Deterioration of media freedom in Croatia

Croatian journalists voice concern over the increasing pressure they face while carrying out their work, encompassing both verbal and physical attacks. Moreover, several reports, including follow-ups by international monitoring visits, have driven attention to the negative impact of criminal defamation and impunity for crimes against journalism, while also warning against government interference in the public broadcaster activities.

Moreover measures such as the removal of over 70 employees from the public radio-television, the questioning of the national broadcast regulator and the abolition of funding for non-profit media all have contributed to seriously curtail journalism fundamental role in providing unbiased, plural information for citizens to be able to adopt informed decisions about public life.

This infographic presents and elaborates some of the aspects raised by different organizations working to support media freedom: among the sources included, ECPMF report Croatia: Media Freedom in Turbulent Times  based on June 2016 Joint International Mission to Croatia; the report by Nils Muižnieks, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe following his visit to Croatia  in 2016; Mappingmediafreedom  monitoring activities and the observation presented by the Croatian Journalists' Association. Detailed background information is available in the Media Pluralism in Croatia  published by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom.