ZAGREB, February 7, 2019 – Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek said on Thursday the Croatian media were independent, press freedoms guaranteed, and that the government did not exert pressure on the media.
She was asked by the press ahead of a cabinet meeting to comment on European Federation of Journalists secretary general Ricardo Gutierrez’s statement that the situation in Croatia with regard to political influence on the media was the worst in the European Union.
“I think that’s not true. You work, you know you are independent, that press freedoms are guaranteed in Croatia,” the minister said, adding that “the phenomenon of lawsuits against journalists and media is not in the remit of media legislation… and it should be discussed.”
“We absolutely stand by the basic media legislation postulates. The media are independent and neither the government nor anyone from the government is exerting pressure on the media.”
She dismissed a journalist’s remark that Croatia was falling in international rankings by the year and that the situation was deteriorating, saying the data differed and that there were no such pressures in Croatia. “We will work on enhancing media legislation together with associations and other partners.”
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković rejected claims that there was no freedom in Croatia, when asked to comment on claims by the Croatian Journalists’ Association suggesting that there were over 1,000 court cases against journalists and the media in the country.
“To say today that there is no media freedom in Croatia means that the person making this claim is neither reading the papers, listening to the radio nor watching TV,” Plenković said.
The prime minister stressed that according to Freedom House, Croatia was a free country with free media and free media ownership structure.
Stressing that Croatia’s Penal Code envisages a possibility of defamation, slander and libel suits, Plenković said that according to information he received from the justice minister, 85% if such cases end with an acquittal.
More news on the media freedom in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.
