ZAGREB, February 21, 2019 - Thursday's parliamentary debate on the appointment of Antonija Petrušić to the supervisory board of the HRT public broadcaster turned into a debate on the HRT and lawsuits against journalists, with the opposition requesting quality public broadcasting and supporting 30 civil society organisations in their boycott of the HRT and a protest to protect journalism announced for March 2.

"We can't talk about the appointment of a member to the HRT supervisory board without saying what the situation there is like because the HRT management has been deliberately left without supervision to do as it pleases," said independent Bojan Glavašević.

Supporting the upcoming protest, he said the HRT was the worst public broadcaster in Europe in terms of independence. The HRT has such devastatingly low viewership that the Electronic Media Agency recently stopped measuring it.

The HRT does not fight for investigating journalism and programme quality, said Gordan Maras of the Social Democratic Party.

Boris Milošević of the Independent Democratic Serb Party said he had especially taken issue with "the promotion of a book on Jasenovac where not only the Holocaust was denied, but also that any crime had happened." Jasenovac was a WWII death camp in Croatia.

He recalled that the SDSS had expressed dissatisfaction a number of times with the share of ethnic minority programmes, the lack of personnel in charge of ethnic minority issues, and programmes in minority languages. "Only in Croatia do we have the public broadcaster suing its own journalists. We don't have that anywhere in Europe."

Ivan Pernar of Živi Zid called for boycotting the HRT and cancelling the licence fee, saying he was not paying it.

Miro Bulj of MOST said the HRT was carrying out Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's programme.

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

ZAGREB, February 19, 2019 - Thirty civil society organisations said on Monday 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 media freedom in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 18, 2019 - The Croatian PEN Centre on Monday objected in the strongest terms the introduction of criminalisation of speech and a prison sentence handed down against Zoran Erceg for something he said.

The Croatian P.E.N. Centre is a nongovernmental organization founded in 1927 as one of the first member-centres of the International PEN, the world association of poets, novelists, essayists, playwrights, screenwriters, historians, critics, translators, editors and journalists sharing the same belief that writers can play a crucial role both in changing and developing civil society.

Denying someone their right to a political opinion encroaches upon a fundamental democratic right, P.E.N. said in a press release.

The Zagreb Misdemeanour Court on Wednesday handed down a conditional prison sentence of 15 days against activist Zoran Erceg for disturbing the public order at a ceremony on December 10 at which a monument to Croatia's first president Franjo Tuđman was unveiled. At the ceremony, which was attended by the entire state leadership, Erceg shouted, among other things, that Tudjman had destroyed Croatia and was a war criminal.

The Croatian PEN. Centre is worried about a growing number of court rulings against journalists who have been sued for damages, citing the recent case of author and journalist Jurica Pavičić, as well as lawsuits filed by Croatian Radio Television against its own journalists and the Croatian Journalists' Association.

A court in Split last week ruled that Jutarnji List journalist Jurica Pavičić must pay 50,000 kuna in damages to a former director of the Split-based Croatian National Theatre, Duško Mucalo, for infringement of personality rights with a series of his articles about his term at the helm of the said theatre.

The PEN Centre said that pressure exerted by politicians and political parties on freedom of expression, such as the persecution of and calling for violence against Jutarnji List reporter Željka Godec, who in her article cited facts from the State Audit Office's findings, was unacceptable.

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

ZAGREB, February 9, 2019 - The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) will raise the issue of Croatian public broadcaster HRT lawsuits against journalists at a meeting of partners in social dialogue between the audiovisual sector and the European Union, the Croatian Journalists Association (HND) said on Saturday.

The EFJ says in its February newsletter that secretary general Ricardo Gutierrez attended a round table in Zagreb a few days ago called "Journalist before the courts", organised by the HND. The topic was intimidation of journalists and media with lawsuits and lack of independence on the HRT.

The EFJ informs its members that the HRT management has brought 33 lawsuits against journalists, including HND president Hrvoje Zovko and the president of the HND's branch on the HRT, Sanja Mikleušević Pavić, the HND said, adding that the EFJ once again called on the HRT to drop the lawsuits.

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

ZAGREB, February 7, 2019 - Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek said on Thursday the Croatian media were independent, press freedoms guaranteed, and that the government did not exert pressure on the media.

She was asked by the press ahead of a cabinet meeting to comment on European Federation of Journalists secretary general Ricardo Gutierrez's statement that the situation in Croatia with regard to political influence on the media was the worst in the European Union.

"I think that's not true. You work, you know you are independent, that press freedoms are guaranteed in Croatia," the minister said, adding that "the phenomenon of lawsuits against journalists and media is not in the remit of media legislation... and it should be discussed."

"We absolutely stand by the basic media legislation postulates. The media are independent and neither the government nor anyone from the government is exerting pressure on the media."

