Željka Markić | |
Birth Name: | Željka Živković |
Birth Date: | 11 November 1964 |
Birth Place: | Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia |
Nationality: | Croat |
Education: | School of Medicine, University of Zagreb |
Organization: | U ime obitelji, Mary's Meals |
Spouse: | Tihomir Markić |
Children: | 4 |
Željka Markić (; born 11 November 1964) is a leader of Croatian right-wing movement U ime obitelji (In the Name of Family).[1]
She was born in Zagreb, then Yugoslavia, as the oldest of six children.[2] She attended Classical Gymnasium in Zagreb and graduated from School of Medicine at University of Zagreb.[3]
She worked as a war reporter during the Croatian War of Independence and later for BBC, NBC and RAI II.[3] She was editor of the Nova TV news programme from 2004 to 2007. She also edited television shows on Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT). Markić was a contributor to Human Right Watch from 1992 to 1994.[3]
She is the author of the few documentary films on BBC and Channel 4, such as Guy Smith, Correspondent and Unforgiving and co-director of documentary film Children of War together with Alan Raynolds.
She translated works of John Grisham, Antonio A. Borelli and Roy Gutman.[4]
She was the first president of the right-wing party Croatian Growth and founder of Croatian subsidiary of Mary's Meals organisation.
She is one of the key organisers of the 2013 Croatian constitutional referendum[5] for which civic initiative U ime obitelji (In the Name of Family) had collected 749,613 signatures.[6]
She is married to physician Tihomir Markić with whom she has four sons.[7]
Markić's opposition to LGBT rights has repeatedly drawn criticism in the media.[8] [9] She has opposed Croatia's ratification of the Istanbul Convention on preventing violence against women and domestic violence.[10] [11] She is also opposed to abortion and euthanasia.