Before being arrested in 1971 Gotovac became the editor-in-chief of Hrvatski Tjednik (The Croatian Weekly), which historian Marcus Tanner explains, "was a real phenomenon – a mass-circulation newspaper with an enormous audience that went way beyond the confines of the Communist Party and made a national reputation.

"[4]Gotovac continued to write in prison, with his most famous piece being his diary, Zvjezdana Kuga ("Starry Plague"), published some twenty years after his release in 1978.

And whilst he spent his pre-prison years working as a journalist and editor for TV Zagreb as well as writing literary pieces, he gradually moved into politics after being released from prison.

[citation needed] In an interview for a Swedish television channel in 1978 he was asked to elaborate upon his own philosophical beliefs, and he said: His experience in Croatia, dominated by communism, did not manage to pervert or shatter his own view of socialism; rather he felt that the sort of socialism he believed in had nothing whatsoever to do with communism, an ideology that he viewed as nothing more than centralist totalitarianism, of which its followers, he said, "are incapable of thinking freely.

During the Zagreb Crisis he allowed himself to be manipulated into embarrassing negotiations with the Croatian Democratic Union, which harmed the reputation of party and its unity.

As president, Tuđman did not undertake the sort of reforms hoped for by Gotovac and others, rather he became autocratic, suppressing the media if it dared to criticize him or his system, as well as limiting the civil and political rights of Croatian citizens.

During the campaign rally in Pula he was assaulted and injured by a Croatian Army officer Tomislav Brzović who was under influence of alcohol and was shouting "Long live Ante Pavelić.

[citation needed] On 7 December 2000 Gotovac died in Rome, aged 70, from a liver cancer as a complications based on hepatitis, caused by infected injection needle used in his prison infirmary.