The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the accusations of conspiracy against the government, levelled by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) against the media, were a scandalous, shameful and dangerous attack on the media.

The HND drew attention to “yet another in a series of attacks by the ruling coalition against journalists and the constitutional right to freedom of reporting” following a report by N1 that the HDZ presidency, at an online meeting held on January 11, accused the media of a conspiracy with the opposition against the government, which the HDZ did not explicitly deny.

The ruling parties thus sent a message that some of the media outlets had joined forces with the left-wing opposition, and in part with the far right, in claiming that the government had poorly responded to the devastating earthquake that struck Sisak-Moslavina County, just to damage the government and the HDZ, the HND said.

Unbelievable accusations, along the lines of “‘The State, that is me”, were made by senior HDZ official Vladimir Seks, who said that the media, acting together with “leftist parties”, were trying to “change the outcome of the parliamentary election,” the HND said and added that European Commission Vice-President Dubravka Suica was quoted by the media as saying at the same meeting that the media were trying to topple the HDZ and that this could be seen in the fact that they referred to the Banovina region as Banija, which was the name predominantly used for the region during the time of Yugoslavia.

The HND said that these accusations were preceded by attacks by the HDZ leader, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who had said that criticisms of how the government was organising relief to the earthquake-hit area were “an attempt at dismantling the State”. It also recalled that Plenkovic had previously accused journalists of waging hybrid warfare against the government.

The HND said that this amount of unsubstantiated accusations was shameful and dangerous and reflected a deep disturbance in society. It said that it would inform the European Federation of Journalists and other partners of this scandalous attack.