue ended up appearing on newsstands on 15 January 2009 undereditor-in-chief Miloš Jevtović who came over from the state-ownedTanjug news agency. It was published by "Izdavačko preduzeće Novine Borba" using the Latin alphabet. Content-wise, the paper's new format was conceived as something new on the Serbian print media market with no news wire items and press releases with only analysis of the current events as well as ongoing political and social trends. Initial editor-in-chief Jevtović was soon replaced with Olivera Zekić.[6] However, the paper sold poorly (less than 3,000 copies per day), ceasing publication in October 2009 after less than a year.
In 2020,Borba started publishing once again, as a monthly magazine dedicated to culture, art and promoting traditional and conservative values. Although the magazine had government support and in 2021 celebrated its 99th anniversary, the former journalists and editors ofBorba strongly criticized this publication.Radomir Ličina, who was aBorba journalist and editor from 1969 to 1994, said he felt "nothing but disgust at the attempts to ruthlessly appropriate something that belonged only to people who for decades devotedly defended and advocated clear and recognizable journalistic principles and lasting and unchanging civic and human values even in the most difficult of times".[7]
In February 2022, both newly formedBorba magazine and several different groups of formerBorba journalists organized gatherings commemorating 100th anniversary of the first issue ofBorba.
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