ZAGREB, 28 Nov, 2021 - The head of the Croatian Medical Chamber (HLK) said on Sunday that he was surprised that participants in protests against COVID certificates included doctors, confirming the HLK had launched proceedings against doctors making claims not based on science at those protests, thus misleading the public.

"Certain steps have been taken against six doctors... sanctions range from a warning and a reprimand to the revocation of the licence," Krešimir Luetić said in an interview with the Sunday issue of the Novi List daily.

Asked if such doctors should have their licences revoked, Luetić said the HLK's Ethics Board was an independent body that would make its decision.

Doctors embittered by protests against COVID-19 certificate mandate

Asked about his view of the protests against epidemiological restrictions, vaccination and testing, Luetić said that he shared his fellow doctors' resentment about the protests.

He said that after the protest held in Zagreb last weekend, he was contacted by dozens of colleagues who were embittered as the event was in direct violation of epidemiological restrictions but also because of the messages that could be heard at the rally.

95% of doctors vaccinated

Asked about the fact that among the protesters there were also doctors and that not all protesters were uneducated people, Luetić said that he was shocked by the fact that any intellectual, particularly a doctor, would make comments that were not based on science, medical profession and statistics.

He noted, however, that around 95% of doctors had been vaccinated against coronavirus, thus showing their view of the pandemic and vaccination.

Speaking of vaccination, Luetić recalled that the HLK had already taken the position that vaccination should be mandatory in the health system.

As for the mandatory vaccination of the general population, which Austria has already opted for and some other European countries are considering, Luetić said that it would be a political decision.

"As a doctor and from the point of view of the medical sector, I think such a decision would definitely make the situation in the health system easier, and reduce the number of seriously ill people and fatalities," he said.

If you compare countries like Croatia, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands, you see that they have roughly the same number of daily infections per million inhabitants, however, compared to Croatia, those three countries have three times fewer hospitalisations and up to five times fewer fatalities, Luetić stressed.

"That is a clear indicator of how important vaccination is, and as to whether our citizens understand that, I think the answer is both yes and no," he said.

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ZAGREB, 21 Nov, 2021 - A police official in the Zagreb police department, Davor Posilović, said on Sunday that the police were intensively searching for the organisers of Saturday's march staged by anti-vaccine certificate protesters, since the rally was not officially reported.

The police are also searching for assailants who physically attacked a reporter of the RTL commercial broadcaster while he was covering the demonstrations

Intensive actions are being taken to identify potential organisers and to take appropriate steps against them, Posilović told a press conference in Zagreb on Sunday afternoon.

The failure of organisers to report the rally in advance amounts to the violation of the legislation on public assembly.

The police official added pyrotechnic devices had been used during the rally, the organisers failed to bring security guards and the decision on the restrictions of public assembly was breached.

A report on verbal and physical violence against RTL reporter Goran Latković has been lodged with the police in the meantime.

CCTV and video footage of the incident will be examined to identify the perpetrators and the police will interview all witnesses.

 "We are in permanent touch with the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) and other professional associations," Posilović said, adding that all who have any information about the incident can contact the police.

Posilović said that no other incidents targeted against media had been reported to the police.

Nova TV and HTV crews were verbally assaulted at the rally, while a group of protesters took Al Jazeera reporter Nikolina Zavišić's microphone as she was reporting live.

On Saturday evening a group of protesters moved from Zagreb's central square to the part of the city where the HRT public broadcaster is located, demanding to see the HRT director and have their rally covered live and calling for an end to "censorship" by the HRT.

Dissatisfied with the way the HRT covered their protest in the central city square at 3 p.m., the protesters shouted "We want elections", "Referendum and people's rule", "Thieves", "Treason", "God's law is above all laws", demanding to see the HRT director and have their rally covered live. "This is no vaccine, this is poison", someone in the crowd could be heard saying while some protesters said the world was ruled by "Bill Gates, Talmudists and Soros's followers".

The protesters were met by riot police, with a dozen police vehicles blocking access to the HRT building.

Posilović said that demonstrators in the main square also burnt a flag of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) during the protest and that an investigation in this case was under way.

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