HDZ SYSTEMATICALLY INTENSIFYING PRESSURE ON INDEPENDENT MEDIA-HHO

ZAGREB, April 16 (Hina) - Representatives of the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HHO) on Friday said the state of freedom of the press in Croatia was getting worse, and added that the ruling party was systematically intensifying the pressure on independent media before the election. The HHO believed that the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was trying to remove those media which do not suit its policy, particularly when world and domestic public was concentrated on NATO attacks on Yugoslavia and the suffering of Albanian refugees. According to the HHO, publishers and reporters of independent media were exposed to harsh prosecution by courts. The reason for the statement was a decision of the Business Court to adopt a motion made by don Ante Bakovic on opening a bankruptcy procedure for the Croatian weekly Nacional, because it failed to pay him a court declared compensation of US$28,500 for publishing false information that Bakovic had been excommunicated. The HHO believed that "the harshest critics of the authority -- weekly's "Nacional" and "Feral Tribune" to whom the monopoly distributor Tisak, under the patronage of the Government, was not paying them money for sold copies of the paper-- was under the harshest attack. The Croatian Journalists' Society expressed a similar standpoint three days ago. (hina) it jn/lml