ZAGREB, 2 June, 2021 - Recent frequent attacks on media, reporters and political analysts by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković were met on Wednesday with condemnation by opposition MPs, who called on him to accept criticism and on media not to allow to be intimidated.

Social Democrat Arsen Bauk said the prime minister had opted for the "attack is the best form of defence" approach.

"Some defeats at local elections are painful for the HDZ, notably the prime minister, because he chose or imposed some of the candidates. It is not good for the prime minister, who has both objective and real power, to try to square accounts with or intimidate reporters, media and their editors and owners. I hope you will not let yourself be intimidated by him," Bauk told reporters in the parliament.

Judging by their response, I can see that they are not intimidated, he said, adding that he was fascinated by Plenković's claim that rival broadcasters had colluded to devalue the HDZ's candidate for Zagreb mayor.

Stephen Bartulica of the Homeland Movement said that media were possibly responsible for the latest developments because they had been very mild towards Plenković from the start.

"I definitely support media freedoms and it is not unusual that media in Croatia and the rest of the world are leaning to the left, but I think that what is more important here are the so-called independent analysts who often have material interests and certain relations with political camps and NGOs and who act in public as if they were unbiased," said Bartulica.

The sole MP of the Reformists party, Natalija Martinčević, who chairs the parliamentary Media Committee, said that the prime minister was very nervous, which she considers inappropriate.

"Communication with the media must be civilised. We are all expected to behave that way and so is the prime minister. There is no justification for his behaviour," she said.

Most MP Marija Selak Raspudić said that media had been the PM's fetish for a long time.

"Let me remind you of his high school graduation thesis 'Means of Mass Communication' in which, apart from extensively quoting (Yugoslav Communist politician Edvard) Kardelj and Marx, he also says that the Party is the one to control all information in society. He then advocates some democratic trends and says that media should be democratised, but it seems that as an experienced politician he has accepted the principle that the Party should control all information and is surprised when he does not manage to do it," said Selak Raspudić.

HSLS MP Dario Hrebak said that every politician had their own style of communication, noting that the prime minister was evidently irritated by something.

"I, too, am sometimes unhappy with the media but everyone has the right to say what they think, I would not be a liberal if I thought differently," he said, adding that he believed the prime minister would mend his relationship with the media and some reporters.

aFor more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 1 June, 2021 - The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has joined the Croatian Journalists Association (HND) and the Croatian Journalists Union (SNH) in condemning Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's verbal attacks on media and reporters after the local runoff election on 30 May.

The HND said on its website that EFJ Secretary-General Ricardo Gutiérrez described as "totally unacceptable that journalists are being attacked by both the Prime Minister and, just recently, the President of Croatia."

"Blaming journalists in this way is an attempt to undermine their credibility in order to limit their role as a counterweight. To insult or threaten journalists is to insult and threaten citizens, and to undermine the right of citizens to access free, independent information," the HND quoted Gutiérrez as saying.

The EFJ said on its website that shortly after the second round of local elections in Croatia, Plenković once again attacked the media, accusing them of "being paid to vilify a political camp" and accusing Dražen Lalić, an analyst and professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Political Science, of being paid by broadcasters to smear HDZ candidates, targeting also HND president Hrvoje Zovko, who strongly condemned his attack on the media.

The EFJ carried a statement issued on Monday by the HND and SNH in which the two organisations deplored "the open threats PM Plenkovic has made against all our colleagues and media which do not follow his and the HDZ's ideology.

"To name all those who critically speak about candidates ahead of elections and to mark as targets 'those who calumniate people for money' is not the kind of discourse that should be used by politicians, let alone prime ministers of civilised and democratic EU countries," the two organisations said in the statement carried by the EFJ.

The EFJ also quoted the HND and SNH as saying that such attacks only show Plenković and his HDZ party's ambition "to completely control the public sphere and determine the limits of media freedoms in Croatia".

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 1 June, 2021 - The Croatian Political Science Association (HPD) on Tuesday strongly condemned the criticism PM Andrej Plenković levelled against political scientist Dražen Lalić and the RTL broadcaster, noting that it was an attack not only on an individual but on all political scientists as well as media.  

The HPD recalled Plenković's statement that "RTL hired Lalić to vilify (HDZ candidate for Zagreb mayor Davor) Filipović in the worst way possible" and his remark that "those are not unbiased media" but "hirelings paid to demonise a political camp."

