"I signed the petition calling for more tolerance and public safety, because free media are a prerequisite for a free society," Mesic said.
Asked to comment on a recent increase in violence and threats ten years after the war, Mesic said the increase in violence was the result of the fact that "some believe that time has come to re-introduce selective application of laws, that they did not get their share during the plunder campaign and that it is time to try once again".
"However, such attempts cannot succeed because Croatia today is developing mature democracy and I hope that young people will realise that attempts to falsify our past are not good. We have to accept our past, but turn to the future so that we could make it better than the past".
President Mesic also said that state institutions were not responding appropriately to violence and threats and that he had been assured by Interior Ministry officials and many others that many criminal acts were being discovered and their perpetrators brought to justice. "However, facts show that the public is not sufficiently informed about what is going on, and it is obvious that there are a lot of attacks on both public figures and anonymous people for different reasons, including racial, ethnic and political ones."
Mesic said that all, including state institutions, should meet their obligations to prevent attempts to create an atmosphere of chaos in the country.