"FERAL TRIBUNE" REPORTERS ATTACKED NEAR BIOGRAD

PAKOSTANE, March 1 (Hina) - Two reporters for Croatia's weekly "Feral Tribune" were attacked in Pakostane near Biograd on Thursday noon. The Zadar County police reported one of the reporters received medical treatment at the Biograd medical station and Zadar's General Hospital and was subsequently released. An investigation is underway. The police have established the reporters were attacked by a local resident of Pakostane whose name was not stated. "Feral Tribune" said in a statement their photographer Rino Belan and reporter Damir Pilic had tried to take photos of a location in a coastal area near Pakostane where retired general Ante Gotovina has been conducting construction works. "They were surrounded by a group of unidentified persons who, threatening them with axes, demanded that they hand over the film from their camera. An unidentified man then arrived at the scene in a BMW bearing foreign licence plates, got out of the car, approached Belan and hit him several times on the head," said the statement, adding Belan's film was forcibly taken away. The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) issued a statement, stating, among else, that "journalism, even in the so-called time of democratic reforms, is an extremely dangerous profession," and requested an immediate and thorough police investigation. The HND requested Prime Minister Ivica Racan to take systematic and decisive action to prevent "the growing public violence in Croatia." (hina) rml