"Such an unsubstantiated verbal attack by the Prime Minister against our member and prominent Croatian researcher was not only an ad hominem attack - which  as such makes his criticism invalid - but also an attack on the right to express one's opinion and on intellectual freedom. With his inappropriate act, Andrej Plenković has threatened the freedom to express one's professional views and additionally weakened the already weak position of the media," the association said.

It also notes that, considering the disproportion of powers, this type of attack by the PM on a member of the academic community and public intellectual has the potential to instil fear and insecurity in members of the academic community and media alike.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 1 June, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković told reporters on Monday evening that earlier in the day, when he was commenting on the elections, he was telling the truth and that amounted to no attack on the media because the media, he said, were not sacrosanct that couldn't be talked about.

"I was just telling the truth," Plenković said when asked by reporters whether he had gone too far  when commenting on the elections and criticisng several commercial broadcasters.

All those I talked about, including your broadcaster (RTL), used the wrong name of HDZ's candidate for Zagreb mayor in their shows, he said, adding that it had happened several times, even on another TV station and in some print media.

He said "these weren't slips of the tongue" and added that these things had clearly happened "on purpose". "This isn't criticism, I was telling the truth, it isn't an attack on the media. The media aren't sacrosanct so that we cannot talk about it," Plenković said.

Commenting on the statement that the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) called on him not do it and that it was not his first time, Plenković said that that was "a rude and inappropriate statement by the HND president, who is much more slower and evasive when it comes to criticising (President Zoran) Milanović".

Milanović, he stressed, calls out on the media in a much harsher way. He calls the HRT Yutel, HRT reporters mercenaries of a political party, he calls daily newspapers usurers, he calls on your leadership to remove commentator (Žarko) Puhovski and after that I no longer see him in your (RTL) programme, Plenković said.

He said that HND president Hrvoje Zovko was "much more considerate" when it came to reacting to Milanović. Here he dares to talk about me as Lukashenko, Plenković noted, adding that this was going beyond all bounds, which could be classified as being biased.

It is one thing when those running in the election face off in a political match, and another when someone who presents himself as an independent analyst to the viewers, and they don't know whether you are paying him for it, describes a candidate before the elections in the worst possible way, Plenković said, referring to Dražen Lalić's comments for the RTL.

He recalled that it was not unusual for the media in the world to follow one political option.

There are no newspapers in the world for which one doesn't know whether they're left-wing or conservative, he said.

We cannot, he said, live in the belief that everyone is neutral, impartial, objective and in reality they support some option. "One shouldn't be ashamed of that, but it must be clearly stated," Plenković added.

There are double standards

Plenković also thinks that the media had been generating aggression toward the HDZ and the two key candidates in two big cities.

He said that the public had to realise there were double standards.

Asked to comment on Ivica Puljak's victory in Split, he countered with a question -- how can he have an anti-Semite for deputy mayor.

"The man practically wrote a justification for the Holocaust, and if you don't realise that, then you have a dangerous problem," Plenković said, adding that if it was happening elsewhere, "all associations would attack Puljak".

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 26 March, 2021 - The A1 Hrvatska telecommunications company said on Friday that no agreement had been reached with the United Media Group on the distribution of the N1 TV channel, and that as of 29 March the channel would no longer be available on their TV platform.

The company said it was ready to pay a much higher distribution price than justified for a longer period, but the United Media Group had set an additional condition and asked for a six-month contract only, despite the fact that the contract had usually been a three-year one.

"A1 Hrvatska cannot accept a six-month agreement because that means avoiding a real solution for us and our customers. Such a condition is manipulation ... which United Media Group uses for its negotiations with other operators which it is currently conducting, and it is using this situation to put pressure on state institutions in order to change the legal framework," the telecom said.

It said it is "still open for talks and cooperation with all providers of attractive programme content who are willing to cooperate and whose broadcasting is in the interest of users".

"Even after United Media Group has launched a media campaign trying to manipulate and exert pressure on us by calling commercial business negotiations media censorship, we were willing to continue negotiating until the last moment in good faith and in the best interest of our customers, seeking only a reasonable and viable offer for the distribution of the N1 channel," A1 said.

It added that despite the statements by the programme director that they were prepared to offer to distribute the N1 channel free of charge, that option had never officially been offered during the negotiations.

It has been recently announced that A1 cable provider will drop N1 television and Sport Klub channels from its programming package. The decision to replace some of the channels in their offer, including N1, was made solely due to unfavourable business conditions, the operator said.

In mid-March the United Media replied that "A1 didn’t have a single reason to make the decision they made and drop N1 and Sport Klub."

