Croatian Police Investigate Threats to Columnist Over Vukovar Column

Croatian police say they are investigating death threats made to Boris Dezulovic, a well-known Croatian journalist and columnist, over a column he published recently deriding the official cult surrounding Vukovar - the eastern town besieged and occupied by Serbs in the war of independence - whose provocative title has raised hackles.

Five days after "Fuck Vukovar" ("Jebo vas Vukovar") was published, on November 7 the columnist published another article called "Who's the Killer?" ("Tko je ubojica?") listing the various threats he had received about it on social media, framing it as on open letter to Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic.

The police are now looking at the threats, the ministry reported, saying an investigation was underway.

After war veterans' associations and the Veterans' Ministry condemned the article, Dezulovic received numerous serious threats through social media.

The Croatian Writers Society, HDP, and the Croatian Journalists' Association, HND, in turn condemned the threats against and official criticism of Dežulović.

"It is especially worrying that public condemnations of the journalist were made by the Ministry of Croatian Veterans, institutionalising the lynching of the journalist," the HND wrote.

"It is perfectly clear to anyone who read the article from the beginning to the end that the author's intent was only to criticize the relationship of the state and local government towards Vukovar, in which various political actors have been carefully embalming the city in order to keep it in a state which best suits their political interest," the HND wrote, calling on state institutions to protect Dezulovic from any threats or persecution.

Talking about his article at regional media outlet N1,...