Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardic, who joined protesting reporters on Saturday,  said that today "reporters in Croatia are spending more time in courtrooms than in their editorial rooms," and added that it was unacceptable for freedom of speech and the media to be increasingly deteriorating each year.

“More than a thousand journalists in Croatia are involved in court proceedings. In fact they are more frequently in courtrooms than their editorial rooms. That is disastrous and just an indicator that freedom of speech in Croatia and the situation with media freedom is deteriorating more and more each year,” Bernardic underscored.

He said that the protest’s slogan, “You confiscated the media, we won’t give you journalism,” was the best message to the government.

Asked what needs to be changed in the future to improve the situation, Bernardic said that it was necessary to depoliticise the national broadcaster, HRT, and to not allow political influence on that public service.

“Apart from that, it is necessary to prevent the use of the possibility of lawsuits to the detriment of reporters. It is necessary to depoliticise the Council for Electronic Media and to take heed of all of HND’s demands. That is why I am here today as a sign of solidarity with protesting reporters in Croatia,” he said.