After returning to power in 2003, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) tried to reassure voters and the international community that it had moved beyond the repressive right-wing policies that marked its ironfisted rule during the 1990s, says the CPJ.
"As part of that ambitious effort, the government pressed ahead with broad legal reforms that establish Western-style safeguards for the media," the CPJ says in the annual report "Attacks on the Press in 2004".
Still, analysts note that the changes do not decriminalise libel, and they do little to improve access to public information, reads the document.
"Government press offices routinely withhold information and ignore journalists' requests for official records."
It is also noted that senior HDZ officials reasserted influence over state media but kept a looser hold on independent journalists as Croatia bids to join the European Union.
The CPJ notes that the authorities in January reprimanded the state-owned daily "Slobodna Dalmacija" after the newspaper exposed an Interior Ministry official's failure to pay child support.
Intelligence agencies continued to pressure journalists to extract information and gain cooperation, the CPJ says, mentioning the case of freelance journalist Helena Puljiz who last November accused agents from the Counter-Intelligence Agency (POA) of detaining her, asking her questions about President Stjepan Mesic, and trying to force her to become a POA informant.
The POA director was dismissed in December after a government panel confirmed Puljiz's charges, reads the report.
With regard to media libel, the report reads that more than 800 libel cases against journalists continued to work their way through Croatia's backlogged courts in 2004, according to the U.S.-based media training organization IREX.
"Croatian Radio Television, once a mere mouthpiece for the HDZ, continued to make progress in its transition from a state broadcaster to a more autonomous and influential public network. Still, senior government officials and members of Parliament are known to threaten its budget to push for favorable coverage," reads the report.