(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is concerned about the harassment of the independent weekly newspaper “Nacional”, which recently published an article on government corruption. On 2 June 1999, “Nacional” printed a front page article, entitled “Nacional publishes authentic documents about how the soccer team ‘Croatia’ won the championship: Under Tudjman’s orders, SZUP fixed the result of the […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is concerned about the harassment of the independent weekly
newspaper “Nacional”, which recently published an article on government
corruption.
On 2 June 1999, “Nacional” printed a front page article, entitled “Nacional
publishes authentic documents about how the soccer team ‘Croatia’ won the
championship: Under Tudjman’s orders, SZUP fixed the result of the Croatian
soccer championship.” The article, written by Ivo Pukanic, editor-in-chief
of “Nacional” and Robert Bajrusi, a reporter, claimed that Croatia’s secret
service agency SZUP coerced referees to favor “Croatia” in national
competition. The article also alleged that SZUP wiretapped sports officials
and journalists. Facsimilies of allegedly authentic SZUP documents were
printed as well.
On 7 June, both Pukanic and Bajrusi were summoned to the police station and
questioned about the source of the article, which they did not reveal.
Shortly thereafter, the police searched the offices of Nacional, as well as
the homes of Pukanic and Bajrusi, in an apparent attempt to find classified
documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Their searches proved to be
fruitless. The following day, police also searched the home of Miroslav
Separovic, a former justice minister who resigned at the beginning of this
year. Pukanic, “Nacional”‘s editor, has denied that Separovic had any part
in his preparation of the article in question.
Most recently, the Ministry of Internal Affairs approached the Prosecutor
General’s Office with the request to launch criminal cases against Separovic
for revealing state secrets, and against Pukanic for publishing state
secrets. The Prosecutor General’s Office has yet to decide whether or not to
initiate proceedings against these two men.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the president:
reporter for practicing their profession
these
journalists to reveal their sources is a violation of their rights and the
threat of criminal prosecution represents a transparent attempt to use
legislation guarding state secrets to stifle criticism
scandalous
and embarrassing for his government, they in no way endanger state security
Declaration for Human Rights which embodies the freedom “to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers.”
efforts to silence independent media and there are currently about 100
criminal and civil libel suits pending against it
brought against him in connection with the 2 June article be immediately
dropped
Appeals To
His Excellency Franjo Tudjman
President of Croatia
Fax: 011-385-1-456-5208
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
