The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the SafeJournalists network strongly condemned the threats against the journalist and editor-in-chief of the Morski.hr portal and called on the authorities to ensure justice by identifying and prosecuting the perpetrators.
On 1 September 2024, the Morski.hr portal reported that after a business meeting in which the Croatian Association of Private Shippers negotiated an arrangement with the Public Relations agency of Ankica Mamić, a message appeared in the WhatsApp group “Shippers in the Adriatic” calling for the kidnapping of the editor of the portal, Jurica Gašpar, due to his critical reporting on their activities, including alleged violations of maritime regulations.
The shippers met with the PR expert, who is said to have close ties to politicians, to promote them in certain media and, in the meantime to “marginalize” Morski.hr and its “negative coverage”. A thirty-minute audio recording of the meeting was published along with an article on Morski.hr portal.
A few hours after the meeting, threats against editor-in-chief Gašpar spread within the internal WhatsApp group, in which at least ten people agreed to collect money for someone to kidnap him “in a truck” and then “take him by ferry to Brač and leave him naked on Vidova Gora.” The head of the shipping association condemned the threats, and Gašpar reported everything to the Zagreb police.
Gašpar told the EFJ that although he had received threats from shipping companies for his critical reporting, this was the first time he had been threatened with kidnapping. On 4 September, Gašpar was targeted with new threats of physical violence, including death threats on the Morski.hr portal’s WhatsApp number and, in the comments of a Facebook post, with perpetrators easily identified by their names.
We urge the authorities to investigate and prosecute the threats with the seriousness it deserves, especially as physical violence is rare in Croatia.
The recording, which reveals that a public expert intends to use his relationship with the Minister of Tourism and the Deputy Prime Minister (who denied knowing the expert) to promote a more favorable image of shipping while “marginalising” the portal, is also worrying for press freedom. According to the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA), this incident echoes years of “warnings about the creation of public relations agencies whose aim is to create content in cooperation with various ministries and authorities” to serve their private interests in the media landscape to the detriment of the journalists. Journalism is a public good. Neither PR agencies nor public officials should misuse and abuse their scope of mandate to discredit and silence journalists and media outlets for their critical reporting.
Since January 2024, Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) recorded 16 alerts involving 20 media-related individuals or entities. The majority of attacks are verbal abuse, half of which is instigated by senior officials, and online threats. The persistence of attacks against fact-checkers and journalists such as Jurica Gašpar prompted the MFRR partners to organize an international mission that will take place online between 9 and 20 September 2024.
Signed by
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Safe Journalists Network
Association of Journalists of Kosovo
Association of Journalists of Macedonia
BH Journalists Association
Croatian Journalists’ Association
Independent Journalists Association of Serbia
Trade Union of Media of Montenegro