Since 2015, there was more than 75 attacks on journalists in Croatia.

In one recent attack, someone partially sawed the two screws on the front right wheel of the car of Saša Leković, president of the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND), so they broke during the drive on the highway.

Human Rights House Zagreb strongly condemned the attack on Saša Leković. It is especially worrying that the aim of the recent attack, a meddling with his car, was intended to cause physical injury to Leković.

Alarming trend of attacks

Taking into account the gravity of the situation, Human Rights House has called for an urgent and immediate reaction of the police and prosecutors. Each attack, especially physical attacks on journalists, must be immediately and thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators must be brought to justice.

They stressed that this is unfortunately not an isolated incident, but rather the continuation of an alarming trend of attacks on journalists and other media members. During its regular monitoring of events related to violations of media rights and freedoms, Human Rights House has recorded a total of 75 cases of physical and verbal attacks, threats and external pressures in 2015 and 2016.

Nils Muižnieks, the commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe, talked about this serious situation during his visit to Croatia this spring. He warned that attacks on journalists must be treated with particular seriousness and that institutions must send a clear and strong message about the unacceptability of such behavior in a democratic society.

Croatia must do more

Unfortunately, and taking into account the recent examples of threats to journalist Goran Borković and the editorial staff of Forum.tm, Human Rights House warns that Croatian institutions, especially the police and the State Attorney's Office, do not approach this issue seriously.

In accordance with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Croatia is responsible to take all active measures in order to create and ensure an enabling environment for freedom of expression.

This necessarily implies the protection of journalists against attacks as it's further emphasized in the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the protection of journalism and safety of journalists and other media workers.