Split Deputy Mayor Bojan Ivosevic verbally threatened an editor at the Slobodna Dalmacija daily, Nikolina Lulic, due to an article published in that paper on Tuesday about planting a tree in the city's Marjan Park after about 30 years, the Split-based daily said on Wednesday.

On the official Facebook page of the city of Split, Ivosevic wrote about reforestation efforts in the Marjan park forest, saying that such a project had not been organised before in his lifetime and that this was the first time a tree had been planted in Marjan in 30 years.

After the post was published, the local daily, Slobodna Dalmacija, ran an article detailing all the earlier, similar tree-planting efforts in the Marjan park forest, contradicting Ivosevic’s claims.

Ivosevic then called the editorial office and verbally attacked the editor of the city news section, Nikolina Lulic.

In a statement released in the afternoon, Slobodna Dalmacija said this was a completely unacceptable way of communicating and an unacceptable pressure on the newspaper and its staff.

The head of the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND), Hrvoje Zovko, told the Croatian state news agency Hina that such communication was unacceptable and that every official should be prepared to accept criticism.

He also said that there was a more appropriate way to respond to published articles and that one could write to the press council of honour or ask for a correction to be made.

Local politicians condemn verbal attack

The leader of Split branch of the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Vice Mihanovic, called on Mayor Ivica Puljak to apologise to Lulic and Slobodna Dalmacija for his deputy’s behaviour.

Ivosevic’s verbal threats to the editor were also strongly condemned by the local branch of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), as well as by independent councillor Ante Franic, who called on the deputy mayor to step down.

Ivosevic was not available for comment, nor was Mayor Ivica Puljak.

Police looking into the threat

The Split Police Department confirmed that they had launched an investigation after the media reported on Ivosevic’s threats to the editor of the city news section at Slobodna Dalmacija.