For more about business in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 25 January, 2021 - Media outlets received at least HRK 10 million from the state budget in 2020, with the Styria newspaper publisher and Narodni Radio, Catholic Radio and Extra FM radio receiving the most funding, according to data from a study by the portal Media Daily.

The head of research at Media Daily, Zoran Kovačić, has told Hina that the aim of the analysis was to transparently give information on how much money each media outlet received for the services it performed for a particular ministry, state agency, state office or court.

According to data on national and regional daily newspaper publishers, total revenues were HRK 6.65 million, down 3.53% in real terms compared to 2019. Daily papers received money from 34 state budget-related sources. Six publishers received the largest amount from the State Electoral Commission, and only one from the Agriculture Ministry.

The Hanza Media company received the most money, HRK 2.31 million, followed by Večernji List daily, which received HRK 2.29 million, nearly 15.3% less than in 2019. 24sata, which is part of the Styria media company like Večernji List, received slightly over HRK 750,000 last year. Thus the Styria media company's outlets received more than HRK 3 million from the state, which is the largest amount for a newspaper publisher. In addition to them, Glas Slavonije received nearly HRK 600,000, Novi List about HRK 490,000, while Glas Istre and Zadarski List received much less money from the state -- about HRK 220,000 together.

As for radio broadcasters, Narodni Radio received the most, HRK 598,000, followed by Antena Radio (HRK 495,000), and Catholic Radio (HRK 381,000). The first two radio broadcasters received 86% and 74% less state funding respectively in 2020 than in 2019, while Catholic Radio received 41% more. However, Extra FM was the biggest winner in 2020, as it received HRK 219,000, or 448% more than in 2019, while the AMM (All Market Media) agency received over HRK 125,000, or 557% more than in 2019.

On the other hand, only four national web portals received state funding in 2020, and that was only HRK 61,312. The Dnevno.hr website received slightly more than HRK 25,000, or as much as 548% less than in 2019. Direktno.hr received only HRK 8,000, or 932% less, while Narod.hr did not receive anything. The Index and Telegram web portals, which did not received state funding in 2019, were given HRK 15,500 and 12,817 respectively in 2020.

According to Kovačić, the more money the state gives to media outlets, the more they focus on reporting and the less on research.

He thinks that the reduced funding is a result of Agriculture Ministry's smaller budget, as it spent more money from EU funds in 2019, and of fewer events being organised by media outlets.

Kovačić says that the Media Daily team processed "raw" data obtained from the state treasury.

This study is related to money from the state budget, and it is important to note that media outlets receive money from state-owned and public companies, cities and municipalities, as well as local companies, agencies and tourist boards. In addition, a large number of electronic media outlets receive money from the fund promoting electronic media pluralism and diversity in the amount of 3% of the Croatian Radio and Television licence fee, while print media outlets have benefitted from the VAT rate being reduced to 5%, the study said.

ZAGREB, October 11, 2020 - Electronic Media Agency president Josip Popovac says the majority of Croatian media have been covering the coronavirus pandemic excellently, without a proliferation of fake news.

"I thank the media for their professionalism, the feeling for the community and the way in which they became involved in the fight against the pandemic," he has said recently.

At the start of the coronavirus crisis in mid-March, the Agency and the Electronic Media Council issued a warning to all electronic media in the country aimed at protecting the public interest, banning all audiovisual services which released or spread disinformation about public health.

Publishing or spreading disinformation causes concern, spreads fear and panic in the population and leads to even more difficult consequences than the ones we are faced with, they said.

The warning underlined that the Council, in line with its powers, would severely punish the releasing or spreading of disinformation.

In early April, following a query by Hina, the Electronic Media Agency reported on the first results of a stepped up oversight of electronic and other media which showed, despite fears by many media experts, that there had been no "infodemic" of fake news.

Popovac: The media have done a great job during the pandemic

By then, only 13 complaints about reporting on coronavirus had been received, including nine referring to disinformation and fake news.

Popovac says the complaints were not just about fake news but also about interpretations which were in line with freedom of speech and democratic standards. "We haven't had any attack, deliberate causing of panic and fake news, and we are very proud of that. The media have done a great job."

He says there have been incidents on social media, which is out of the Agency's control, but that the media have done and are doing their job professionally.

Popovac says not every piece of disinformation can be treated equally as it depends on who it harms and how much, adding that one needs to be very flexible, notably when there are no consequences, major societal divisions or harm to individuals or society. "I think minor disinformation is prevalent in Croatia, a consequence of speed and non-deliberate mistakes which can be corrected with a retraction." 