She dismissed a journalist's remark that Croatia was falling in international rankings by the year and that the situation was deteriorating, saying the data differed and that there were no such pressures in Croatia. "We will work on enhancing media legislation together with associations and other partners."

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković rejected claims that there was no freedom in Croatia, when asked to comment on claims by the Croatian Journalists' Association suggesting that there were over 1,000 court cases against journalists and the media in the country.

"To say today that there is no media freedom in Croatia means that the person making this claim is neither reading the papers, listening to the radio nor watching TV," Plenković said.

The prime minister stressed that according to Freedom House, Croatia was a free country with free media and free media ownership structure.

Stressing that Croatia's Penal Code envisages a possibility of defamation, slander and libel suits, Plenković said that according to information he received from the justice minister, 85% if such cases end with an acquittal.

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

ZAGREB, February 6, 2019 - Croatian journalists and media outlets are currently facing over a thousand lawsuits, a round table was told in Zagreb on Wednesday. Panellists at the round table, entitled "Journalism in Court", warned of frequent civil and criminal actions being brought against the media to intimidate critical journalism.

The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) circulated a questionnaire on lawsuits to 90 media outlets and received answers from 18 of them which are currently facing 1,163 lawsuits. Publications by the Hanza Media and Styria groups are most frequently the targets of claimants.

It was assessed as particularly worrying that the HRT public broadcasting service, which is financed with public money and is supposed to promote freedom of speech, had brought 33 lawsuits against their own and other journalists, media outlets and the HND over their critical reports on the HRT, demanding 2.17 million kuna (293,000 euro) in damages.

"A public media organisation which is supposed to protect media freedoms has become the main actor in silencing journalists," HND vice-president Slavica Lukić said.

HND president Hrvoje Zovko warned of the problem of damages being sought from media outlets, a problem faced by the media since the 1990s. He said he held Prime Minister Andrej Plenković responsible for the situation at the HRT because he tolerated such behaviour, and called on the HRT to drop all charges against journalists and media organisations.

The secretary general of the European Federation of Journalists, Ricardo Gutierrez, said that the problem of the HRT had been acknowledged by European media experts as well.

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

On Saturday, the Živi Zid political party used a paid advertisement on the Facebook social network to launch an attack on Jutarnji List’s journalist Željka Godeč. In the Saturday edition of Jutarnji list, she published the article "Financial Holes in Živi Zid", an extensive analysis of Živi Zid’s finances, which showed that the party did not spend its money in a transparent way. The report was corroborated with documents and a State Audit report. The State Audit confirmed to Godeč that the documents had been forwarded to the competent State Attorney's Office for further investigation, reports Jutarnji List on January 28, 2019.

Not long after the publication of the article, Živi Zid launched a blistering attack. On Facebook, the party paid for an ad featuring a photo of journalist Željka Godeč with the inscription “Expert for False News – hanzamedia,” adding the #fakenews hashtag with the Jutarnji List logo. Hanza Media is the publisher of Jutarnji List.

In a shameful ad that looks like a call for the lynching of the journalist, the party attacked her on a professional and personal level. The ad says that "for years, she has been systematically trolling against Živi Zid, writing half-truths, drawing conclusions that do have nothing to do with the facts, constructing theories which are a lie, but doing it in the form of questions so that she cannot be sued.” The ad ends with a question: "What do you think, is she manipulating the facts because she is illiterate? Or simply evil?"

Given that Živi Zid bases its popularity in large part on social networks, the ad has reached a large number of people. It quickly spread among Živi Zid followers. Particularly worrisome is the fact that a couple of hundred comments, many of which are full of hate speech, have been added to the post.

This is an unprecedented act and an attack on the media that no political party has ever dared to launch in Croatia. “This is an inappropriate way of communication and an open call for the lynching of the journalist. We strongly condemn this kind of behaviour,” said Jutarnji list editor-in-chief Goran Ogurlić.

The article alleges that the State Audit report on the party’s finances is full of allegations about irregularities, suspicious payments, unsubstantiated travel expenses, payments for intellectual services without documentation and proper records.

The party’s seat is located at the same address where one of its politician, Ivan Pernar, lives. In the first six months of 2017, the party paid 150,000 kuna for consultancy costs, 53,750 kuna for lawyers and 25,000 kuna for accounting services. However, according to auditors, “there are no specifications for the services provided, no description of the type of service provided, and the period when they were provided.”

According to the State Audit report, the party is mainly using cash transactions. Payments were made in the amount of 170,854 kuna, referring to material costs, hospitality, fuel costs and official travel. However, it is not clear to whom the money was paid, and the recipients have not signed the receipts. And there are no enclosed documents that could be used to confirm that the business events really took place.

More news on Živi Zid, the third (or occasionally second) most popular party in Croatia, can be found in the Politics section.

Translated from Jutarnji List (reported by Tomislav Kukec).

