In an open letter to Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and Interior Minister Ivica Kirin, the Vienna-based media freedom watchdog cited threats against Drago Hedl, editor of the Feral Tribune weekly, and Sasa Jadrijevic Tomas, a journalist with the Slobodna Dalmacija daily.
"SEEMO is deeply concerned about the recurrence of threats against journalists and kindly asks Your Excellency to do everything in your power to urgently investigate these cases, and to take all necessary steps to protect their lives. It is very alarming that threats against journalists in Croatia are increasing," said the organisation's secretary general, Oliver Vujovic.
Hedl received a death threat in Osijek on Tuesday and reported the case to the police the following day. The municipal prosecutor brought charges against Davor Boras, head of the youth organisation of the HDSSB party.
French news agency AFP said that Hedl had also received threatening letters last December, after which the French media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders expressed concern and urged local authorities to identify the perpetrators.
Tomas told the police that on 3 May a former Defence Ministry employee threatened to kill him while he was working on an article on the exploitation of conscripts in the Split area by army officers, who would bring them to their homes or "rent" them out to others to do physical work for them.