The Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) has not forgotten the tragic death of Vladimir Matijanić, a journalist for *Index.hr*, who passed away exactly two years ago. In these 730 days, no one has been held accountable for the death of the best journalist of his generation, who died after days of unsuccessfully seeking help from the medical staff at Split Clinical Hospital (KBC Split), while the emergency services refused to take him to the hospital. We do not forget how callously and shamefully Health Minister Vili Beroš and a phantom commission covered up Matijanić’s case, and how nothing has been done to punish those responsible.
The medically-assisted killing of our colleague Vladimir Matijanić was predictably covered up so that the main culprits would not bear any, not even political responsibility, and it’s pointless to speak of moral responsibility. This was done with the full support of the State Attorney’s Office (DORH), which, in a scandalous decision by the Split Municipal State Attorney’s Office last December, dismissed the criminal complaint against several individuals for the negligent treatment of Vladimir Matijanić.
Vladimir Matijanić suffered from Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease. He also contracted COVID. For four days, he sought help from Split doctors, and audio recordings of his heartbreaking pleas and the callous responses from hospital staff shocked the Croatian public. Not only was he not hospitalized, but he did not even receive an adequate medical examination.
On the day of his death, he called the Infectious Diseases Department in Split multiple times, listing all of his diagnoses and stating that he was too weak to take even a few steps. “Call us in five days if it doesn’t get better” and “urinate in a pot by the bed” were among the advice he received from medical staff.
Over the past two years, the Croatian Journalists’ Association has repeatedly – including through a protest at Markov Square in Zagreb – publicly condemned the disgraceful cover-up of the circumstances surrounding Matijanić’s death. Nearly 5,000 citizens supported the petition by signing it.
The HND will never accept the fact that there is no accountability for the horrific death of our colleague Matijanić. We will never forget, nor will we allow it to be forgotten.
For the Executive Board of the Croatian Journalists’ Association,
Hrvoje Zovko, President of CJA
Chiara Bilić, Vice President of CJA
Dragutin Hedl, Vice President of CJA