ZAGREB, Oct 21 (Hina) - The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) is dissatisfied with the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) report on media freedoms released on Monday, which ranked Croatia much lower than last year.
ZAGREB, Oct 21 (Hina) - The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND)
is dissatisfied with the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) report on
media freedoms released on Monday, which ranked Croatia much lower
than last year. #L#
Among the 166 countries whose media freedoms the international
organisation examined, Croatia was ranked 69th, as opposed to last
year's placing at 33.
"The fall of some 30 places would mean that a military coup had been
carried out in Croatia's media space, which does not correspond to
the actual situation," HND president Dragutin Lucic said on
Tuesday.
The reasons cited for Croatia's poor placing include the planting
of a bomb under the car of Ninoslav Pavic, co-owner of the
Europapress Holding media company, and new media legislation
which, according to the RSF, limits access to information and the
possibility of criticising politicians, and facilitates the
criminal prosecution of journalists.
Lucic said the HND could agree that the car-bomb was an attack on the
media but felt that Croatia's new media legislation was the best of
all transition countries, with the exception of Slovenia, which he
said had better media laws than many European Union countries.
The HND does not consider the RSF the most important world criterion
for the field and does not intend to explain to other countries why
the freedom of the media situation in Croatia was assessed as worse
than in 2002, said Lucic.
The president of the Croatian Journalists' Union, Jasmina Popovic,
does not think that media freedoms in Croatia are endangered.
"If we disregard the incident with Pavic, who is not a journalist
but a media owner, Croatia hasn't logged even one attack on
journalists in the past period."
Popovic said, however, that Croatian journalists enjoyed
insufficient freedom since many had problems with salaries, which
she added were either late or not paid.
The RSF report was compiled on the basis of answers which
journalists, researchers, and legal experts gave to 50 questions
concerning the murders and arrests of journalists, censorship,
pressure, state monopoly in a variety of areas, punishment of media
for slander, and media legislation.
(hina) ha