International journalists' association mission and an organisation for protecting freedom of speech published a report on hate speech in Croatia, reported the Croatian Journalists’ Association on Friday.

After a joint mission of organisations dealing with media freedoms published in June 2016 that the state of freedoms in Croatia was poor, a new delegation visited Croatia in 2018, and reported an improved status.

Croatia got a new government, and the new conservative-liberal coalition has in its programme media freedoms as an issue important for the European Union member state, and the politicians are clearly condemning threats against journalists.

In 2017, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and the parliament Media Committee condemned attacks and threats against journalists and the police began reacting more quickly in those cases, the report stated.

Although there are fewer physical attacks on journalists, attacks and threats, especially online, are still a great problem, as is the destructive effect of hate speech on society, which has increased since 2016, the report added.

Croatia went up on the World Press Freedom Index by five places – from 74th to 69th place in 2018, but there is a lot of room for improvements, the report said, and added that the authorities are recommended to conduct thorough investigations in all the unresolved cases of physical attacks on journalists.

Politicians, journalists, and other public persons must refrain from participating or supporting, and even the perception of supporting dirty campaigns or hateful rhetoric against journalists and the media. Politicians must condemn such rhetoric as soon as it appears, the mission said, and added that political parties should refrain from meddling in the editorial policy of the public broadcaster (HRT).

The role of journalists, civil society and the viewers in the process of electing the HRT management board should be strengthened, and the law should guarantee the broadcaster’s independence.

The issue of hate speech and fake news needs to be looked at more seriously, in more detail and with a proactive attitude, the mission said, adding that the initiative to regulate those issues should not wait until the EU adopts regulations, although that was announced.

Legal provisions concerning transparency of media ownership should be improved, and the Electronic Media Council should be more active in cases when the media do not respect professional standards, especially in cases of hate speech in local media, they said.

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