ZAGREB, March 6, 2019 – The Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) on Wednesday condemned in the strongest terms “the political and police pressure” on reporter Đurđica Klancir who has wrote on her Facebook wall that two police officers had arrived in her editorial room to establish her identity necessary for the procedure of a private lawsuit filed against her.
Klancir, a reporter for the Net.hr portal, said that the two uniformed police officers had arrived at her workplace following a request of the lawyer in Sisak-Moslavina County who is preparing a lawsuit on behalf of his client, and according to the reporter’s statement, the client is Sisak-Moslavina County Prefect Ivo Žinić who is privately suing her.
The HND finds that this is an unprecedented case in which a powerful politician is using the police as his own private service to intimidate journalists which the HND described as deeply disturbing and shocking.
The HND refers to the whole case as an act of “political and police pressure” on a reporter.
The association insists that in this way, the County Prefect Žinić, whose work Klancir has been criticising in her articles, is trying to intimidate the reporter.
The Ministry of the Interior said on Tuesday said that the police conduct was in compliance with the law and in that specific case, the lawyer of the concerned injured party requested to be provided with identification data for the purpose of launching a civil action.
The ministry underscores that in this case the injured private party was entitled to get information to lodge a lawsuit, and the police are supposed to establish beyond any doubt the identity of the sued party given that there are several persons in Croatia with the same name as the said reporter.
The only reliable data has been that the reporter works for the Net.hr portal and therefore the police officers went to the media outlet’s premises to establish the accurate identity of the sued party.
More news on the pressure on independent media in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.
