ZAGREB, March 7, 2019 - A union of Croatian police officers on Wednesday sent a letter to Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović, asking him to replace the national police director, Nikola Milina, over a case involving reporter Đurđica Klancir in which, the union says, police was used for political purposes.

Klancir, who works for the web portal Net.hr, was IDed by two police officers at workplace on Tuesday and the police officers told her that they were doing so at the request of an attorney who was filing a private lawsuit against her on behalf of Sisak-Moslavina County Prefect Ivo Žinić of the HDZ party, who was suing her for slander.

The Union of Police Officers (SPS) believes that police were used for political purposes in the case, which it describes as an attack on media freedoms. The police were used as the long arm of politics to intimidate the reporter based on a request by an attorney for a local politician who is a member of the ruling party, the union said.

The politician in question can be often seen in the company of Marko Rašić, who serves as Zagreb Police Department head and used to head the Sisak-Moslavina County Police Department, the union said.

Police could have established the reporter's identity also through the Ministry of the Interior's information system, the union said, noting also that the latest amendments to the Police Act that had been drafted without the participation of any police union, would put the police entirely under the control of politics.

MOST MPs Nikola Grmoja and Ines Strenja Linić will call for the parliamentary Committee on Information, Computerisation and the Media and the Domestic Policy and National Security Committee to discuss the abuse of police powers in the case of reporter Đurđica Klancir, the party said on Wednesday.

MOST believes that this is yet another example of intimidation and attempt to control the media by those in power to prevent reporters from writing about numerous scandals.

"It is unbelievable that HDZ County Prefect Ivo Žinić sent the police to identify Đurđica Klancir. This is an unprecedented case because police don't take action on a call from a private person - in this case the attorney, who on behalf of his client, Prefect Žinić, called the police to personally go and collect information from the reporter," Nikola Grmoja, who is a member of the Media Committee said.

He believes that that could have been done based on a written request, however this government's aim is to stifle any freedom of the media and to demonstrate their power.

Strenja said that the party would submit a motion for the Domestic Policy Committee to examine the case due to justified suspicion that the police had been misused. "Public trust in institutions is already very low, and the more cases of this nature the more people are buying one-way tickets to Ireland and Germany," Strenja said.

More news on attacks on the independent media in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 6, 2019 - The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) on Wednesday condemned in the strongest terms "the political and police pressure" on reporter Đurđica Klancir who has wrote on her Facebook wall that two police officers had arrived in her editorial room to establish her identity necessary for the procedure of a private lawsuit filed against her.

Klancir, a reporter for the Net.hr portal, said that the two uniformed police officers had arrived at her workplace following a request of the lawyer in Sisak-Moslavina County who is preparing a lawsuit on behalf of his client, and according to the reporter's statement, the client is Sisak-Moslavina County Prefect Ivo Žinić who is privately suing her.

The HND finds that this is an unprecedented case in which a powerful politician is using the police as his own private service to intimidate journalists which the HND described as deeply disturbing and shocking.

The HND refers to the whole case as an act of "political and police pressure" on a reporter.

The association insists that in this way, the County Prefect Žinić, whose work Klancir has been criticising in her articles, is trying to intimidate the reporter.

The Ministry of the Interior said on Tuesday said that the police conduct was in compliance with the law and in that specific case, the lawyer of the concerned injured party requested to be provided with identification data for the purpose of launching a civil action.

The ministry underscores that in this case the injured private party was entitled to get information to lodge a lawsuit, and the police are supposed to establish beyond any doubt the identity of the sued party given that there are several persons in Croatia with the same name as the said reporter.

The only reliable data has been that the reporter works for the Net.hr portal and therefore the police officers went to the media outlet's premises to establish the accurate identity of the sued party.

More news on the pressure on independent media in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 5, 2019 - Secretary-General of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) Ricardo Gutierrez on Tuesday called out Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to take concrete steps to limit abusive prosecutions against journalists, and to ensure the full independence of public media.

“Mr Plenković claims we were manipulated! We don’t care about Mr Plenković’s impressions and feelings,” Gutierrez said in an article released on EFJ's website in which he comments Plenković's statement that Gutierrez isn't went well informed about the situation in the media in Croatia and that there aren't any problems with media freedoms in Croatia as is being portrayed.

Gutierrez is seeking answers from Plenković to questions like whether it is normal in a European Union country for journalists to be the target of no less than 1,163 legal proceedings and for the public broadcaster to use public money to intimidate journalists through 36 lawsuits and for Croatian authorities to remain unresponsive following the publication of a European report which states that editorial autonomy is at its lowest in the country, compared to all other EU member states.

Furthermore, Gutierrez questions whether it is normal for Croatian authorities to remain passive following the public of a European reporter denouncing the constant political interference in the management of the public broadcaster and that the level of independence of the Croatian broadcaster's management and financing is worse than in Turkey or Serbia.

