Vienna, 07/12/2017
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) expressed criticism after it was revealed that Andrej Plenkovic (Andrej Plenković), the current Croatian Prime Minister, verbally attacked a journalist.
Yesterday, 6 December, the PM was presented with a question by a journalist of the N1 TV station regarding his changing opinion about the recent sentencing of war criminals in The Hague. Although the PM stated that the sentences were “unacceptable” a few days ago, this time when asked for his opinion Plenkovic began accusing the journalist of “twisting facts” and suggested that she was involved in “hybrid works” against him.
The PM has recently been involved in a slew of accusations and verbal conflicts with members of the media, which SEEMO criticizes and sees as outright disrespect shown by a high public and political figure towards freedom of speech and thought. The Prime Minister of a country must not behave arrogantly towards members of the media nor accuse them of inner workings against them or the government. SEEMO calls on Andrej Plenkovic to issue a public apology to all journalists he has recently exhibited this behavior towards.
SEEMO is a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South, East and Central Europe and its press freedom work is supported by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) project, as part of a grant by the European Commission.