The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) called on the government on Wednesday to decriminalise crimes against honour and reputation and once again warned of a large number of strategic lawsuits against the public (SLAPP) targeting journalists and media companies.

“We believe that decriminalising all offences against honour and reputation would help to reduce the pressure from lawsuits in general, especially those that the HND has been warning about for years – SLAPP lawsuits targeting journalists and the media. We will not stop insisting on this,” said HND President Hrvoje Zovko at a press conference.

He warned that journalists often lose in court when they go public with truthful information. Journalists have been victims of “judicial terror” for years, Zovko said, noting that the worst kind of lawsuits against journalists are those filed by judges.

Out of 1,333 judgements, 40% have a SLAPP indicator

“Despite its stated desire to solve the problem of SLAPP lawsuits by forming expert groups in the Ministry of Culture and Media, the government has not taken what we consider the most important step – decriminalisation,” Zovko said, stressing that the HND has been accused of exaggerating the number of SLAPP lawsuits for years, but that the latest analysis confirmed its estimates.

“We have never claimed that all lawsuits against reporters and media are SLAPP lawsuits, but that there are many. In collaboration with the Centre for Democracy and Law Miko Tripalo, we have shown that of the 1,333 judgments analysed against media and reporters from 2016 to 2023, more than 40% have at least one SLAPP indicator,” Zovko said.

Skender: The threat of prosecution restricts journalism and stifles public debate

The Secretary General of HND, Melisa Skender, said that the threat of criminal prosecution, often combined with the abuse of libel lawsuits, restricts journalism and stifles public debate. She recalled that the International Organisation for the Protection of Freedom of Expression Article 19 recently called on the government to decriminalise insult and defamation and to stop all such proceedings brought under the Criminal Code.

HND board member Goran Gazdek spoke of SLAPP lawsuits against media at the local level. He referred to as SLAPP a lawsuit filed by former Croatian Radio (HRT) director Kazimir Bacic against then HND vice presidents Branko Mijic and Gazdek over a warning in March 2021 about the situation at HRT, including the dismissal of Hrvoje Zovko and reporter Maja Sever, who was warned of possible dismissal.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for early September.

“We were sued for defamation just because we spoke about the situation at HRT,” Gazdek said.