Croatia 'Failing to Defend Journalists Against Threats'

Denis Romac, vice-president of the Croatian Journalists' Association, told BIRN that the attack on journalist Hrvoje Bajlo on Sunday evening in Zadar was a consequence of state institutions not reacting properly to a recent alleged threat to another reporter by a government minister.

Journalist Hrvoje Bajlo, the owner of the Zadar News portal and correspondent for national website Index.hr and the Nacional weekly, was attacked on Sunday evening in Zadar and suffered severe physical injuries.

The assault happened three weeks after Croatian Veterans' Minister Tomo Medved allegedly threatened Vojislav Mazzocco, a journalist from Index.hr, during a telephone call on June 3.

Medved denied the allegation that he threatened to fight Mazzocco after the journalist published an article about the minister's son getting a job in a state-owned company with connections to the ministry.

Romac said that officials had failed to condemn the incident, creating a climate of impunity.

"It encourages and creates an atmosphere of fear and violence, and in that kind of atmosphere, the thing that has happened in Zadar becomes possible," he said.

Romac said that such violence can only be stopped if senior officials condemn it unambiguously and the authorities sanction the perpetrators.

Before he was attacked, Bajlo had been documenting links between Zadar's political, business, sports and legal spheres.

His latest article for Zadar News was about property owned by Zdravko Livakovic, the former state secretary at the Ministry of Sea, Traffic and Infrastructure.

Livakovic has been charged alongside former Minister of Sea, Traffic and Infrastructure Bozidar Kalmeta with illegally extracting more than 15 million kunas (over two...