"Croatian authorities must finally put a stop to all forms of violence against journalists and the media in performing their professional and social duties," the HHO Media Council said in a statement on Thursday, recalling that no light had been shed on any of the threats or attacks on journalists to date.
Drago Hedl, an editor of the Split-based Feral Tribune weekly, on Wednesday received a letter from an anonymous author who threatened to kill him over his articles on the maltreatment and killing os Serb civilians in Osijek in 1991.
The HHO said that an investigation should also shed light on "a lynching atmosphere" that was generated by some of Osijek's leading politicians who, by directly or indirectly revealing the names and other details of witnesses, obstruct justice and official investigations into war crimes. The HHO did not name the politicians in question.
"This is a political sponsorship of lawlessness, which is hard to eradicate under the present circumstances. The silence of Croatian political parties on such practice of politics is therefore inconceivable," the HHO concluded.