The Croatian Journalists Association (HND) on Thursday held a commemoration for reporter Vladimir Matijanic, who died last Friday.

Attending the event, held in the Adriatic city of Split, were members of Matijanic’s family, fellow journalists, friends, and others who respected the late reporter, whose death, caused by COVID-19, attracted public attention following media reports that doctors in Split failed to provide him with adequate care even though he had a number of underlying conditions.

“Nobody can be indifferent to the way (his death) happened,” HND president Hrvoje Zovko said in his speech, noting that “we are living in a country whose system has killed yet another innocent man.”

In a message to Health Minister Vili Beros and staff at the KBC Split hospital, Zovko said that Matijanic’s fellow journalists and friends would not stop asking questions until they obtained all the answers and until someone was called to account for Matijanic’s death.

Earlier in the day, Matijanic was laid to rest at Split’s Lovrinac cemetery in the presence of his family, friends, numerous fellow journalists, as well as politicians.

As a reporter, Matijanic uncovered numerous scandals and was one of the best Croatian investigative journalists and analysts.

He started his career at the Slobodna Dalmacija daily and continued it in the Feral Tribune weekly, after which he returned to Slobodna Dalmacija. In recent years he worked for the Index news website.

He wrote the book “Kerum i propadanje Splita” (Kerum and the decline of Split), on the scandals of the former Split Mayor Zeljko Kerum, and was awarded by the HND for online journalism.