"Yesterday, the ruling HDZ party posted on Facebook a statement attacking N1 and our reporter Hrvoje Kresic," N1 television's news director, Tihomir Ladisic, told viewers in his morning show on Wednesday.

Ladisic pointed out that in their Facebook post, they did not mention Kresic by name, and referred to him as merely “a journalist.”

“(That’s what it looks like) when a reporter reveals that he is in fact an activist with a bias who got it into his head that he has been elected, and with arrogance – as if he is a member of the opposition – dotes the Prime Minister to come to get a student job at N1 – a production company with an address in Luxembourg! The Prime Minister did not leave the news conference – he is available to the media on a daily basis – nor did he start a war on media. It is his right to politically reply to an analyst who is a declared and professed leftist (Zoran Lalic) and to a journalist who instead of professionalism shows arrogance and obvious bias,” HDZ posted in an unsigned statement on their official Facebook profile.

The post was referring a heated exchange from a news conference earlier on Tuesday, in which Kresic told Plenkovic that “if he wanted to edit the media, he should apply for an open position at N1 which is available to students only,” but that “once you get in, one can climb the ladder quickly.” Kresic’s remark came after Plenkovic had blamed the media for his party’s failure in local elections in Zagreb, held on Sunday, and accused several local television channels of bias..

Plenkovic responded to Kresic by using a soccer metaphor, telling Kresic that he was “going deep into offside position” by making that remark.

“I have to say, you have all become a bit too arrogant. The way you seem to think that you can come here and lecture me and posture like this – saying how I should go work as a student for a production company from Luxembourg – well feel free to stick that to a wall somewhere at your home and stare at it,” Plenkovic told Kresic.

‘It is our duty to reply to these attacks’

On Wednesday, Ladisic, who holds the position of news director at N1 television in Zagreb, decided to add to the discussion.

“It is our duty to reply to these attacks,” Ladisic announced in a monologue.

“N1 television’s programming, as is the case with all free and independent media, is shaped by its editors. It is not shaped by governments, party statements, or political heavyweights. The statement from HDZ is a political statement we have no intention of dealing or discussing with. However, as the statement wants to target the media and our journalist, it deserves a journalistic reply,” Ladisic told the camera.

“HDZ’s statement is forgetting the basics: About whom is it trying to write? The reporter’s name is Hrvoje. Hrvoje Kresic,” Ladisic explained to viewers.

“Journalists don’t get elected, they report on elections and analyze them in the public’s interest. Arrogance is not an exclusive trait of political opposition, but, occasionally, of all political options, whether in power or not,” Ladisic said.

“N1 is a news channel which broadcasts its program in several countries, it is registered at an address in Luxembourg, it’s an exclusive partner of CNN. N1 journalists are employed in Croatia, where they get their salaries and pay their taxes. N1 reporters ask questions – and will continue asking questions – in the public’s interest, and in the interest of its viewers and readers,” Ladisic elaborated.

“Hrvoje Kresic is a long-time journalist and reporter, winner of multiple awards for his uncompromising and professional work. N1 hereby rejects all the political accusations and motives mentioned in HDZ’s Facebook post, and extends full support to all colleagues, journalists, working in independent and free media,” Ladisic told viewers.