“This is the price that Hrvoje is paying for the public protests of the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) in front of the windows of the AP’s government and against Lex AP, public statements, and the fight for media freedom,” said Drago Hedl, one of Croatia’s most respected journalists and vice president of the CJA, to our portal regarding the ruling of the Constitutional Court, which dismissed the constitutional complaint filed by Hrvoje Zovko, represented by lawyer Vanja Jurić, challenging the Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned previous court decisions, which had ruled that Zovko’s dismissal from HRT was illegal.
In his statement, Hedl emphasized that the CJA and all journalists must stand firmly with Zovko. “We must not allow them to break us or him, although he is paying a very high price for all this, feeling it deeply. The speed with which the Constitutional Court made its decision is fascinating; for their usual pace, this is light speed,” said Hedl, offering absolute support to the CJA president in his fight against injustice.
“The task of the Constitutional Court is to protect the fundamental rights of citizens, which include constitutional rights to work and a fair trial. In this case, the Constitutional Court did not fulfill that task, as it did not provide Hrvoje Zovko with protection against the arbitrary and irregular decision of the Supreme Court,” emphasizes Hrvoje Zovko’s lawyer, Vanja Jurić, in a statement for index.hr.
As lawyer Jurić points out, this decision is undoubtedly inconsistent with the facts established by the municipal and then the county court during the proceedings. Additionally, lawyer Jurić believes that the decision is not in line with previous rulings of the Supreme Court and provisions of the Labor Law.
“Such decisions, unfortunately, contribute to legal uncertainty and further erode citizens’ trust in the system,” concludes lawyer Jurić.
We remind you that lower courts established that the decision of Croatian Radiotelevision in 2018 regarding the extraordinary termination of the employment contract of Hrvoje Zovko, president of the CJA and then executive editor of HTV 4, was illegal, and the dismissal was impermissible. The Supreme Court ruled that the dismissal decision was justified.
On September 12 of this year, the Constitutional Court, composed of Ingrid Antičević Marinović, Mato Arlović, Snježana Bagić, Davorin Mlakar, Rajko Mlinarić, and Miroslav Šumanović, made the decision to dismiss the appeal, or request for a review of the procedure.
Ivica Buljan