Popovac says it is difficult to legally punish fake news by a general regulation, adding that there exists legal protection from disinformation and that a decision on that is made by a court.

Experts warn that many things are vague regarding regulations and decisions which punish disinformation, notably in Croatia.

Levak: Legal and media regulations still inadequate

The European Union and some other countries have tried in recent years to create effective regulations to crack down on the production and spreading of fake news. However, legal and media regulations are still inadequate, says Tomislav Levak, a candidate for a doctorate in communicology at the Osijek Academy of Art and Culture.

He says these regulations lag behind the problem at least as much the spreading of true and verified information lags behind the much faster and more effective spreading of fake content.

The situation in Croatia is quite problematic as the Media Act and the Electronic Media Act barely address new media and communication platforms, Levak says, adding that their regulation should be the basis for attempting to solve this problem.

Croatia has not come even close to adequately regulating the prosecution of persons and institutions that release disinformation, he says, adding that the law on misdemeanors against the public order and peace that is in force was adopted in 1977 and last amended in 1994.

Current punishment for fake news is DEM 50-200 or 30 days' imprisonment

That law stipulates that anyone making up or spreading fake news which disturb the peace and tranquility of citizens will be fined the national currency equivalent of 50 to 200 German marks or placed in prison for up to 30 days, Levak says.

The situation, according to the government, should be improved by a bill on unacceptable behaviour on the Internet which should regulate and define accountability for content published online, Levak says. "Although its adoption was announced in September 2019, it hasn't been adopted nor is there, as far as I know, a draft."

Renowned attorney and media law expert Vesna Alaburic calls for caution in amending legislation which regulates freedom of expression only due to a rise in fake news.

She says the spreading of fake news in itself must not be subject to any restrictions in a democracy if it does not cause serious harm which would justify restricting freedom of expression and punishment.

The fact that spreading fake news which disturb the peace and tranquility of citizens is punishable as a misdemeanor in Croatia is enough, Alaburic adds.

For decades, penal codes included disturbing the public and spreading fake news as offences which were used for score-settling with political opponents or those criticising the authorities, she says, adding that those provisions were removed after strong criticism.

Alaburic says the current legislation is good in principle and she has reservations about the possibility of adopting a law on unacceptable behaviour on the Internet.

Alaburic: Only courts should rule on violations

She says she is not familiar with that initiative and that only courts should rule on violations. "Self-regulation can be used to establish certain rules of conduct but in that case it's important to ensure judicial oversight."

Popovac warns about problems if that law is adopted, notably the possible establishment of a kind of Internet police which would oversee "unacceptable behaviour."

He says it is necessary to be cautious in formulating provisions because freedom of speech, press, publishing and expression is the foundation of a democracy. Once something is banned, when censorship takes hold, there is no going back, he adds.

We should focus more on media literacy and educating new as well as older generations for "driving on the Internet," and we are doing that, he says, underlining the exceptional importance of journalists and professional media during the coronavirus pandemic as well as the fake news infodemic.

"The commitment of all media employees who constantly reported and are reporting is fantastic. They have always been on the scene, consciously risking infection. Together with the medical staff, whose contribution has been the largest, the contribution of journalists and other media employees was and remains crucial," says Popovac.

ZAGREB, October 10, 2020 - A comprehensive survey of Croatian media, which in some aspects spans over a period of more than six years and covers more than 14 million published items, reveals the presence of hate speech in them that is growing on a daily basis.

Marko Poljak, Jelena Hadzic and Masa Martinic of Newton Technologies Adria, which specialises in technologies that identify hate speech in Croatian, Slovenian and Serbian, and Presscut, a media monitoring company, conducted this comprehensive analysis of the media content in terms of the presence of hate speech and the events that encouraged it, and they published it in the latest issue of the In Media Res magazine.

The survey focused on two types of content, the first being media items in the period from early 2013 to the end of April 2019. More than 14 million individual items were found, in print media, radio and television news programmes and on news portals, and they included 50,724 items containing hate speech.

The second type of content were comments on social networks. A total of 72,000 comments, posted in the period from early April to early July 2019, were analysed and among them were 1,012 comments with unacceptable speech, which accounts for 1.4% of the comments.

Facebook post of HDZ MP's son encouraged most hate comments

The most media items containing hate speech were published on web portals, 0.58%, and the least on radio, 0.04%, and their total number grew by the year. The number of items containing hate speech, registered in only four months of 2019, exceeded the total number of such items in 2013, the first year of the survey.

