ZAGREB, July 16 (Hina) - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday forwarded a letter to Croatia's President Franjo Tudjman requesting the discontinuation of the criminal prosecution of Orlanda Obad, a journalist with the
"Jutarnji List" daily, and all persons accused of violating Article 295 of the Croatian Penal Code. The letter addressed on "His Excellency Franjo Tudjman, President of Croatia", which Hina got on Friday from the Croatian Journalists' Association, read that "the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the criminal prosecution of Orlanda Obad, a Croatian journalist with the independent political daily Jutarnji List, who was charged with violating Article 295 of the Croatian Penal Code for revealing alleged business secrets about your family's financial holdings." The letter signed by the CPJ executive direc
ZAGREB, July 16 (Hina) - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
on Thursday forwarded a letter to Croatia's President Franjo
Tudjman requesting the discontinuation of the criminal prosecution
of Orlanda Obad, a journalist with the "Jutarnji List" daily, and
all persons accused of violating Article 295 of the Croatian Penal
Code.
The letter addressed on "His Excellency Franjo Tudjman, President
of Croatia", which Hina got on Friday from the Croatian
Journalists' Association, read that "the Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the criminal
prosecution of Orlanda Obad, a Croatian journalist with the
independent political daily Jutarnji List, who was charged with
violating Article 295 of the Croatian Penal Code for revealing
alleged business secrets about your family's financial holdings."
The letter signed by the CPJ executive director, Ann Cooper, added
that the Croatian Public Prosecutor's office filed charges against
Obad on April 22, 1999, after Obad published an article in Jutarnji
List's issue of October 17, 1998, in which she reported that
President Tudjman's wife had approximately "$150,000 in a bank
account at the Zagrebacka bank in Croatia", while this information
was excluded from an earlier earnings declaration, "despite a new
Croatian law ... that requires public officials to release the
amount of their entire family holdings."
"Although the revelations in Obad's article may have caused
embarrassment to your family, information about the financial
holdings of government officials and their families falls well
within the category of public interest. As an international, non-
governmental organisation of journalists dedicated to upholding
press freedom around the world, CPJ believes that no journalist
should be prosecuted for publishing such information," read the
letter.
The letter forwarded to President Tudjman added that this was "the
second attempt by your government to charge journalists under
article 295," recalling that a final court hearing is expected to
take place in the fall for Ratko Boskovic, a journalist with the
Globus weekly, who has been accused of having written an article
which examined possible financial improprieties of the Rijeka-
based Viktor Lenac shipyard in 1995.
"CPJ is also very troubled" by the precedent that the Obad case sets
in regard to the treatment of her sources. "Two employees from
Zagrebacka bank, who admitted freely to the bank that they had
provided the information to Obad were immediately fired," it said.
"CPJ strongly protests against the prosecution of all these
individuals for practicing their profession. We remind Your
Excellency that Article 19 of the Universal Declaration for Human
Rights to which Croatia is a signatory, grants journalists the
freedom to 'seek, receive and impart information and ideas through
any media and regardless of frontiers," the letter added.
CPJ urged President Tudjman "to take a leadership role in ensuring
that Croatian official cease the unjustified harassment of Obad and
other individuals accused under Article 295."
(hina) ms