About The Paper (Croatia)
The Paper, known in Croatian as Novine, is a political drama set in the coastal city of Rijeka and centered on the newsroom of a fictional broadsheet billed as the last independent serious newspaper in the country. When a powerful construction magnate buys the title, the editors and reporters must decide how far they will bend before their journalism stops being journalism at all. Created and written by author and former journalist Ivica Djikic and directed by Dalibor Matanic, the series became one of the most discussed Croatian dramas of its era.
Across three seasons the show follows veteran reporters, ambitious newcomers, and the businessmen and politicians who orbit them. Storylines move between investigative work, courtroom pressure, financial leverage, and the personal compromises that accumulate when a free press becomes a bargaining chip. The ensemble structure lets the series treat the newsroom itself as a character, tracking how ownership changes ripple through every desk and deadline.
First broadcast on HRT 1 beginning in October 2016, The Paper was acquired by Netflix in 2018, becoming the first Croatian-language drama series to land on the platform and reaching audiences far beyond the region. Its blend of regional specificity and universally legible themes about media, money, and power helped it travel, and it is frequently cited as a landmark in the wave of contemporary scripted drama from the former Yugoslavia.
