Luka Brajnovic was born of a noble Croatian  family in Kotor, Monte Negro on 13th January, 1919. He completed his Doctorate studies at the Universityof Zagreb and received his Licentiate Degrees in Philosophy and in Journalism at the University of Navarra.

He was a novelist and poet. He was editor of the newspaper “Hrvatska Sraza” at a very young age. At the end of the Second World War he escaped from Croatia and was not able to return until 1989. He settled in Spain in 1947.

In 1958 he became a professor of the newly created Institute of Journalism of the University of Navarra in which he taught various courses related to world literature, media technology and ethics. His book, “Deontología Periodística” (Ethics for Journalists) is the the first textbook of its type published in Spain.

As a specialist in the cultures of central and eastern Europe, he wrote a daily column titled, “Boletin del Extranjero” over a period of 28 years for the newspaper “Diario de Navarra”.

He was the author of five collections of poetry in Croatian and Spanish, four textbooks in the field of Journalism, two novels, a book of short-stories, and his autobiography, “Despedidas y Encuentros”(Separations and Encounters).

He taught thirty promotions of Spanish and Latin-American journalists. He died after a prolonged illness on 8th February, 2001.

Being a journalist saved his life

Redacción (University of Navarra quarterly), 1993:

—Being a journalist saved your life in 1943...
—Yes, that´s true. When I was editor of the newspaper I made a train journey. The train was derailed by bombs which had been placed by Tito´s communist partisans.  The bomb explosions were followed by a gunfire attack and I tried to tear up the documents I was carrying but I forgot to destroy  my identity card as a journalist which I carried in the pocket of my jacket. Later on I was condemned to death but standing in the line-up in front of the firing-squad with the other condemned prisoners I was taken out of  line and reprieved for being a journalist and was confined in concentration camps. From March to August of 1943 I was held in the camps at Kamesko and Vrhovine in Croatian territories occupied by the communists.  They wanted me to speak on the radio: they were trying to use me to make propaganda in their favour by saying who I was and that I had passed over to their band voluntarily. In the end I managed to escape from Vrhovine along with a companion during a bombing of the camp.  I was thus able to return to the newspaper in Zagreb.  But shortly thereafter the Croatian Fascist government closed the paper for publishing an article commenting the discourse delivered by Pope Pius XII which condemned that ideology.

—When did you leave Croatia?

—In 1945, when the communists took power.  I left my country, leaving my family behind. I was confined to refugee camps set up by the Allies in Austria and Italy. There, I began to type up a newsletter –Vijesti- which was posted on  bulletin-boards in the barracks.  My sources included BBC radio reports and other European stations which I listened to on a radio which a collegue had hidden away and occasionally I had access to newspapers.