“We urge the Prime Minister to get to work: it is time for Croatia to take concrete steps to limit abusive prosecutions against journalists, and to ensure the full independence of public media. We do not expect feelings, but actions,” Gutierrez concluded.

More news on the media freedom in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 5, 2019 - The Croatian Journalists Association (HND) Executive Board on Monday dismissed in the strongest terms Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's statement about HND president Hrvoje Zovko, noting that Plenković was denying that critical journalism in Croatia was exposed to pressure and was trying to discredit Zovko.

Commenting on a reporters' protest against censorship held this past Saturday, PM Plenković said on Monday that the problem started when HND leader Zovko almost physically attacked the editor of the Croatian Television (HTV) news department, Katarina Periša Čakarun, but that he did not hear any of the protesters mention that or show any solidarity with the editor in question. Plenković also said that Zovko himself had sued other reporters.

"Reducing the many problems that concern the erosion and destruction of journalism - of which the HND-led protest of last Saturday warned - to the case of Hrvoje Zovko, and doing it in such a way to distort facts concerning the circumstances of Zovko's resignation as an HRT editor, is unworthy of a prime minister," the HND Executive Board said in a statement.

The prime minister is forgetting that an attempt by Zovko to attack his editor was never established, and it is not true, as Plenković claims, that "the problem started" with that case, the HND said.

"We would like to remind the Prime Minister that Hrvoje Zovko is only one of the 36 reporters and media outlets the HRT is currently suing because they spoke about the situation at the public broadcaster and whose written explanation of the reasons for his resignation as editor, in which he warned of censorship and the technical and personnel erosion of the HRT's news department, the HRT management is persistently trying to reduce to a personal dispute. The Prime Minister's claims, which go in the same direction and are based on one-sided and incorrect information and have been made before the court has ruled on the matter, are not only irresponsible, they are also ill-intentioned," the HND said.

It notes that the prime minister's equating lawsuits which Zovko filed against hate-mongering to which he was exposed in obscure right-wing media and the HND's well-founded warnings about hundreds of lawsuits that have been filed to prevent critical journalism, bears witness to his capacity to understand the role of journalism as a guardian of social freedoms and democracy.

"It is extremely worrying when the prime minister of an EU member-country belittles a justified reporters' protest and its reasons, the more so as he does it using the arguments of the HRT management, which is suing reporters and the journalists' association, and using the language of commentators on obscure right-wing web portals," reads the HND Executive Board's statement, signed by vice-presidents Slavica Lukić and Denis Romac.

More news on the media freedom in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

March 4, 2019 - There is growing international coverage of the growing protests of Croatian journalists about media freedom in the country.

As reported previously on TCN, Croatian journalists organised a rally to protest about the current state of media freedom in Zagreb on Saturday. It is a story which is beginning to attract international media attention, with the New York Times covering the protest via AP:

"ZAGREB, Croatia — Several hundred Croatian journalists have rallied in the capital Zagreb against what they say is pressure on journalists and curbing of media freedoms in the European Union country.

"The gathering on Saturday dubbed "You took over media, we won't give up journalism," was organized by the Croatian Journalists' Association in protest over more than 1,100 lawsuits filed against journalists in the country."

Read more.

More international scrutiny is coming as well. A mission of the South-East Europe Media Organisation, the European Federation of Journalists, the European Broadcasting Union and the Balkans and Caucasus Observatory is visiting Croatia on March 6 and 7 to get additional information on the worrying media freedom situation, the Croatian Journalists Association (HND) announced earlier today.

ZAGREB, March 4, 2019 - A mission of the South-East Europe Media Organisation, the European Federation of Journalists, the European Broadcasting Union and the Balkans and Caucasus Observatory is visiting Croatia on March 6 and 7 to get additional information on the worrying media freedom situation, the Croatian Journalists Association (HND) announced on Monday.

It will be the mission's third visit in less than three years. The first visit took place in June 2016 and the second in January 2018, when the mission found that the situation at the public broadcaster HRT, increased hate speech and an incomplete media policy were the biggest problems facing the Croatian media.

In June last year, the mission published a report entitled "Croatia: hate speech on the rise but hope for change", with recommendations for improving the situation.

The mission's work is backed by a large number of international organisations which have announced that they will support its findings and recommendations.

In a separate development, addressing a conference organised by the Večernji List daily on the topic "The Croatia We Need – Two Years Later" in Zagreb on Monday, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said that synergy of actions of all public stakeholders was necessary for the future of Croatia, and called on reporters to give more space in their reporting to lawmakers who seriously take their duty than to exhibition-prone MPs, and in that way media can contribute to efforts to make the national parliament more serious and responsible.

