Karolina Vidovic Kristo Photo: Pixsell
Concerned for the health and welfare of Croatian school children, journalist Karolina Vidovic Kristo dedicated one of her “Picture of Croatia” TV program episodes (end of December 2012) to making available to parents pertinent information regarding possible, unwelcome influences on the curriculum of the newly imposed mandatory sex education in schools. The unwelcome influences had to do with the likelihood that the controversial sex education curriculum was heavily influenced by Alfred Kinsey’s research with pedophiles and partly based on Kinsey’s findings.
The day following the TV broadcast Vidovic Kristo was suspended from her duties on Croatian HTV, and her TV program axed – so much for freedom of information and expression in Croatia.
Suffice to say that Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic’s wife sat on the government’s advisory board for the sex education curriculum, as well as Aleksander Stulhofer, who seemed to defend and promote Alfred Kinsey’s shady work with children and pedophiles.
Despite enormous protest by parents and the Croatian Catholic church regarding the new sex education curriculum; despite the visit to Croatia by Judith Reisman and Timothy Tate, warning about the profound negative effects Kinsey’s research and platforms on sexuality can have on children and social morality – the government installed its curriculum as mandatory in schools!
Civic Innovation Incubator/ Zagreb – Toronto/ Press Release (20 March 2013):
“Mrs. Karolina Vidovic Kristo, of Croatia, has been nominated, by the Howard Center / World Congress of Families, to receive the Global Leadership Award at a gala dinner following the International School of Fundraising held at Wellington College, Berkshire, Crowthorne, United Kingdom, on March 29, 2013. Risking her job at the national public media company she promoted media freedom, public debate and family values in Croatia. Mrs. Vidovic Kristo is a courageous journalist, carrying out her professional responsibilities, ensuring that the public was informed of new government programs that the government wanted to mandate without public debate.
The Global Leadership Award is bestowed in recognition of outstanding achievements in the building of a new generation of activists and leaders worldwide for the principles of free enterprise, limited government, and traditional family and moral values. Nominees are selected by the Bow Group, Leadership Institute, World Congress of Families and Institut de Formation Politique.
Mrs. Vidovic Kristo, as an investigative journalist, in December 2012, produced a TV program that provided a factual counter-viewpoint to health and sex education policies being mandated by the Croatian government through what many see as an undemocratic process. As a result of the information she presented, the program that Mrs. Vidovic Kristo produced was taken off the air and she was suspended from her job. Following a public uproar she received global support not only from the Croatian community in Croatia and around the world but also from other journalists, pro-family values organizations, scientists and intellectuals. Notably, Professor Judith Reisman of Liberty University School of Law in Lynchburg Virginia came to Croatia in support of Mrs. Vidovic Kristo and the public debate. Professor Reisman says, ‘I was, and am wholly and completely, honored to stand with this courageous journalist and indeed she well-deserves a Global Leadership Award. Governments may develop health and sex education policies and programs but these policies and programs must then be examined and approved by the public before implementation.’
In the face of threats, aimed at her and her family, Mrs. Vidovic Kristo, with the support of Professor Judith Reisman, went on a tour of Croatia to promote an active debate of important social values and issues. Mrs. Vidovic Kristo says, ‘Media professionalism and integrity must be based on the truth and nothing but the truth – no matter what the truth is.’
For her courageous defense of media freedom and integrity Mrs. Vidovic Kristo deserves global recognition as a role model for other investigative journalists and activists, not only in developing democracies but also in all countries of the world where the most important aspects of media integrity and responsibilities are being forgotten.
‘Freedom of the press, or, to be more precise, the benefit of freedom of the press, belongs to everyone – to the citizen as well as the publisher… The crux is not the publisher’s ‘freedom to print’; it is, rather, the citizen’s ‘right to know’.
– Arthur Sulzberger, 1990 – American newspaper publisher”.
Good luck Karolina Vidovic Kristo! You make me proud in having this opportunity for sharing and disseminating the real Croatian truth. With strong, just and fair people like yourself, Croatia cannot fail at ultimately achieving full democracy it deserves. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)
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Reblogged this on Croatia Business Report.
Congratulations to Mrs. Vidovic-Kristo! The honor is much deserved. However, it is a sad day for Croatia and its emerging democracy that the honor should come from beyond its borders. This honor should have been bestowed by Croatia. The greatest gift of democracy is freedom of the press, and not the suppression of uncomfortable or unpopular voices.
I think their might be some overstating the importance of the award. Do a Google news search for Howard Center or World Congress of Families, you only get news from Christian News Wire, and no other major news outlets..no AP, no Reuters, no New York Times, No Guardian.
It’s a little known organization outside of extreme right wing US politics.
Fred, does it really matter how widely a positive move or award is known? If you belong to that group which does good things only for widely known awards, you have completely missed the point of doing things right. Even if this award is not known widely in the USA, it is known in Croatia, where it counts, where the journalist lost her job because she wanted the public to have access to all relevant information on issue affecting school education. You right wing politics mention is in such bad taste, your comment re Christian News Wire is in such bad taste that I can only conclude that you think people have the right to information only if those come from certain sources. I happen to believe that Reuters, NYT, Guardian etc are more selective and slanted about what information they publish than many others.
I shall survey my Croatian friends and ask them if they know this award.
Your conclusion is wrong. People have the right to information from any source they choose. But people must also fact check and see what multiple news sources are saying about a given subject. If even right wing news sources like foxnews.com, the Wall Street Journal or even newsmax.com aren’t mentioning or picking up on a story, organization, or movement, its probably a non event.
Agree Fred re checking all possible sources, however there are still many events that don’t get picked up by any, and besides, an event in peoples’ lives cannot be a non event. I published a Press Release from an organisation, and that Press Release was also picked up by some Croatian Media. Many Press Releases go out every day, only a percentage gets picked up and followed up on…but even though you surely read in my post who issued the press release and you still have an issue with sources of information, i.e. not important enough for you. To my view of the world, if a source is genuine, if a source talks about people (who usually make the news even for the most widely read media outlets) then the event is important because it touches peoples lives. Event or non events are defined by people, after all and depend on whether the news or info sells the papers…or gets most clicks if you like to justify the advertising dollar hunt… some outlets do not depend on the advertising dollar and that is where one can usually pick up stories or events not picked up by the “big” ones