A high-level local politician in Otok, Croatia was arrested on Monday 23 September 2024 morning as part of a joint police and the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (Ured za suzbijanje korupcije i organiziranog kriminaliteta – USKOK – https://uskok.hr/en) operation. During the ongoing investigation, journalists covering the story faced verbal attacks from several men, who were eventually removed by the police, according to reports from daily news outlets.
The police in the Vukovar-Srijem County without revealing the identity, announced that in coordination with USKOK, they are conducting a criminal investigation in the Slavonia region in Croatia involving a suspect accused of committing an offense against official duty.
Journalists who were observing the police as they extracted evidence from the City Administration building, located near the residence of this politician, were allegedly verbally assaulted by a group of men. These men were quickly moved away by police.
Eyewitnesses reported that the attackers hurled offensive comments. The police issued several warnings to the men to leave the area, and when one of them continued to mumble, an officer stood in front of him, firmly instructing him to depart.
One of the men who caused trouble was eventually removed by the police when a person began discussing issues related to this politican with the journalists. Shortly afterward, the police collected information about one of the individuals who allegedly verbally attacked the reporters. He is expected to be detained, questioned, and formally charged.
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemns the alleged verbal attacks on journalists who were covering the arrest of the politician during the recent police and USKOK operation in Croatia. Such acts of intimidation against media professionals are unacceptable and pose a direct threat to press freedom. SEEMO welcomes the quick reaction of the Croatian police and urges the authorities to take all necessary legal actions against those responsible and to ensure the safety of journalists carrying out their work. SEEMO will be closely monitoring this situation to ensure that the rights and safety of journalists are protected.
South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is a regional non-governmental, non profit network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in Southeast, South, East and Central Europe. SEEMO members are in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova (with the territory of Transdnestria), Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye / Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Austria, Italy, Vatican and San Marino have a special status in SEEMO. SEEMO has over 3000 individual members, and additional media as corporate members.
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