Commenting on the conference, Jandroković said that this event positioned media outlets as co-responsible stakeholders of Croatian society. He went on to say that the parliament should be transformed in the future so as to become more responsible and more serious as well as an institution able to address contemporary challenges.

"Instead, we have the parliament as a place for entertainment and show business, a place that simplifies the issues facing the Croatian society. Reporters also take part in making parliament akin to show business," Jandroković said.

"I am often asked how we can leave this framework in which the parliament is a show business. My answer is that this can happen when media outlets themselves start paying more attention to members of parliament who prepare their speeches tackling the contents and the merits of the matter and when MPs who resort to exhibitionism and if necessary to defamation only to grab the limelight are pushed to the back burner," said Jandroković.

More news on the media freedom in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 2, 2019 - We are reporters who want to work in public interest and not be anyone's extended arm of this, or any previous or future government, Hrvoje Zovko, the president of the Croatian Journalists Association (HND) said in front of Government House where representatives of the association read the eight demands they put to the government.

After expressing their disgruntlement in front of the Ministry of Culture and the University of Zagreb and City Offices, sending a message to Mayor Milan Bandić that they "are not immune to his insults" and attempts to belittle reporters, more than a thousand protesters marching under the slogan, "You confiscated the media, we won't give journalism!", gathered outside Government House.

Addressing the rally, Zovko says that although Croatia is a parliamentary democracy, the place where decisions are made and power is, is in the government, "unfortunately the parliament is too weak and the government is too powerful."

He underscored that reporters wanted to inform the government that it has to change its treatment of reporters and the media and to enable journalists to do their job in normal conditions.

"We aren't dramatising anything nor are we sweet. In any case this is an issue of all Croatian citizens. This isn't just an issue for us reporters," Zovko said and then read their demands against censorship.

The demands among other things call for current lawsuits to be withdrawn, for legal protection to be provided for reporters who warn of the pressure they are exposed to, for the the Electronic Media Council to be depoliticised, for HRT's management to be dismissed and for urgent amendments to the HRT Law.

Apart from that, the HND demands that the Law on the Media be implemented, local power-wielders who usurp the media to be stopped, and that attackers on reporters be identified and brought to justice.

Due to the "devastation of the national broadcaster's programme and personnel, the promotion of defeated ideologies, suspect spending of public money and lawsuits against reporters and the media," the protesters called for HRT's management to be dismissed and for the urgent amendment of the Law on HRT, "which as a public media broadcaster is being used as a service for the political majority instead of public interest."

"We demand that HRT be independent of those in power and that its reporters are allowed to freely do their job," HND said and called for cessation of the long-standing practice of ignoring or breaching the Law on the Media.

The nongovernmental organisation Transparency International Croatia (TIH) supported the protest rally organised by journalists in Zagreb on Saturday, saying in a statement that it was necessary to ensure conditions for quality journalism "which does not exist in Croatia today."

"Journalists must feel secure in performing their profession. Above all, they must have employment contracts so they can be independent and free in doing their work responsibly. Low pay and job insecurity force them to neglect their profession for the benefit of media owners," TIH said.

It warned that journalism in Croatia today "is reduced to marginalising important social topics" because journalists are mostly forced to report on political showdowns and criminal cases which are then discussed for days.

"Day-to-day reporting on these negativities has led to the increased discontent of the public and to a decline of their confidence in political institutions and politicians and in their future in their own country," TIH said.

Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić, who joined protesting reporters on Saturday, said that today "reporters in Croatia are spending more time in courtrooms than in their editorial rooms," and added that it was unacceptable for freedom of speech and the media to be increasingly deteriorating each year.

"More than a thousand journalists in Croatia are involved in court proceedings. In fact, they are more frequently in courtrooms than their editorial rooms. That is disastrous and just an indicator that freedom of speech in Croatia and the situation with media freedom is deteriorating more and more each year," Bernardić underscored.

He said that the protest's slogan, "You confiscated the media, we won't give you journalism," was the best message to the government.

Asked what needs to be changed in the future to improve the situation, Bernardic said that it was necessary to depoliticise the national broadcaster, HRT, and to not allow political influence on that public service.

"Apart from that, it is necessary to prevent the use of the possibility of lawsuits to the detriment of reporters. It is necessary to depoliticise the Council for Electronic Media and to take heed of all of HND's demands. That is why I am here today as a sign of solidarity with protesting reporters in Croatia," he said.

More news on the media freedom in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 27, 2019 - Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) president Hrvoje Zovko said on Wednesday that an "unprecedented campaign of persecution against reporters and the media" was underway in Croatia, and that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's Croatian government was responsible for not responding to it, adding that reporters would try to hand in to government officials a list of eight demands against censorship at a protest rally set for March 2.

