1999 IHF-HR COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS
International Helsinki Federation Human Right Reports
- extracts on Media situation
Croatia
Parliamentary Elections
On 3 January 2000, some 3.85 million Croatian went to the polls to elect a
new parliament. The main Croatian opposition coalition won in nine out of ten
districts. The Social Democratic Social Liberal coalition won 71 seats, while
an allied coalition of four smaller centrist parties received 24 seats. The HDZ,
which had governed Croatia since 1990, won only 40 seats. International monitors
reported no serious irregularities.
Role of the Media
Since past elections in Tudjman’s Croatia were generally considered «free
but not fair,» the Croatian Helsinki Committee (CHC) established «Voice 99,»
a coalition of 140 human rights NGOs to monitor elections, and particularly
media activity and elections. The first phase of the project was carried out
during the time when the exact date of the forthcoming elections was not known
(4-14 October 1999). Not only media coverage of political parties and
representatives of the government, but for the first time, media coverage of
NGOs’ activities to promote civil society and their access to the media were
analyzed.
The research concluded that the Tudjman-led HDZ and its government
representatives had dominated coverage in the print media and in broadcast
media. The analysis showed that the Croatian TV was still highly dependent on
the ruling party, and that the media had little interest in NGOs except for the
Catholic Church.
The initial research identified a new strategy introduced by the ruling party
in an attempt to keep control over the most influential media, i.e. television.
As a response to the close scrutiny and supervision by domestic and
international monitors, the Editor-in-Chief of the Croatian television and HDZ
party member, Obrad Kosovac, suddenly extended TV broadcasting hours to
encompass a 24-hour broadcasting program on all three TV channels. That was
surprising move considering the supposed chronic «lack of money» that as often
used as a pretext in order not to fund the preparation of better programs. Most
airtime was taken up with cheap entertainment programs, while it became clear
that the changes enabled the ruling party to further promote its political
interests.
The government-controlled television used the occasion of the death of
President Tudjman to arouse nationalistic sentiments and gain potential voters
for the increasingly unpopular HDZ. Tudjman’s long hospitalization after which
his death was declared on 11 December to the nation, was instrumentalized by the
HTV to the benefit of the HDZ, involving three days of national mourning and
broadcasting Tudjman’s funeral live as the biggest media spectacle of the year.
On 14 December, only a day after Tudjman’s funeral, the election campaign
began. It lasted until the election day on 3 January 2000. The CHC extended the
monitoring of the media coverage showing that the ruling HDZ predominated in
coverage by all three media (television, radio and print media).
During the period monitored, the majority of advertisements broadcast by
Croatian television concerned a movie directed by Jakov Sedlar called «Four
Rows.» The film dealt with the suffering of Croat patriots in Bleiburg in 1945,
an event for which the ruling HDZ had accused Tito’s partisans and communists,
passing on the blame to the current Social Democratic Party (former communist),
the strongest opposition party in Croatia.
The research indicated that the ruling party used its influence over Croatian
TV to promote its values and understanding of history to the voters on all TV
channels during the sensitive period just before the elections. Other examples
of controversial programming included a documentary serial titled, «Croatia in
the 20th Century,» which included testimony by former political prisoners in
which they accused the former communist regime. Meanwhile, the public criticism
towards the Croatian TV following the broadcast of the film «Four Rows» forced
the HTV to give up on broadcasting a sequel to the film during the election
campaign.
The government-controlled media (dailies such as Vecernji list and Vjesnik,
and especially HTV) led a series of attacks against NGOs involved in the
election monitoring project. Croatian TV accused the CHC and VOICE’99 of the
illegal use of financial support received from abroad for political purposes.
The report aimed at stigmatizing the CHC as mercenary organization working
against the interests of the Croatian state.
