Hedl called the police around 1500 hours saying that several young men, who were sitting on the terrace of a cafe, first verbally abused and then threatened him while he was passing by, the chief of police Vladimir Faber said in the evening.
When the police arrived at the scene they found two men there and took them in for questioning, Faber said without revealing the men's identity.
The police informed the municipal prosecutor about the incident and continued the investigation.
Faber said that Hedl agreed to police protection.
Feral Tribune issued a statement linking the threat to Hedl's articles about local power-broker Branimir Glavas, who is suspected of war crimes committed against Serb civilians in the Osijek area in the early 1990s.
The Split-based weekly said that Hedl was threatened to be "killed like a dog", and expressed fear that the threat would not remain idle unless sanctioned.