Vladislav F. Ribnikar

Vladislav F. Ribnikar (; 13 November 1871 – 1 September 1914) was a Serbian journalist, known for founding Politika, the oldest Serbian daily. He led the newspaper from the day it was founded in 1904 until his death in combat during the World War I. He is the progenitor of contemporary Serbian citizen journalism.

Biography Vladislav Franc Ribnikar was born in Trstenik, Serbia in 1871, the oldest of three sons of a Slovene doctor, Franc Ribnikar from Carniola and his Serbian wife Milica Srnić from Kostajnica.

Ribnikar went to school in Jagodina and Belgrade. He studied history of philosophy at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy from 1888 to 1892. After graduation he continued his education in France where he received his master's degree from the Sorbonne in Paris then Berlin to study at the Humboldt University on a state scholarship. Vladislav F. Ribnikar influenced by his experience in France and Germany decided to launch the first independent Serbian newspaper. In only a few years it managed to become the most important daily in Serbia.

After studying in his native Svilajnac and Belgrade, following his graduation in Germany at the universities in Jena and Berlin, Ribnikar's younger brother Darko and another brother Slobodan, a physician, also joined Politika.

As a reserve officer of the Royal Serbian Army, Ribnikar participated in the 1912–13 Balkan Wars, he was wounded twice, near Odrin (1912) and near Bregalnica (1913). After the outbreak of the World War I, he was once again called back to active duty. Ribnikar was killed in action on 1 September 1914 in western Serbia, in the Sokolska planina mountain; only a day after his youngest brother Darko, reserve captain and editor-in-chief of Politika, had been killed by an enemy shell on the front line at Ravno Brdo. On 2 September 1914, Politika announced the death of its founder with a large banner headline. Ribnikar's daughter Danica, married British spy and career diplomat Sir John S. Bennett in 1943.

Legacy On the occasion of the death of the Ribnikar brothers, Isidora Sekulić wrote a poem published in Politika of September 1914. Vladislav Ribnikar has a street named after him in Trstenik.