The institution said in a statement on Thursday that Jovic's arrest and the indictments against other reporters were unfortunate not only because they did not serve the basic purpose of the tribunal, but rather protected the tribunal from the right of the public to obtain information and to judge the tribunal's performance.
"Matica hrvatska" said that "considering the large number of unsolved war crimes, a credible court should not deal with verbal offences... or hide behind arguments about the necessary protection of a 'protected witness', especially after his identity had already been revealed by that court".
PEN Croatia also issued a statement on Jovic's arrest, criticising the reporter's professional and political morality.
"We believe that the prosecution of Josip Jovic is a logical consequence of the policy and morality which he had supported for years. What we condemn in this case is the drastic criminalisation of journalism, the arrest of a journalist and his (planned) transfer to The Hague. We believe that Josip Jovic is a double victim of the policy which he had supported and of Croatia's non-transparent relationship to the Hague tribunal, and moreover, to the European Union," reads the statement signed by PEN Croatia president Zvonko Makovic.