Jovic was placed in detention on an order from the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, which accused him of contempt of court for revealing the identity of a protected witness in the Tihomir Blaskic trial in November and December 2000.
Mladen Vukovic, culture editor on Croatian Radio, recalled that Jovic twice won a journalists' award for his writing and advocacy of free speech, and that he was now being persecuted after a statute of limitations of seven-eight years and after the protected testimony was published by virtually all media.
The journalists in People's Square symbolically tied themselves in chains and displayed banners reading "I Too Am Josip Jovic" and "Josef K. Equals Josip Jovic".
Various associations sent messages of support to Jovic to Hina's office in Split, including the US Croatian Fraternity Union, the Croatian Bloc party, the Croatian Pure Party of Rights, and Homeland War associations.
The Croatian Party of Democratic Action said in a statement it was disgruntled with the arrest of Slobodna Dalmacija daily journalist Jovic. The party said it "joins in the protests by the democratic public" over Jovic's treatment and voiced hope he would soon be released.
Earlier on Friday Croatian Journalists' Association president Dragutin Lucic told Hina he discussed the Jovic case with the undersecretary of the International Federation of Journalists, Oliver Money Kyrle, and that he had notified the federation's secretary-general, Aidan White, and the president of the European Federation of Journalists, Arne Koenig, asking them to interpret the case.