The HND calls for more appropriate solutions in the penal code than the existing one regulating defamation by journalists, namely the Association insists on decriminalising defamation, namely regulating it by the penal code but without prison sentences as punishment, Lucic told Hina after he held the talks at the headquarters of the Justice Ministry.
After a conference on the decriminalisation of defamation, organised by the World Federation of Journalists, the Croatian Journalists' Association opted for solutions applied in France and Bulgaria, where defamation is still regulated by the penal code but where no prison sentence is proposed for that offence, Lucic said.
He recalled that all associations and organisations dealing with the freedom of the media, as well as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), suggest that the current provisions regulating defamation by a reporter should be amended in Croatia.
The Justice Ministry stated that a working group consisting of ministry officials, judges, state prosecutors and HND representatives would consider the decriminalisation of this type of defamation.
The Ministry noted that the latest amendments to the penal code had considerably alleviated the penalising policy for the criminal offence of defamation given that a chief editor can no longer be held responsible for defamation committed by an editor and that those who lodge a defamation suit should prove that the intention of a report was to defame somebody. If there is no evidence of the intention then this cannot be treated as a criminal offence.