State television HRT "has turned into a political family business servicing the ruling HDZ party at the expense of all citizens," President Zoran Milanovic said on Thursday in response to unsigned critical statement from HRT directed at him after he had slammed HRT reporting in a photo-op event in Split.

Earlier on Thursday, HRT condemned Milanovic’s altercation with reporters which happened in Split, in which he went on a diatribe accusing HRT reporters of “cheating” and called them “a disgrace to the country.” Milanovic’s reaction on Facebook followed soon after, state agency Hina reported.

“The concerned management of HRT, scared of my words, spoke up, because they see me as a direct threat and, as they say, a figure who from a position of power attacks media freedoms and editorial policy of the public media service,” Milanovic said.

Milanovic asked rhetorically what power does he really have other than to speak publicly about this, and went on to point out that “HRT has become a political family business that services the HDZ and (Prime Minister, Andrej) Plenkovic at the expense of all citizens.”

“This is not power (speaking), this is the truth, a word HRT’s yes-men regularly throw out of their programming in line with the editorial policy set by their headquarters. And they dare speak about journalistic freedoms, the ‘directors’ who did not sign their statement, and who take their own reporters to court after they have either made the good ones leave to work for the competition, or have silenced them,” Milanovic said in his Facebook post.