SEEMO sent a letter to Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, Sabor Speaker Vladimir Seks and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, expressing its concern over the two cases.
According to a copy of the letter forwarded to Hina, "SEEMO regards prison terms for defamation, whether suspended or not, as a gross violation of internationally accepted standards. Along with numerous other intergovernmental and nongovernmental organisations, we believe that defamation should be treated under civil law, not as a criminal offence subject to state punishments".
The County Court in the Adriatic city of Split recently decided to uphold a two-month suspended prison term sentence against Croatian Radio and Television reporter Ljubica Letinic for defaming a local businessman in a TV show in 2002.
"We would like to remind you that SEEMO already reacted to this case in 2004. Therefore, we once again call on the Croatian authorities to initiate the process of removing repressive laws that criminalise defamation, as well as to take the appropriate steps to ensure that the sentence against Ljubica Letinic is revoked."
According to the letter, SEEMO has been informed by "a group of five Croatian journalists that the POA recently accused them of meeting with representatives of foreign secret services". The reporters have called for an inquiry after a national weekly issued a report claiming that "the POA, led by its former chief Franjo Tuerk, had tapped their phones in 2003 and 2004 because they were suspected of participating in a media-intelligence campaign against Croatia".
SEEMO "urges the Croatian authorities to investigate this case and to allow journalists to work freely".