An incident involving uniformed police visiting a news website's office to check the ID of one of its reporters drew condemnations on Wednesday, with some seeing it as yet another case of hounding of journalists in Croatia who dare to report on corruption and clientelism plaguing the country.

On Tuesday, a reporter working for the Net.hr news website, Djurdjica Klancir, said in a widely read Facebook post that uniformed police officers came to the website’s newsroom to ID her, in relation to a civil lawsuit being filed against her.

Klancir was told by policemen that they were doing this on request from police in the central Croatian city of Sisak, which in turn ordered the ID’-ing of the reporter based on a request by a lawyer who had been hired by the local Sisak county head and member of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Ivo Zinic.

On Wednesday, Klancir came as guest to N1 television to talk about the case.

‘Modus operandi’

“I have been in journalism for a long time, and this is the first time somebody tried to get my information this way. I have been living at the same address for 17 years now, the policemen found my address on my personal ID, which is the same as the one they already have. I think it’s obvious they were sent there by someone, with the clear intention of intimidating me,” Klancir told N1 on Wednesday.

Klancir said that Zinic had never contacted the website to ask for an article correction or a rebuttal – something which media outlets are required by Croatian law to publish upon request by offended parties.

However, they can also file civil lawsuits, claiming to have been hurt by what is legally referred to as “mental anguish” caused by any piece of writing they disagree with, and go to court to seek damages. Klancir had previously published articles about nepotism and clientelism in Zinic’s county, after his son was hired by a jail in the town of Glina on a warehouse managing job which seems to have been created specifically for him.

“I believe he plans to sue me for “mental anguish” and “damage to his reputation,” which defines this modus operandi which is modelled after the highest state officials, who show no interest to press for any sanctions whatsoever for corruption or nepotism, and present any such case that goes public as a minor thing. That’s the message which then filters down to lower officials, to local politicians. I think what Zinic is mostly concerned about is the way we looked into the way he gave his son a job,” said Klancir.

‘Police doing their job’

On Wednesday morning, Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic refused to comment on the case, saying he had no knowledge of the incident, and said that the policemen “might have been reacting to a bomb threat.” Public Administration Minister, Lovro Kuscevic, said that “police was doing its job” and that the media freedoms in Croatia are at a high “European level.” When pressed for answer, he replied that “journalists don’t have immunity before the law.”

Later on Wednesday, Zinic confirmed to N1 that he hasn’t launched a lawsuit yet, but is preparing a case to sue for slander. He said that the report that provoked his reaction was the firing of a local elementary school principal, which Net.hr reported had been ordered by Zinic in order to install a fellow party loyalist. Zinic denies having anything to do with it.

“This is not the first time this journalist is making false allegations against me and deceiving the public… The principal later filed a lawsuit in court, and won, and the verdict said he was fired in line with the law, meaning I had nothing to do with it. This is nearly [sic] the fourth time that untruths are being publicised about me, so I authorised my lawyer to launch a lawsuit,” Zinic told N1.

‘Private intimidation service’

The incident came days after a protest march organised by the country’s main journalist association HND, which was organised to warn about the increasing hounding of reporters via civil lawsuits, many of which ostensibly filed for “mental anguish” or “damage to reputation” over truthful reporting or satirical columns.

HND says that there are currently more than 1,100 ongoing lawsuits against journalists in Croatia’s courts, which they say is a clear case of stifling of media freedom.

On Wednesday, they issued a statement in reaction to the latest incident involving Klancir.

“This is also an unprecedented case of police looking for someone at their workplace after somebody announced plans to launch a civil lawsuit against them… This is a clear case of political and police pressure exterted against a journalist, of trying to intimidate and deter her from reporting on what county head Ivo Zinic is doing. What we have here is unheard of – a local strongman using police as his private intimidation service against reporters,” HND added.

‘Demonstration of power’

MP of the conservative populist Most party, Nikola Grmoja, posted a comment on Facebook echoing the accusations of intimidation, blaming Zinic for the incident, and saying Klancir’s personal information required for a lawsuit could have been requested in writing.

“But then there would be no intimidating effect that this government is striving for, to stifle the media and intimidate others by demonstrating power. I will request that the Parliament’s Media Committee – which I am a member of – reacts to this case,” Grmoje wrote.

MP Sabina Glasovac of the largest opposition party, the Social Democrats, also condemned the incident.

“This is unheard of… Imagine if police acted the same for every lawsuit filed… What happened here is the state apparatus getting involved in assisting a private lawsuit… To me, it looks like intimidation,” Glasovac told N1.

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