The largest increase as well as the largest number of hate comments was recorded in 2016, and the increase in the number of such comments on web portals exceeded 300%, shows the survey.

In a period of one year, starting on 1 May 2018, only one day, Christmas, was without hate speech. The average daily number of posts containing hate speech was 29.6, and the largest number, as many as 287 items with unacceptable content, was recorded on 9 January 2019.

Media posts containing hate speech are often connected with certain events. The authors of the survey note that most posts, as many as 523, were connected with an insulting message Ivan Djakic, the son of HDZ MP Josip Djakic, posted on his Facebook wall on the occasion of Serb Orthodox Christmas, January 9.

A week later, Vukovar mayor Ivan Penava's statement drew 235 posts containing hate speech and he was criticised for causing a "spiral of hate speech".

Penava said at the time that Vukovar is "the epicentre of a continued, creeping Great Serbian aggression" and showed at a news conference a video of a group of local Serb students sitting while the national anthem was played at a football match.

Facebook posts most numerous, YouTube posts account for largest share

The largest number of comments were collected on Facebook, 58,847, and 801 or 1.34% contained unacceptable language. YouTube comments accounted for the largest share of unacceptable comments in the total number of comments, of 3.33%.

Most unaccaptable comments were provoked by posts related to Serbs, 12,837. The least comments with unacceptable speech were prompted by posts that referred to Roma, 1,448.

The largest number of individual unacceptable comments referred to Bosnians, 175, and the largest share of negative comments in the total number of comments collected referred to Muslims and Jews, 2.25 and 2.22% respectively.

Negative comments about migrants accounted for the smallest share in the total number of comments, 0.54%, while the average share of negative comments for all groups was 1.41%.

The largest number of negative comments refer to ethnicity, 587, and religion, 337.

The question of why certain groups attract a smaller or bigger number of unacceptable comments was not the subject of this survey. The answer to that question requires a deeper analysis of the items published, the related events and context, and possibly persons who posted comments, the authors of the survey conclude.

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June 17, 2020 — The Croatian government in a secretive mid-March meeting reportedly tried to guide journalists’ coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and the measures meant to fight it. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and nearly every minister allegedly nudged news organizations towards a narrative of a competent government helming the COVID-19 response. The press obliged.

Government representatives, led by Plenković, held a secret meeting with editors-in-chief of print news and national television and radio on March 17 according to Index, at which the HDZ chief and members of his government instructed media editors on how to report during a coronavirus epidemic.

Croatia ranks 59^th in 2020’s Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, well behind many of its EU peers. The organization’s report says journalists are regularly subjected to harassment and lawsuits which open the door to financially punishing reporters for doing their jobs.

The government also controls many spigots of advertising money via publicly-controlled monopolies such as Zagreb Holding and FINA. Media organizations in the government’s good graces often receive advertising orders from these entities. Those with the temerity to do their jobs miss out.

It’s exactly the sort of environment which makes secretive meetings between the press and government ahead of a battery of controversial measures, at best, confounding.

Three months after Index Investigations asked the government for information on the details of the meeting and after two complaints to the Office of the Information Commissioner, this week, after Plenković's Office persistently ignored our inquiries, Index finally received some details about the meeting.

The government sent the site list of participants, but not the minutes of the meeting. The government claims that there is no such record, which is very strange because it is an official meeting at the government premises.

Andrej Plenković, as the first man of the government, organized a meeting with the editors-in-chief of television stations, print media and radio broadcasters in Croatia, as the government assured Index, "on the activities undertaken to combat the coronavirus epidemic, as well as shared responsibilities in the fight against false news and timely and accurate public information on all the circumstances of the epidemic.”

The following people took part in the meeting in the government, as ordered in Plenković’s office: 

Goran Ogurlić — Jutarnji List

Dražen Klarić — Večernji List

Ivica Tomić — Novi List

Robert Frank — Glas Istre

Jadran Kapor — Slobodna Dalmacija

Bojan Divjak — Glas Slavonije

Goran Gavranovic — 24 sata

Berislav Jelinic — Nacional

Zdravko Milinovic — Globus

Miodrag Sajatovic — Lider

Eliana Candrlic — Hrvatski Radio

Silvija Londero — Media Servis

Tina Zagar — N1

Tanja Novak — Al Jazeera

Katarina Periša Čakarun —HTV

Željka Marijanović — RLT

Branimir Felger — Nova TV

These are the leading people of these media and correspondence (Al Jazeera), and the only exception is Tina Žagar from N1, who is a producer, not editor-in-chief.

