ZAGREB, June 26, 2020 – The Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) on Thursday called on Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic to stop accusing journalists, saying that they were only asking legitimate questions and his duty as the prime minister was to answer them.
On Tuesday, the prime minister openly accused N1 television reporter Hrvoje Kresic of campaigning for the opposition after he asked Plenkovic when he would go into self-isolation given that he had had contact with tennis player Novak Djokovic, one of the participants in a tennis tournament in Zadar who were infected with the coronavirus. On Wednesday, he also behaved inappropriately towards 24 Sata reporter Nikol Zagorac by refusing to answer her question, the HND said in a statement.
It recalled that it was not the first time Plenkovic had “lectured and publicly accused journalists and the media questioning his work and his actions.”
“He accused us of waging ‘hybrid wars’, during the Agrokor affair he said that we were working under instructions, he told our female colleagues that they were ‘sweet’ and he lectured us on how to do our job,” the HND said.
Such behaviour on the part of the prime minister is unworthy of the office he holds and yet another proof that politicians in Croatia, regardless of the political camp they belong to, do not understand the purpose and importance of journalists and the media, the HND said, stressing that journalists work neither for the government nor for the opposition but solely in the interest of the public.
