The UHS says that the order to the police to escort a defendant to a main hearing is the implementation of the court's legal duty to ensure the presence of the defendant at a hearing and that the association dismissed accusations that this was an attempt to intimidate the reporter.
The corps of court reporters said in a press release on Wednesday that a judge in Zadar ordered the police to bring Bogeljic to the hearing on 6 July after she failed to attend the previous hearing in a private slander action launched by a Zadar elementary school principal, Mate Marsic. According to the press release, the warrant to bring the reporter to the hearing was written immediately after she failed to attend the previous hearing. The corps said Bogeljic was not even given the chance to be summoned to the hearing, which the corps said was another attempt to intimidate reporters through prosecution.
The press release said the police who brought Bogeljic to the court had treated her properly.
Rejecting the accusations, the UHS claims today that the press release issued by court reporters is actually "an act of pressure being exerted on the court" with the message that "the freedom of expression will always be vulgarly misused if any judge dares to apply laws to any reporter".
The UHS recalls that the relevant law binds courts to ensure the attendance of defendants at main hearings using available means, including the police escort. In this context the UHS wonders why the corps of court reporters thinks that this law cannot be applied to a reporter. "We believe that any sensible person cannot share the position of the corps that reporters enjoy immunity from the application of the law," the UHS says in its statement.