07.05.2025

Co-financed by the Croatian public body Council for National Minorities as part of the Programme for Cultural Autonomy of Minorities, Novosti recently had its 2025 budget decreased by 35 percent compared to last year, despite an increase of the Council’s annual budget of 13.3%.  

The decision appears to have been politically motivated and driven by demands made by the far-right government coalition partner, Homeland Movement, which included in its election manifesto a pledge to defund the magazine over its writing about the state.

The President of the Council for National Minorities said the reason for the cuts was Novosti’s “previous influence on political developments in the Republic of Croatia,” despite the Council’s budget being “strictly” allocated to the weekly for informative content on “cultural autonomy.” However, as stated by the Novosti editor-in-chief Andrea Radak, the magazine’s editorial position has remained unchanged for years, indicating ulterior motives for the sudden funding cut.

The MFRR expresses serious concern over the blatant politicisation within the Council for National Minorities’ decision-making processes. This is particularly concerning due to the fact that Novosti is the sole national minority media outlet to experience a funding cut this year.

By cutting Novosti’s funding, the Council for National Minorities is not only failing in its constitutional duty to protect minority rights, but is also jeopardising the sustainability of critical journalism. The move directly erodes media pluralism and goes against the MFRR’s recommendations made following its online fact-finding mission to Croatia, which called for constitutional safeguards for the funding and independence of minority media to counter political pressure and ensure a diverse media landscape.  

The MFRR consortium today calls on the Council for National Minorities to re-evaluate the significant budget reduction for Novosti and to guarantee the independence of its decision-making processes free from all political agendas. The MFRR also calls on the Council to transparently justify its ‘cultural autonomy’ criterion for awarding grants, which suggests the exclusion of a weekly publication from public interest reporting, allegedly due to potential political influence.

The MFRR will continue to advocate for media pluralism and for stronger protection against political pressure, in an upcoming fact-finding mission from 19-21 May in Zagreb. Meetings with various stakeholders, including Croatian government ministries, media organisations, journalists’ associations, academics, and civil society groups, will allow for in-depth recommendations to remedy the state of press freedom, including stronger protection of media serving national minority communities.

This statement was coordinated by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries.

On 4 December 2024, journalist Dario Topić was physically attacked in Osijek while investigating the City of Osijek’s refusal to renew Elektromodul’s parking concession license after 26 years. Invited by the co-owner and director of Elektromodul,  Damir Taslidžić, on the pretext of providing him with information about alleged fraud in concession awards, Topić found himself the target of a trap. As reported by the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND), as soon as Topić entered the premises, Taslidžić beat him to the head and body, after pushing him out of the company premises. Injured, Topić sought medical attention at the Osijek Clinical Hospital Center after reporting the attack to the police and the prosecutor’s office. 

Taslidžić was detained on 7 December by the 1st Police Station Osijek with the Čepin branch office for the criminal offense of “Coercion against a person performing tasks of public interest or in public service”. 

The Consortium welcomes the opening of a criminal investigation under the Protocol on Police Conduct Upon Learning of a Criminal Offence Committed against Journalists and Other Media Workers in the Performance of Their Work. 

While challenges in fully implementing governmental safety protocols signed by the Ministry of the Interior with the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND), and the Trade Union of Croatian Journalists (TUCJ) were highlighted during the MFRR’s fact-finding mission to Croatia, this swift police action is a promising step. It demonstrates the goodwill of the competent authorities to strengthen the protection of journalists, with attackers being held commensurately accountable with the seriousness of their crimes.

On 10 December, the SafeJournalists Network was informed that the Osijek State Attorney’s Office released Taslidžić from pre-trial detention. He was ordered to stay 100 meters away from the journalist and not to have any direct or indirect contact with him or otherwise, he would be remanded. 

“We welcome the efforts of the police and the imposition of distancing measures on the attacker, who was released from pre-trial detention by the decision of the State Attorney’s Office in Osijek. We also expect that charges will be filed against the attacker,” said HND president Hrvoje Zovko to the MFRR consortium.

The MFRR urges the authorities to complete a thorough and effective investigation of the attack and bring the perpetrator to justice without delay in accordance with the Croatian Penal Code. The MFRR stands by journalists investigating matters of public interest and will continue to support them in the face of attacks and threats. No journalist should ever be silenced or harmed for investigating matters of public interest. 

This statement was coordinated by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States, Candidate Countries and Ukraine.

On 15 July 2024, journalist Melita Vrsaljko and a freelance camera operator were working on a documentary co-produced by the Climate Portal, which focused on climate change and waste. While on assignment, they were attacked by an elderly man after passing near his land, which Vrsaljko said had become an emerging illegal waste dump in Nadin. According to the journalist, the man suddenly ran towards them, first threatening the camera operator to damage his camera. The operator reportedly had his camera switched off and was not filming at the time.

Vrsaljko, who had identified herself as a journalist, was physically assaulted by the man, who reportedly grabbed her arm and snatched her mobile phone. In self-defence, the journalist reported she had no choice but to kick him to free herself and call the police. Police officers of the Benkovac-Obrovac Police Station intervened on site and considered the incident as a misdemeanor against Public Order and Peace (no criminal offence established) with both the journalist and the attacker equally guilty. The police issued an order for both to stay at least 50 meters away from each other. Vrsaljko stated on her social media that the man attacked her first, based on a short video of him running towards her, which she later published.

The following day, Vrsaljko was subjected to a second physical attack, this time in her home. The assailant was the initial attacker’s daughter, Iva Perić, a 36-year-old woman who had been harassing Vrsaljko throughout the day with numerous phone calls and messages, demanding that she delete the footage of her father. Despite Vrsaljko’s assurances that she had no intention of writing about the attack, Perić continued harassing her, and the altercation escalated into a physical assault, which left the journalist injured.

“Three hours after her last message, Iva Perić knocked on my door. Thinking it was my mother, I opened the door. After snatching my mobile phone and threatening to delete the footage of her father, she pulled my hair and strangled me,” Vrsaljko told the MFRR partners. “I was forced to bite her hand until it bled to push her away, grab my phone back and call the police,” the journalist added. The Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) said that police authorities,  whom the journalist called immediately after the incident, failed to recognise her journalistic work as the motive behind the attack, declaring once again the aggression as a misdemeanor.

Vrsaljko sustained bruises and scars from the fight, as well as throat pain from the strangulation. According to her lawyer, the journalist will file a criminal complaint for both attacks she was a victim of with the Zadar State Attorney’s Office.

Both attackers are related to Dario Vrsaljko, a councilor in the Zadar County Assembly. All three are distant relatives of the attacked journalist. Despite sharing the same surname, the journalist says she had no personal contact with them and was targeted only for her work.

“For years, Faktograf – Association for the Informed Public, has endured violent threats. Our journalists have been repeatedly subjected to harassment and attacks, yet this physical assault on Melita Vrsaljko in her own home marks an unprecedented and appalling escalation of violence,” Faktograf declared on its news portal.

Croatian journalists are not often subjected to physical attacks, in comparison to some other EU member states and candidate countries. Since 1 January 2023, only two physical attacks have been recorded on the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) platform. The attack on Melita Vrsaljko is an alarming example of physical violence being used to intimidate and silence journalists. The undersigned organisations urge the authorities to treat this case with the seriousness it deserves. The MFRR joins the SafeJournalists Network in calling on the authorities to prosecute the perpetrators, who have been clearly identified.

This statement was coordinated by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and candidate countries.