As we reported yesterday, a Slobodna Dalmacija journalist, Andrea Topic, was abused and threatened by construction workers building one of Health Minister Kujundzic’s incorrectly registered houses, with another one being constructed next to it. They abused her, frightened her, trapped her in her car and to make matters even worse, at least one of these people is Milan Kujundzic’s relative.
As Index writes on the 25th of January, 2020, a man approached Andrea after she parked along a public road, yelling at her for filming a house, which belongs to Health Minister Kujundzic, that they were working on. This man, as the journalist herself says, is Health Minister Kujundzic’s close relative who she had even spoken to before during an interview about the local election results. A few more men later came up to her and the journalist recounted everything, which can be read by clicking on the link in the first paragraph.
She eventually locked herself in her car and called her editor, who then called the police. The men surrounding her car said they were relatives of Health Minister Kujundzic. The police arrested them, but they were released shortly after.
One of the men who entrapped and abused the journalist told his side of the story for N1. He says they thought someone was lost.
“Look, it turned out a little reckless. I don’t know how to describe it to you, because it’s a very interesting situation. The vehicle was moving up and down, and we saw a girl driving and we thought that someone was lost. that the person was lost in the area, as this [area] is a little bit out of the way. There, she parked up against the wall and we approached her and asked her if she needed help and if she was lost, seeing that her phone’s navigation was turned on. She refused any cooperation, she didn’t say anything to us and at that moment we moved away from the vehicle. She continued to sit in the car and do what she was doing, I don’t know what.”
Then one of them went on to explain that they feared the journalist was a thief. He revealed that they called Health Minister Kujundzic’s brother.
”After a few minutes she got out of the car and then she went over the wall and at that moment, after she’d gone over the wall, she took some pictures and maybe took a video. We then approached her, well, my neighbour did, and asked her – Excuse me, who are you? This is private property, you’ve climbed up there over someone else’s wall. Who sent you? Why did you come? She got down, he approached her, and she got back in the car.
She didn’t want to talk to us, we didn’t even know she was a journalist. We didn’t know who or what she was, and we were a little worried since the house had already been stolen from twice and we didn’t know what kind of person she was, or for what purpose she’d come to take a video, and then we surrounded her car. In the meantime, a neighbour called the minister’s brother to tell him that an unknown person had come to take pictures and videos of the house – we were asking whether we should call the police or let her take photos or record freely. He said that she could, but that she shouldn’t climb around the house and go into the garden, but that she could take photos and videos from the road. We then got off her car and nobody said a word to her afterwards,” said Josip Kujundzic.
The Slobodna Dalmacija journalist mentioned that Josip Kujundzic had already spoken to her before because she had previously interviewed him.
“I don’t remember, it was brief. About ten minutes or so. If I knew her, I’d greet her and approach her in a different way since I know the person. This is how I approached an unknown person. If she knew me and if she saw that she did an interview with me a year ago, I think it would be fair and correct that she came up to me and said ”Sir, I did an interview with you a year ago, I’m a journalist from Slobodna Dalmacija, I’m here to do an interview regarding Mr. Milan Kujundzic. I’ll be here for a short while and I won’t bother you, and so on,” he said.
He also commented on the footage showing them surrounding Andrea’s car. He admits that they played around a little.
“We played around a little. We didn’t behave decently. We’d been working, we were a little playful. With didn’t bother her or stop her with any bad intentions. But you know, we didn’t know who she was and then we had to wait around a bit until we were told what to do – whether to call the police because she’s an unknown person or to let her record and do as she pleases. We played around the car for a while, we didn’t damage the vehicle nor did we want to hurt the girl, I didn’t, and nor did my colleagues. Yes, the footage of that turned out a little lame, but we didn’t do that with any ill intent,” concluded Josip Kujundzic.
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