We are reporters who want to work in public interest and not be anyone's extended arm of this, or any previous or future government, Hrvoje Zovko, the president of the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) said in front of Government House where representatives of the association read the eight demands they put to the government.
After expressing their disgruntlement in front of the Ministry of Culture and the University of Zagreb and City Offices, sending a message to Mayor Milan Bandic that they “are not immune to his insults” and attempts to belittle reporters, more than a thousand protesters marching under the slogan, “You confiscated the media, we won’t give journalism!”, gathered outside Government House.
Addressing the rally, Zovko says that although Croatia is a parliamentary democracy, the place where decisions are made, and power is, is in the government, “unfortunately the parliament is too weak, and the government is too powerful.”
He underscored that reporters wanted to inform the government that it has to change its treatment of reporters and the media and to enable journalists to do their job in normal conditions.
We aren’t dramatising anything
“We aren’t dramatising anything nor are we sweet. In any case, this is an issue of all Croatian citizens. This isn’t just an issue for us reporters,” Zovko said and then read their demands against censorship.
The demands among other things call for current lawsuits to be withdrawn, for legal protection to be provided for reporters who warn of the pressure they are exposed to, for the Electronic Media Council to be depoliticised, for HRT’s management to be dismissed and for urgent amendments to the HRT Law.
Apart from that, the HND demands that the Law on the Media be implemented, local power-wielders who usurp the media to be stopped, and that attackers on reporters be identified and brought to justice.
Protesters call for dismissal of HRT’s management
Due to the “devastation of the national broadcaster’s programme and personnel, the promotion of defeated ideologies, suspect spending of public money and lawsuits against reporters and the media,” the protesters called for HRT’s management to be dismissed and for the urgent amendment of the Law on HRT, “which as a public media broadcaster is being used as a service for the political majority instead of public interest.”
“We demand that HRT be independent of those in power and that its reporters are allowed to freely do their job,” HND said and called for the cessation of the long-standing practice of ignoring or breaching the Law on the Media.
