ZAGREB, March 27 (Hina) - An editor of the Sibenik radio 'Ritam' information programme, Marina Radic, on Monday announced the commencement of an investigation in the case of tapping of telephones at that radio station for 31 March.
Marina Radic said the radio station's director Miso Bijelic deceived the public by his statement that telephones were legally bugged in order to control costs. She believes that clarification of the entire case of Radio Ritam should contribute to the getting the facts straight concerning Croatia's media. Radic also expects from the Croatian Telecommunications Institute as well as from Ritam's donors - including USAID and the Open Society - to make certain moves regarding this situation. Marina Radic and Dijana Feric, a journalist of the radio station from that southern Croatia coastal town, who on 16 March made it known that telephones in 'Ritam' edit
ZAGREB, March 27 (Hina) - An editor of the Sibenik radio 'Ritam'
information programme, Marina Radic, on Monday announced the
commencement of an investigation in the case of tapping of
telephones at that radio station for 31 March.
Marina Radic said the radio station's director Miso Bijelic
deceived the public by his statement that telephones were legally
bugged in order to control costs.
She believes that clarification of the entire case of Radio Ritam
should contribute to the getting the facts straight concerning
Croatia's media.
Radic also expects from the Croatian Telecommunications Institute
as well as from Ritam's donors - including USAID and the Open
Society - to make certain moves regarding this situation.
Marina Radic and Dijana Feric, a journalist of the radio station
from that southern Croatia coastal town, who on 16 March made it
known that telephones in 'Ritam' editorial offices were being
tapped, received the support from the Croatian Journalists Society
(HND) President Dragutin Lucic and a parliamentary deputy, Vesna
Pusic, at a news conference they held in Zagreb today.
Radic asserted that she and her colleague Feric had had no knowledge
of the tapping previously, contrary to another 14 employees with
the radio who claim they have known of it.
In a town with 13,000 unemployed citizens such as Sibenik, it is
sheer luck to find a job, and people are ready to do anything to
retain their jobs, Radic said explaining the whole situation with
radio workers' statements. She added that only four employees were
among those who had signed a statement that they had knowledge of
the tapping, and none of signatories is a professional reporter.
One of those who signed the statement is the wife of Director
Bijelic who is registered as a worker of the radio but actually does
not work there.
A possible consent of those aforementioned employees to bugging of
phones they are using does not give the right to Director Bijelic to
tap conversations of other people related to the radio, Radic
stressed, adding that such a move presented the violation of human
rights and freedoms of reporters.
A member of the Sabor, Vesna Pusic, whose talks with the radio
Ritam's reporter was secretly bugged, cautioned that the director
who is eavesdropping on conversations, might accuse others, who
were bugged, of such act.
The HND President Lucic said that according to the findings of
lawyers, regulations about the rights in the contractual relations
between the employer and employees were breached in the 'Ritam'
case.
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