ZAGREB, 15 Nov 2021 - The Croatian Journalists Association (HND) on Monday warned that the head of the HRT public broadcaster's "Business operation" unit, Mislav Stipić, has filed a private slander lawsuit against two HND vice-presidents, thus continuing a string of lawsuits against reporters and HND leaders.
Stipić has sued HND vice-presidents Branko Mijić and Goran Gazdek over a statement published on 12 March under the title "Bačić's taking to court leading people of the HND and Croatian Trade Union new attack on media freedoms", the HND said in a statement.
The latest case continues the shameful string of lawsuits against reporters that have made Croatia recognizable in the EU as a country where power-wielders use lawsuits to square accounts with reporters and media, thus threatening journalistic and media freedoms, the HND says, noting that Croatia has been at the bottom of EU rankings with regard to respect for media freedoms.
HND president Hrvoje Zovko said this was yet another attack on the HND by Stipić but the HND would continue speaking and warning about the situation at the HRT as well as his role in it.
Stipić resented allegations in the said statement that former HRT director Kazimir Bačić, dismissed over corruption charges, targeted anyone who had dared speak up publicly about serious accusations of sexual harassment and mobbing, made against Stipić by an HRT employee and corroborated by two other employees, which Bačić tried to cover up, the HND said.
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