The situation in Croatian journalism and the media is disastrous and for years now, the HND has not been able to achieve a dialogue with the Plenković government, said Zovko. "Foreign institutions and individual embassies are more interested in the situation in the Croatian media than the government which during its term has not once expressed readiness to meet with an HND delegation, despite our many invitations," Zovko told a press conference.

By holding a protest rally under the slogan "You captured the media, we won't give up journalism", the HND wants to warn of the fact that in the heart of Europe, in an EU member-state, the reporting profession is being destroyed and is on its last legs while the people currently in power are just watching in silence, Zovko added.

Zovko considers the "prime minister's silence" as irrational, particularly in light of the fact that next week an international delegation will visit Croatia to inspect the situation in the media and freedom of the press. This will be the third inspection in a short period of time.

"This is a country in which the government that spreads fake news fights against that same news. For years now many political platforms have suppressed journalism, but in the past two years the situation has escalated," he said, adding that those who started the war by suing reporters, trampling on the journalistic profession and attacking the HND did not count on that becoming a hot topic that would last for months.

He said that the struggle for journalists' rights and media freedoms would continue even after the March 2 protest because reports about it would be sent to more than 500 addresses, the HND's international partners.

Zovko, a reporter and editor on the Croatian Television (HTV), commented on a press release from the Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) public broadcaster in which it claims that the "public broadcaster is not suing its own reporters," and showed four lawsuits by the HRT against the HND, him personally and Sanja Mikleušević Pavić, who heads the HND branch on the HRT.

"As far as the 36 lawsuits by the HRT against other media outlets, its own employees and the HND are concerned, all I can say is - withdraw them unconditionally, there can be no negotiation on that. We will never apologise for what we said because it is the truth," Zovko said.

Sanja Despot of the HND read out eight demands against censorship to be presented to the government, including the demands to stop the current lawsuits, provide legal protection for reporters who warn of the pressure they are exposed to, depoliticise the Electronic Media Council, dismiss the HRT's management and urgently amend the HRT Law.

Apart from that, the HND demands that the Law on the Media be implemented, local power-wielders who usurp the media be stopped, and that attackers on reporters be identified and brought to justice.

More news on the media freedoms in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 27, 2019 - The national broadcaster, Croatian Radio Television (HRT), on Tuesday condemned a statement by MP Gordan Maras (SDP), who said that "HRT is suing its own reporters for two million kuna," underlining that Maras's claims are incorrect and that over the past two years HRT has launched lawsuits against the publishers and editors-in-chief of other media outlets.

"HRT most sharply condemns yesterday's statement by SDP MP Gordan Maras, who threw out an HRT reporter, cameraman and technician from a press conference, stating incorrectly that 'HRT is suing its own reporters for two million kuna.' It is not true that HRT is suing its own reporters: the lawsuits filed over the past two years were launched against publishers for publishing untruths and damaging HRT's honour and reputation, as well against chief editors for not issuing denials, which... they are obliged to do in accordance with the Media Act," HRT's communication service said in a press release.

The press release further said that it had received a letter on Tuesday from the South East Europe Media Organization which sharply condemned Maras's actions, considering them unprecedented political pressure on a public television in the European Union.

HRT has forwarded a letter to its Programme Council and Supervisory Board, asking them to review all the facts and legal aspects related to Programme Council vice president Nikola Baketa's attending a press conference convened by the GONG NGO, which called for a boycott of HRT.

HRT added that the first settlements with sued publishers were underway and that HRT would release a list of the people being sued and cases on its web site.

More news about Croatian Radio Television can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 24, 2019 - The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has joined the two-week boycott of the Croatian Radio Television public broadcaster, launched by NGOs in a show of support for journalists and media outlets that have been sued by the public broadcaster, the SDP said in a press release Sunday.

The SDP will not appear on or give statements for HRT in show of support to journalists and the media, the press release said.

Thirty civil society organisations earlier this month said they would boycott the HRT until March 2, for when a protest rally of journalists has been scheduled, in a show of support for journalists and media outlets that have been sued by the public broadcaster.

They said in a letter that the purpose of their boycott is to draw attention to the absurdity of the situation in which a public broadcasting service is suing media outlets and journalists over their reporting on how public money is being spent, thus undermining freedom of the press in Croatia through intimidation and pressure.

The HRT has so far filed at least 36 lawsuits against media outlets and journalists, seeking 2.3 million kuna (311,000 euro) in damages.

Rather than with lawsuits and pressure, a public media service should protect its reputation and independence by supporting journalists, improving the quality of its programming and management, and with other activities aimed at protecting and not undermining freedom of the press, the letter said.

The letter said the official position of the European Federation of Journalists is that the HRT is the worst public service in Europe in terms of independence, adding that filing lawsuits is a problematic way of spending taxpayers' money and an unprecedented practice of a public broadcaster in Europe.

More news on the Croatian Radio Television can be found in the Business section.