Culture minister, Zlatko Hasanbegovic. Photo: BETAPHOTO HINA Damir SENCAR DS

Journalists and editors will gather Tuesday at the headquarters of the Croatian Journalists’ Association, HND, to stage a protest walk toward the nearby building of the national culture ministry.

HND, which organised the protest, decided to mark World Press Freedom Day by staging a protest intended to focus attention on the institution they see as most responsible for the country’s problematic media scene.

The protest will serve as the introduction to a large conference where journalists from around the world will gather to discuss media freedom and fact-checking, with the strong support of the US embassy in Zagreb.

Croatia’s media situation has worsened since the new centre-right government took power in late January, due largely to the activities of Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic, who is responsible for the media sector.

Hasanbegovic managed to largely eliminate funding of non-profit media by dismissing the council for non-profit media in late January, announcing the money will go into book publishing.

Hasanbegovic also played a role in the resignation of Mirjana Rakic, head of Council for Electronic Media, a state regulatory body. Rakic resigned in March before her term ended in order to ease the pressure on her colleagues after Hasanbegovic said that there were irregularities in the council’s work.

Additionally, Hasanbegovic cut the ministry’s support to leftist media in April.

In March, the government majority in parliament removed Goran Radman, head the public Croatian Radio-Television organisation, HRT. Radman was replaced by acting head Sinisa Kovacic, who is in favour with Hasanbegovic and the government.

In less than two months, about 70 journalists, editors, directors, managers, cameramen and others have been removed from their positions or laid off from HRT, triggering accusations of political purges.

All of this has raised the attention of international journalist associations, the EU, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and foreign ambassadors.

The most recent negative evaluation of Croatia’s media situation came on Friday, when Nils Muiznieks, human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, ended his five-day visit to Croatia. He raised concerns about the reactions of authorities upon death and violence threats as well as physical assaults on journalists in Croatia.

“Journalists play the important role of a public watchdog in a democratic society, and their safety has to be ensured by all states. Impunity for crimes committed against journalists needs to be effectively addressed, and dissuasive penalties for such crimes have to be imposed,” he said. “Public discourse which justifies attacks against journalists is dangerous and detrimental to media freedoms and democracy.”

Muiznieks identified pluralism of public media, as well as the independence of media regulatory bodies, as “key elements for media pluralism and freedom of the media,” arguing that they should be preserved and protected.