The CHC filed a constitutional complaint against Croatian TV not only for the
above-mentioned report but also for banning the broadcast of two video clips by
VOICE’99 because they would allegedly influence voters unfairly. The CHC
argued that there was no law providing for NGOs and civil society associations
to be prevented from expressing their political opinion freely (on public
television), regardless of the political content of the opinion or possible
impact it could have on voting results. The Constitutional Court accepted the
CHC’s argument.
Freedom of the Media
The CHC’s continued monitoring of media freedom revealed that pressure
against the independent media increased in this pre-electoral year. All public
criticism against the ruling party and President Tudjman was systematically
proscribed by the highest state authorities. All available means were used to
control the independent media. Court proceedings against journalists and
publishers increased up to one thousand (CHC Media department collected a record
of 1,047 cases); exorbitant compensation claims for having caused «emotional
anguish»; covert surveillance of journalists, with details held in police files;
political and economic pressures; and in some cases, physical attacks on
journalists.
Noting the HDZ’s record regarding media in recent years, the CHC considered
the moves an indication that the ruling party wanted to take absolute control
over media activity in Croatia, fearing a loss of support in forthcoming
elections.
Intimidation
Until 1999, the authoritarian regime of Franjo Tudjman held one advantage
over the previous regime: it did not resort to the imprisonment of political
opponents. During a plenary session in late June, however, Tudjman announced a
broad campaign against «internal enemies». These included NGOs, including the
Croatian Helsinki Committee (accused of being «Soros mercenaries» and U.S.
spies); opposition and trade union leaders; and journalists. The government
embarked upon a repressive campaign to arrest dissenting voices.
§ The interrogation and mistreatment of Ivo Pukanic, chief editor of the
weekly magazine Nacional, marked a clear shift in the nature of repression by
the Tudjman regime. Pukanic’s arrest coincided with a HDZ plenary session, and
was believed to relate to his magazine obtaining secret service documents reveal
the repressive nature of the Croatian regime. The CHC claimed that the in the
democratic setting, secret service should be the first to be called to account
when classified documents were released, and not the media outlets that had
published the information.
The CHC on several occasions warned that the incompetence and slowness of
police investigations into the violence against dissenting journalists and
political opponents was encouraging further violence. The assailants who had
severely beaten the chief editor of the daily Karlovacki list, Nenad Hlaca, at
the end of 1997, had still not been apprehended by the end of 1999. The same was
the case with the attackers who bombed the daily weekly Imperial editorial
office in Zagreb in 1998.
Numerous new cases of violence against journalists were reported, including,
as a rule, verbal or physical assault, or attempted murder.
- Robert Frank, a journalist working for Novi List (Rijeka) was kidnapped
and physically ill-treated. The writer’s hand was apparently
symbolically - repeatedly hit with a stone and injured. Frank was
hospitalized for a couple of months and had to undergo several operations.
The case was not solved as of this writing. It was deemed politically
motivated because Novi List was a known of HDZ policy in Bosnia and
Herzegowina.
- The former boss of the intelligence service threatened journalist Zeljko
Peratovic of the weekly Globus with a pistol.
- Journalist Zeljko Peratovic was physical assaulted by a member of the
so-called Mercep Unit, Munib Suljic. The attacker was charged with
misdemeanour and fined.
- A member of the Mercep Uunit threated the former Editor-in-Chief of
Globus, Djurdjica Klancir, that he will "saw her through with a saw."
No judicicail proceedings were initiated.
- An assassination attempt ws carried out against Globus journalist Antun
Masle, presumably in connection to his articles on crime. The journalist
suffered a a bullet wound in his arm; the perpetrator was not found.
Libel Charges
Libel charges for damages required in criminal proceedings for alleged insult,
slander or libel by journalist was another form of pressure against journalists
of independent weeklies. This sophisticated form of pressure was used
particularly by private plaintiffs in high-raking offices of the ruling party,
mainly represented by the same lawyer. Prosecutors would take a number of
sentences out of an article and context and use them as evidence to prove that a
criminal offence had been perpetrated or that the defendant had suffered damages.
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