Today, the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) once again criticized the changes to the Criminal Code that would punish the publication of confidential information from investigations.
Hrvoje Zovko, the President of the National Democratic Party, called on the deputies ahead of the Parliament's decision on the controversial changes to reject the "law with dangerous intentions, which represents an attack on democratic foundations, the journalistic profession, public interest and whistleblowers".
Zovko said at a press conference in Zagreb that it is clear that deputies of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and "various tokens" will vote for the changes.
He said that journalists are "being blackmailed" since the ruling party recently elected judge Ivan Turudić as the new chief state prosecutor, a person who "despise journalists and the public interest".
According to him, Plenković brings changes to the law before the very dissolution of the Parliament and "cowardly subverts the law of dangerous intentions to the deputies, hiding behind the provisions on femicide".
"The intention of this law is to hide various embezzlements of public money, various forms of violence and thuggery that rules Croatian society," Zovko pointed out and assessed that Plenković's behavior is increasingly resembling the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban.
The contentious changes, due to which journalists protested in front of the Government and Parliament headquarters in Zagreb at the end of January, foresee the introduction of a new criminal offense of unauthorized disclosure of the content of an investigative or evidentiary action.
For this reason, an open letter was sent to the public yesterday, signed by the editors of 18 newsrooms, including the chief editors of Jutarnji list, Večernji list, 24sata, Slobodna Dalmacija and N1 television.
The letter states that the public must know that the introduction of such a legal solution is an attack on the journalistic profession and public interest, as well as an open attack on whistleblowers.
If such a law were currently in force, the public would be deprived of a series of affairs discovered by journalists, which the public must know about, the letter says.
Although the proposer, as they stated, as a guarantee to journalists that they will not be subjected to repression, inserted the public interest into the legal proposal as a reason for excluding illegality and excluded journalists as possible perpetrators, the HND warned of the fact that journalists' mobile phones will be confiscated , laptops and the archive contained in them and intercept their emails or search apartments.
The government's proposal is also strongly opposed by the president, Zoran Milanović, who assessed that it introduces state repression against anyone who publicly reveals the illegal activities of individuals from the government of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
He announced that he would pardon all Croatian citizens who would eventually find themselves under attack from that law, publicly called Leks AP (Andrej Plenković) due to the discovery of favoritism, crime and corruption in the government.
Almost all opposition political parties have already spoken out against the proposed changes, which mainly pointed out that the ruling party uses women as a living wall behind which they mock the restriction of journalistic freedoms due to the simultaneous vote on the introduction of the criminal offense of aggravated murder of a woman, i.e. femicide, and the unauthorized disclosure of the contents of an investigative or evidentiary actions.
The Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenković, repeatedly rejected all criticisms, evaluating them as manipulative.
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