ZAGREB, Sept 28 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HHO) on Thursday issued a statement pointing to the "extremely radicalised social atmosphere in which media employees are frequent victims." The HHO comment
comes in the wake of Tuesday's attack Goran Flauder, a journalist from the eastern town of Osijek, suffered at the hands of an unknown man, resulting in a head injury. Reminding of several other recent assaults on journalists, the HHO has assessed that the "crudest and most primitive" forms of media freedom violations are reoccurring in Croatia. The HHO says journalists are not targeted only by street thugs, recalling the case at the Zagreb Municipal Court when a court policeman threatened a press photographer with a gun. According to the HHO, politicians join in attacking members of the press on a regular basis, which shows the new authorities are as sensitive to public cri
ZAGREB, Sept 28 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights (HHO) on Thursday issued a statement pointing to the
"extremely radicalised social atmosphere in which media employees
are frequent victims."
The HHO comment comes in the wake of Tuesday's attack Goran Flauder,
a journalist from the eastern town of Osijek, suffered at the hands
of an unknown man, resulting in a head injury.
Reminding of several other recent assaults on journalists, the HHO
has assessed that the "crudest and most primitive" forms of media
freedom violations are reoccurring in Croatia.
The HHO says journalists are not targeted only by street thugs,
recalling the case at the Zagreb Municipal Court when a court
policeman threatened a press photographer with a gun. According to
the HHO, politicians join in attacking members of the press on a
regular basis, which shows the new authorities are as sensitive to
public criticism as the former.
The HHO says the most aggressive in attacking the media and
journalists are radical right-wing political circles defeated at
January's elections.
The Croatian Journalists' Association joined in condemning the
assault on the Osijek journalist, urging the police to arrest the
attacker, as did Nacional weekly which ran a Flauder article the day
he was assaulted.
The article depicted Luka Markesic, the former head of the Security
and Intelligence Service office in Bjelovar, as an extortionist and
a bully. According to press reports, Flauder said after the assault
Markesic had warned him that he "has his phone numbers and knows
where he can find him."
The Osijek journalist said the assault on his person could have been
motivated by an article he had written in Arena weekly which tackled
criminal activities in the Osijek branch of the national power
utility company HEP. Flauder said that another reason for the
assault could have been former Osijek-Baranja County prefect
Branimir Glavas' loss of one of three lawsuits against him a few
days before.
(hina) ha jn