The best method of resistance is saying the truth in
the face of a dictator.                          – Arabic Proverb

Europe & Eurasia

Croatia

   

{This graph represents scores that have been modified by CIMA so that higher scores indicate a better media situation. It is intended to show trends over time; each index measures significantly different factors of press freedom. To see an explanation for how this graph was created, click here.}
 

IREX Score: 2.48 [IREX Methodology]
{Higher is Better, Score Ranges from 0 to 4.00}  


IREX Description:

Despite significant regression in some areas, there are signs of improvement in others. New media outlets continue to grow in size and diversity; the police moved quickly to protect threatened journalists and solved multiple prominent cases involving attacks on journalists; and public media organizations shed the pro-government bias that plagued the outlets during Sanader's rule.

Overall, Croatia's media sector remains unable to make significant progress forward or prevent some regression, but still maintains the basic freedoms and market principles adopted over the past two decades. This is reflected this year in a lower overall score, although not by a large amount. Losses in most objective scores were offset to some degree by improvement for Objective 3, plurality of news.

Read more on IREX’s site…

Freedom House Score: 41 (Partly Free) [Freedom House Methodology]
{Lower is Better, Score Ranges from 0 to 100}  


Freedom House Description:

  • Freedom of the press is enshrined in the constitution and generally protected in practice. However, there is some government influence over the media, and there were reports of increasing pressure from commercial interests.
  • Amendments to the criminal code in 2006 eliminated imprisonment as a punishment for libel, leaving fines as the only sanction. Government officials occasionally use libel laws against the media. Croatian journalists have also faced contempt-of-court charges at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
  • Journalists are subject to occasional harassment by the authorities, physical threats, and violence, particularly when their reporting touches on Croatia’s role in the 1991–95 Balkan conflict. Two journalists were assaulted separately in May, and organized crime reporter Dusan Miljus of the daily Jutarnji List was severely beaten in June by a pair of assailants armed with metal bats. Miljus continued to receive death threats after the attack.

Read more on Freedom House’s site…

RSF Score: 17.50 [RSF Methodology]
{Lower is Better, Score Ranges from 0 to ~120}  


Reporters Without Borders Description:

The murder in a car bombing in October 2008 of journalist Ivo Pukanic, owner and former editor of the weekly Nacional and of marketing director Niko Franjic, sent shock waves through Croatian society. The killing of Pukanic, who had survived a previous attempt in April 2008, could have been linked to his reports into cigarette smuggling or the publication in 2003 of an interview with a former Croatian general, Ante Gotovina, sought for war crimes by the International Criminal Court for the ex-Yugoslavia (ICTY). In an unaccustomed break with the impunity that generally marks investigations into abuses against the press, the interior ministry opened an investigation that led to the identification of the two killers. The ministry on 8 April 2009 also offered rewards of almost 30,000 euros for any information leading to their arrest.

Investigative reporting on war crimes committed during the Serbo-Croatian conflict of 1991-1995 though not taboo is rare and carried out only with great caution. The journalist Zeljko Peratovic who has suffered judicial harassment from interior minister, Tomislav Karamarko, since January 2008 had said in his blog (www.peratovic.blog.hr) that the minister had obstructed the investigation into the murder in a car bombing of Milan Levar, a witness under protection of the ICTY. The minister accuses the journalist of contravening Article 322/1 KZA of the criminal code providing for one year in prison and an open-ended ban on putting out news.

Read more on RSF’s site…

Committee to Protect Journalists Description: [What is the Committee to Protect Journalists?]

Top Developments
• Government makes progress on reforms, but press freedom lags.
• Ruling HDZ gains influence with some media outlets.
Key Statistic
8: People indicted in a car bombing that killed two media executives.

Croatia’s efforts to join the European Union by 2011 did not yield major improvements in press freedom. While the EU said the government had made “substantial progress” on several issues—including the resolution of border disputes, the institution of refugee property rights, and improved cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia—some journalists feared the country was sliding back toward the lawless 1990s, when the ruling nationalist HDZ party suppressed independent news reporting. Police remained inconsistent in investigating attacks against journalists, several of whom faced threats after reporting on government corruption. 
 

Visit CPJ’s Site for Recent Developments in This Country

IFEX News: [What is IFEX?]

Visit IFEX for Recent News on Media in This Country