Law firm Grubisic & Lovic & Lalic, which represents Adria News, reacted on Monday to the statements by Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen-Korzinek given in an interview to public broadcaster HRT’s programme “Nedjeljom u 2” (Sunday at 2), which aired on Sunday, July 4.

Read the full statement below:

In an interview given by Minister Nina Obuljen-Korzinek for the programme which aired on July 4 on HRT1, a number of untruths were said, which harming the reputation of Adria News company and its director, Tihomir Ladisic.

By claiming that Tihomir Ladisic is, quote “one minute a director, one minute an editor-in-chief”, the Minister is baselessly insinuating that Adria News, whose director is Mr Tihomir Ladisic, is conducting business in a non-transparent, and therefore, illegal, manner. That Tihomir Ladisic has been director of Adria News since 2015 until today is a publicly verifiable fact available to everyone on the Croatian Court Business Register website.

Also, all information on the publisher and editor-in-chief is publicly available on all N1 websites. Therefore, information on publishing and functions of the editor-in-chief is available to all in line with the law. By baselessly alluding that Ladisic is performing one function one minute, and another function the next, the public is misled into believing that the person in charge of Adria News is performing their work illegally and playing around the legal regulations.

Furthermore, it is untrue that Tihomir Ladisic would, quote “claim that the state must do something for this frequency licence,” as well as that he is, quote “exerting enormous pressure” in the, quote “moment when the law is being amended” in order to, quote “amend it in a way that would benefit their owner who knew the rules when entering the Croatian market.”

It is completely false that Adria News, or Tihomir Ladisic as its director, would exert any kind of pressure, especially enormous pressure, towards bodies in charge of the media, or any other person or persons. It is true that Adria news submitted an expression of interest for launching a tender on granting new licences for Free-to-air (FTA) frequencies in April this year. This act can in no way be characterised as exerting pressure, but instead only as a justified call of an interested person to a competent body to act within legal authorisation.

Moreover, the Minister’s publicly stated claim that Adria News is acting in a desire to change the law in a way that would benefit their founder is untrue and malicious, considering that Adria News has never, in any way, gone into the conditions under which the tender should be launched.

In conclusion, the comparison that, quote “it’s something like these bags being carried around” in the moment when everyone connects this image with the recent arrest of the HRT director over suspicion he committed corrupt acts, constitutes a harsh violation of personality rights of not just Adria News and its representative, but also all its employees who fight with commitment and professionalism every day precisely so that corruption would be exposed and processed.

Adria News does its work properly and in line with the law. No legal action has ever been taken against it for corruption or anything else. By publicly making this comparison, alluding to recent arrests and equalising Adria News with the protagonists of this affair, the minister is bringing into question the professionalism, reputation, and expertise of all employees of Adria News. Therefore, it is clear that the Minister’s words present a harsh attack on the professional reputation of all employees of Adria News.

Consequently, considering that the reputation and expertise of Adria News employees and the company itself were harmed by the inappropriate rhetoric and above quoted statements by the Minister, we believe it would be appropriate for the Minister to offer a public apology to Adria News and all its employees.