"I am neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. But I do believe that this is a message to everyone to abide by the law and international obligations accepted by Croatia," Mesic briefly told reporters at an event marking the International Day of the Disappeared in Zagreb's central square.
The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague found the journalist and former editor-in-chief of Slobodna Dalmacija daily guilty of contempt of court and ordered him to pay a fine of 20,000 euros within 30 days.
The Independent Workers' Union of Slobodna Dalmacija, whose member Jovic is, said in a statement that the tribunal's verdict "is a sad ending to the prosecution of a journalist who informed the public about facts which were not in the least uninteresting to Croatia".
"Respecting every court, including the one in The Hague, we wonder if the sentence imposed on Jovic means the end of achieved media freedoms and to what extent journalists in Croatia can do their job," reads the statement signed by union leader Ivan Ugrin.
Jovic was charged with obstruction of justice and violation of the tribunal's orders for making public six years ago the identity and testimony of protected witness Stjepan Mesic, now the President of Croatia, and for continuing the publication of excerpts from the transcripts of the testimony the witness had made in closed session in defiance of the court order to stop doing so.