ZAGREB, January 24, 2019 - The parliamentary media committee on Wednesday unanimously adopted a conclusion urging both the public broadcasting service Croatian Radio and Television (HRT), which sued some of its journalists, and the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) to solve their dispute by agreement.

The committee's conclusion reads that freedom of speech is a constitutional value and that a free press is a pillar of democracy and an important democratic safeguard.

The discussion on the HRT lawsuits was tabled by six opposition lawmakers after in late 2018 the HRT sued the HND and HRT journalists for 500,000 kuna in damages over their public statements. The public broadcaster claimed damages for "gross violations of reputation, honour and name."

One of the suits was filed over a statement by the HND's HRT branch of September 11 in which its journalists distanced themselves from scandals on the HRT at the time, including the sale of FIFA World Cup tickets. The HRT management demands 200,000 kuna in damages from the HND and 50,000 kuna from the president of the HND's HRT branch, Sanja Mikleušević Pavić.

The opposition lawmakers consider the lawsuits as a form of pressure on reporters.

Furthermore, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) have called on the HRT management to withdraw recent lawsuits against the HND, its president Hrvoje Zovko and the president of the HND branch at the HRT, Mikleušević Pavić, the HND said on Wednesday.

The HRT director-general Kazimir Bačić said today that the broadcaster was ready to drop the lawsuits if the defendants withdrew their claims about censorship in the national broadcasting company.

Bačić went on to say that censorship is a criminal offence and being the HRT director-general he was obliged to file a lawsuit to protect the HRT against false accusations.

The HRT has not lodged the lawsuits against reporters but against individuals, he insisted.

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

Croats Are Coming is the name of a new ambitious beer commercial which was shot for four days with more than 200 people. “The filming of the commercial was really unbelievable. I do not think I have ever worked on such a highly professional project. We broke some new records here,” said actor Goran Bogdan. He is joined in the new commercial by two other well-known Croatian actors: Goran Navojec and Rene Bitorajac, reports 24sata.hr on January 23, 2019.

The commercial shows the arrival of Croats to what is today Croatia, which happened in the 7th century. The commercial was shot near Ivanić Grad, where a small settlement was constructed, and near Senj. More than 200 extras participated in the shooting which lasted for four days.

“I had to wake up at three o’clock in the morning to get everything ready. Still, we enjoyed it very much. The only problem was the sheep. There were about 200 of them, but whenever they needed to be filmed, we would try to push them into the shot, but they refused to act,” Bogdan joked.

The commercial shows the arrival of Croats. They stop at sea and love what they. The commercial then returns to the present day, with the three actors all alone on a beach with their beers, when suddenly they get surrounded by a bunch of tourists with holidaying equipment. The actors decide to stay there anyway.

 “We filmed that part of the commercial in December, and the temperature was around zero. Fortunately, we did not have to swim in the sea,” said Bogdan.

The commercial also conveys a more profound message. “People are leaving Croatia en masse. While I was thinking about the script, I thought that we should show people how Croats came here. I was not initially sure since it is such a fringe topic, but the reactions have been good so far,” said Almir Okanović, who created the commercial.

In addition to being based on the historical facts, in order for the commercial to be as credible as possible, the crew also included linguists, since actors had to learn the Old Slavic language, which they use in the commercial.

“The script was great, so we enjoyed working together. It was hard, and there are three more sequels of the commercial coming soon," said director Bruno Anković.

More news on Croatia’s beer industry can be found in the Business section.

Translated from 24sata.hr (reported by Davor Lugarić).

ZAGREB, January 23, 2019 - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) have called on the management of Croatian public broadcaster HRT to withdraw recent lawsuits against the Croatian Journalists Association (HND), its president Hrvoje Zovko and the president of the HND branch at the HRT, Sanja Mikleušević Pavić, the HND said on Wednesday.

The HND recalled that between Christmas and New Year the management filed lawsuits against the HND, Zovko and Mikleušević Pavić for alleged criminal acts against the HRT's honour and reputation, seeking 500,000 kuna in damages.

According to the Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa NGO, journalists in Croatia are being sued for defamation with increasing frequency, including about 20 suits filed in the last few months against eight media. "It's a clear example of censorship," the HND said.

The IFJ and EFJ have joined the Western Balkan's Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists' Safety in asking the HRT to withdraw the lawsuits as soon as possible. “Managers of HRT should stop pressuring HND... and harassing representatives of the journalists’ association,” IFJ secretary-general Anthony Bellanger has said.

EFJ secretary-general Ricardo Gutiérrez has reminded Croatian authorities that a recent European Union report on media pluralism in Croatia pointed out the "politicised appointments and dismissals in the public service broadcaster HRT".

The report also mentions the "systematic political interference" in HRT management appointment procedures. "The dismissed Supervisory Committee submitted a 2016 report to the Parliament in which it exposed many irregularities in the management of the public service media. The report displays the state of the serious management crisis," the HND said.

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