Who was everyone from the government at the meeting? 

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković

Damir Krstičević, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Davor Božinović, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior

Zdravko Marić, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance

Vili Beroš, Minister of Health

Tomo Medved, Minister of Croatian Veterans

Blaženka Divjak, Minister of Science and Education

Nina Obuljen Koržinek, Minister of Culture

Boris Vujčić, Croatian National Bank Governor

Zvonimir Frka-Petešić, Head of the Office of the Prime Minister

Tena Mišetić, Deputy Head of the Office of the Prime Minister

Marko Milić, Government Spokesman

Representatives of the Croatian Journalists 'Association and representatives of the journalists' union were not present at the meeting. After the meeting, the government told Index that they did not call the representatives of other media because they wanted to avoid mass events — even though the meeting held nearly 30 participants.

The most controversial part of the meeting was the Minister of Culture’s mentioning of the crisis of 2008, when media revenues tanked due to fewer ads. Also, Plenković emphasized at the meeting that the goal of the media must be to avoid panic by promoting the work of the government, which, as they emphasized several times at the meeting, “took all necessary measures on time” and had “enough capacity to overcoming the crisis.”

What happened in the media after the meeting?

Shortly after the meeting, the media published articles praising the work of the government and HDZ’s members of the National Crisis Staff, as well as a strong campaign in the print media and on national television in which Minister of Health Vili Beroš was proclaimed a hero. 

The government’s decisions were announced without any critical tone, and the basic idea was to shift the blame to the citizens. The message was simple: the government has done everything, but it is the citizens who are disobedient, so unpopular measures must be taken.

After the meeting, advertisements of state and public monopolists appeared on the portals of some print media (such as Fina and Zagreb Holding, which have no competition and therefore do not need ads, especially in times of crisis), in columns that promote staying home during a pandemic.

What exactly was said at the meeting? There is no official information because, as they say in the government, there is no record of that meeting.

“By the response of the Public Relations Service of the Government of the Republic of Croatia dated March 20, 2020, you received confirmation of the meeting of Prime Minister Plenković with the editors-in-chief of television, print media and radio broadcasters in Croatia, as well as the fact that This public authority does not have a meeting, we submit this response in accordance with the provisions of the Right to Access Information Act,” reads the government's response in which they attached a note on the meeting, in which the invited participants are listed.

One American portal has published its list of the most powerful countries in the world, where of course, the USA comes in first place, while Croatia is ranked in a rather uninspiring 75th place. Rather more disappointingly still, it seems tha the portal has ranked Serbia in a much higher position than Croatia, in spite of Croatia's EU membership, which at least for now, appears to be a far-away dream for Serbia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/VLM writes on the 29th of March, 2019, as was reported by U.S. The News & World Report, known for its somewhat controversial lists of top colleges and hospitals, published its list of the best countries based on the opinions of more than 20,000 people from across four different regions.

Within the list of the best countries, a podium of the most powerful countries was also published based on five determinants: leaders, economic influence, political influence, international alliances, and armed forces.

The top nine most powerful countries have remained the same as last year. The first is naturally America, described as the largest economy in the world and the country with the largest military budget.

Following are Russia and China, which are also at the top in terms of their spending on their armed forces. Then there are the long-reigning top European powers - Germany, Great Britain, and France.

The seventh place comes the economic giant Japan, followed by Israel, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, which made the jump from last year's 11th place.

The Republic of Croatia also jumped by one place, from 76th to 75th out of a total of 80 places, while this isn't particularly impressive in itself, the portal has listed it at number 30 in ''overall rankings''.

''Croatia has found itself at the crossroads of major historical movements, both East and West. These political shifts have uniquely shaped its present-day borders, which curve around Bosnia and Herzegovina in central Europe and stretch along the Adriatic Sea opposite Italy. The nation’s stunning Mediterranean coastline eases into the rugged Dinaric Alps and, continuing northeast, the fertile plains of the Danube River,'' the portal writes.

Countries are ranked in different categories, from being open to business, to how much holding citizenship means, to heritage, to cultural influence and even adventure prospects. While Croatia has done well in terms of ''adventure'', its ''power'' and ''quality of life'' statistics leave a lot to be desired for, at least according to this American portal.

Of our neighbours, Slovenia is in 78th place, Hungary 71st place, while Serbia is in a considerably higher 52nd place.

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Click here for the original article by VLM on Poslovni Dnevnik