SFRJ ZA POČETNIKE - Omladinska štampa

In November 1980, the editor-in-chief of Polet Zoran Franičević wrote: ‘It is apparent that in the context of the crisis of the youth organisation, the state of the economy and the socio-political relations, as they are, the youth press has an opportunity and space for a more decisive and more concrete action […] We know the enemy, as well as their means […] It seems that our (youth) press is preparing to become more open, more engaged and more protruding than the organisation which is paying us. For that battle of ours we should not, of course, expect to have our housing question solved, [to receive a] better pay and nice office space, but some possible bruises – yes!’ Indeed, throughout the 1980s the youth press sought to expose the contradictions within the Yugoslav legal framework with regard to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. This led foreign scholars to observe that ‘Of all the periodical publications appearing in Yugoslavia, it is the youth press which has proven the most consistently nettling to the authorities. Outspoken to the point of rebelliousness, the young editors […] have repeatedly ignored even the most fundamental taboos’. (From Ljubica Spaskovska PhD thesis "The Last Yugoslav Generation – Youth Cultures and Politics in Late Socialism")