In the parliamentary session on Wednesday, the government representatives rejected all opposition amendments that were directed against the introduction of a criminal offence of unauthorised disclosure of information from investigations. The opposition claims that this criminal offence is intended to silence whistleblowers.

“The only thing that has changed between the two readings of the bill is that you are targeting whistleblowers and not journalists. You want to put every person who tries to draw attention to irregularities in corruption investigations in prison for three years,” said MP Sanja Radolovic from the opposition party SDP.

In their amendments, several opposition parties called for the repeal of Article 307(a) of the Criminal Code, which introduces the criminal offence of unauthorised disclosure of information from investigations.

Vedrana Simundza-Nikolic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, reiterated that the Criminal Code would be amended to harmonise it with the legislation of most EU countries, some of which have even stricter laws, she added.

“This article is an attack on the public interest and media freedom, without which the cornerstones of democracy are threatened,” said Domagoj Hajdukovic of the opposition SDP party.

“The reason for introducing this criminal offence is not to restrict media freedom or suppress the media. The aim is to protect the earliest phase of criminal proceedings, the presumption of innocence and the right to privacy,” said Simundza-Nikolic.

“The provision that there is no criminal offence if the information published is in the public interest protects whistleblowers, both formal and informal,” the state secretary added.