Croatian journalists raise concerns over proposed media law (Feature)

By Boris Babic Jan 25, 2011, 10:58 GMT

Zagreb - Proposed changes to Croatia's criminal code that would impose severe penalties for libel and make it easier for plaintiffs to claim damages have prompted criticism by local journalists, who see the revisions as a setback for press freedom.

At the heart of the controversy are sections of the draft penal code - now being discussed by a government working committee - that would introduce steep fines and prison sentences for those found guilty of libel. The truthfulness of a report would not be a defence.

'The proposal is scandalous,' Zdenko Duka, the president of the Croatian Journalists' League, told the German Press Agency dpa.

While the government defends the changes as similar to legislation elsewhere in Europe, critics say they could stifle journalists in a region that only recently emerged from one-party rule.

The proposed new regulations come after an equally controversial media law took effect in Hungary in January. That law established a regulatory body that would determine whether news reports are 'balanced' and respect 'human dignity.'

Details of the proposed new press rules in Croatia were unveiled last week when they were presented for public debate.

Under the changes, Duka said, a journalist could face imprisonment of up to a year and a fine of half of his or her annual wage. Such penalties could be imposed 'even if (the journalist) reports a gossip item that turns out to be true but is not of public interest,' he said.

Bad though the new legislation may be, it merely confirms what one parliamentarian sees as the already sorry state of Croatian journalism.

'We are not going where Hungary is going. We arrived there a long time ago,' said Damir Kajin, a member of the opposition party, Istrian Democratic Assembly.

When Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, the Communist tradition of media control was replaced by the nationalist orthodoxy of Franjo Tudjman's authoritarian regime. Such a legacy has not been conducive to the development of strong, independent journalism.

'Journalists have already been self-censoring for fear of political pressure,' Kajin said.

Tomislav Klauski, a newspaper columnist and journalism professor, charged that the law is a pre-emptive strike by Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor to strengthen the position of her Croatian Democratic Union in the run-up to parliamentary elections later this year.

The authorities shrug off the criticism, saying that the draft changes have not been finalized. Journalists' concerns are overblown, Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjaovic said.

'Reporters should not fear prison ... that never was and will not become practice,' she recently told the daily Vijesnik.

Read more about Croatia Media

Read more about Politics