The Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) considers the public labelling of journalists, questioning their professional integrity, and subjecting them to pressure because of their opinions and published work to be an unacceptable form of political pressure on the media and the freedom of journalism.
The CJA strongly condemns Facebook posts published by Member of Parliament and Most party president Nikola Grmoja, in which he attacks our colleague and CJA member Milena Zajović, a journalist with Večernji list, over her opinion column entitled “Grmoja Is Following the Path Paved by Putin and Strengthened by Orbán.” In the article, Zajović examines Grmoja’s conduct and his reaction to a performance staged at the International Street Wizards Festival in Istria.
The column was written in response to Grmoja’s earlier social media post, in which he stated, among other things:
“Scandalous footage is coming from Istria. As part of a street festival funded by the Tar-Vabriga Tourist Board, a performance promoted as family entertainment featured simulated sexual acts, artificial genitalia and various forms of content completely inappropriate for the children who attended and had been invited to the event. As a father and as the president of Most, I believe children have the right to be protected from sexually explicit material and LGBT content that is not appropriate for their age. That is why Most will propose legislative amendments to protect our children from precisely this kind of content.”
In her column, Zajović made it clear that she had not seen the performance herself, just as Grmoja had not, and that “neither of us can judge it on the basis of three short video clips.” She also argued that his political rhetoric “resembles something we have already seen in countries such as neighbouring Hungary.”
She further warned that the performance was being instrumentalised for political purposes and that the leader of Most was openly announcing legislative action targeting the LGBT community under the pretext of protecting children’s rights. She recalled that Vladimir Putin’s 2013 “law against LGBT propaganda” had been presented in exactly the same way, as a measure to protect children, while in practice it resulted in the banning of numerous forms of expression, from Disney films to political protests, and effectively erased an entire social group from public life under the threat of severe penalties.
It was precisely this article that prompted Grmoja to publish a photograph of Zajović together with the headline of her column on his Facebook profile, accompanied by a post in which he wrote, among other things:
“Activist Milena, who pretends to be an independent journalist at Večernji list, sees us in Most as the problem because we want to protect children from sick people. We are the problem because we exposed a scandalous performance that contains elements of a criminal offence and was attended by children. She has no problem with a performance that is unsuitable not only for children but even for adults, despite being advertised as a family event. She did not write a single word about the performance, she even justifies it and claims she cannot judge it based on video recordings, while at the same time she judges me based on video recordings of my statements. I am glad that the ‘beasts’ leave their mark so that people can see the kind of individuals we have in the media.”
We also draw attention to the fact that, over the same issue, our colleague and member of the CJA Istria Branch, Nevena Trgovčić, became the target of numerous abusive comments on social media because of an interview she conducted six months ago. Ivan Vidović, Most’s coordinator for Istria and a member of the Umag City Council, extracted selected excerpts from an old interview Trgovčić conducted in the KulturIstra podcast with Irena Boljunčić, one of the festival organisers, and republished them on social media as what he described as evidence of an agenda that, in his view, should be opposed.
That alone was enough to trigger an online campaign against both the podcast guest and our colleague, marked by numerous insulting comments and even threats posted beneath the Most councillor’s publication.
The Croatian Journalists’ Association considers the public labelling of journalists, questioning their professional integrity and exposing them to pressure because of their published opinions and reporting to be an unacceptable form of political pressure on the media and on the freedom of journalistic work.
Politicians, particularly those holding the highest public offices and actively participating in public life, must be prepared to accept criticism and public debate. Rather than attempting to discredit the authors of articles, they have a responsibility to respond with arguments and to respect journalists’ right to freely and independently comment on social and political developments.
The Croatian Journalists’ Association stands firmly behind our colleagues, offers them its full support, and strongly condemns all insults, threats and attempts to discredit them because of their professional work.
On behalf of the Executive Board of the Croatian Journalists’ Association
Hrvoje Zovko, President of the CJA
Chiara Bilić, Vice-President of the CJA
Dragutin Hedl, Vice-President of the CJA