On 8 May 2024, leader of one far-right political party in Croatia, announced that his party would only support a new government coalition led by conservative Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica – HDZ) Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenković if it ceased funding for the weekly Novosti (https://novosti.hr/).
Novosti, published by the Serbian National Council (Srpsko Narodno Vijeće – SNV – https://snv.hr/), represents the Serb minority in Croatia and is financed by the Council for National Minorities under the Programme for the Cultural Autonomy of Minorities.
He criticized Novosti’s editorial stance, allegedly accusing it of attacking the state’s foundation and using minority protection for political agendas.
The move sparked concern among journalists’ associations, with the Croatian Journalists’ Association (Hrvatsko Novinarsko Društvo – HND – https://hnd.hr/aktualno/vijesti) condemning it.
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), strongly condemns this initiative by one political party in Croatia. Novosti is a vital publication representing the Serb minority, but also a liberal voice. Such actions flagrantly violate principles of media freedom and minority rights. The attempt to silence dissenting voices is an affront to the fundamental values of a free and democratic society.
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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