(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed shock after a court in Split, southern Croatia, sentenced state television and radio journalist Ljubica Letinic to a two-month suspended prison term for defamation of Jozo Parcina, a local businessman. Letinic, who is also an RSF correspondent, had accused Parcina of corruption during a talk show that aired on the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed shock after a court in Split, southern Croatia, sentenced state television and radio journalist Ljubica Letinic to a two-month suspended prison term for defamation of Jozo Parcina, a local businessman.
Letinic, who is also an RSF correspondent, had accused Parcina of corruption during a talk show that aired on the main television station on 18 March 2002. Her case will now go before the Split Appeals Court.
RSF said the sentence conflicted with United Nations and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe recommendations that press offences not be punishable by prison sentences. “As Croatia became an official candidate for European Union membership last month, this sentence goes against all progress in press freedom in the past few years,” the organisation said.
In its 2004 annual report, RSF highlighted the fact that Croatia had carried out major but often controversial legislative reform of the media, with a view toward European integration. The country’s defamation law remains out of line with European and international standards.
The last prison sentence for a press offence was given to Ivo Pukanic on 23 December 2002. The former editor-in-chief of the weekly “Nacional” received a suspended two-month sentence for threatening Ivic Pasalic, a former political advisor to late president Franjo Tudjman.
