Croatia

Two recently proposed legislative changes will mean a step backward for press freedom in Croatia ahead of a ‘super election’ year, say MFRR partner organisations.

Politicians, public figures and corporations have filed over 1,100 lawsuits against journalists with the intention of intimidating them into self-censorship.

The brutal assault on Croatian investigative journalist Dušan Miljuš, nearly a decade ago, remains unsolved and the civil rights group pursuing it, the Partnership for Social Development, is concerned that trying to reopen this attempted murder case could be a provocation that would further endanger the journalist.

Ever since he became president of the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) in 2015, Saša Leković,has received numerous threats, including death threats. He has also been the target of hate speech campaigns both online and offline

Dramatic changes to Croatia’s public broadcaster draw sharp criticism from free expression organizations.

A controversial reaction by the Minister of Culture to an attack on journalist Ante Tomić sparks concern that journalists are being blamed for attacks against them.

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is deeply concerned over recent attacks and threats against journalists in Croatia and the Republic of Macedonia/Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as well as the case of a Serbian journalist denied entry to Russia.

An effigy of Ante Tomic, a reporter for the newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija, was publicly burned on 17 February in the town of Proložac, after a speech in which Tomic, who is from Proložac, was declared responsible for all of Croatian society’s evils.

On 23 February, an unknown man dumped a bucket of faeces over writer and columnist Ante Tomic’s head. In a separate case, carnival participants in Omis burned an effigy symbolising Vinko Vukovic, a journalist who has reported on corruption in the town.

First academy on media law in South East Europe to kick off in Zagreb ZAGREB, 31 May 2012 – The first academy on media law in South East Europe will open in Zagreb, Croatia, on Monday, 4 June, under the auspices of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), with support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the […]

As has been the case in most post-communist countries, the process of transforming state television channels into public broadcasters has been slow and difficult in the country.

The Commission of the Croatian Bishops’ Conference asked the president to withdraw a human rights award given to Drago Hedl because it was not satisfied with his reporting. This announcement was followed by death threats against Hedl.

According to information published by the the Zagreb daily “Jutarnji List”, a detained general admitted to having discussed Drago Hedl’s “liquidation” back in 2010.

President Ivo Josipović told a joint IPI/SEEMO delegation in Zagreb that he is against proposed changes to his country’s criminal code that would impose severe penalties for libel, including jail.