The journalist must pay three thousand kuna for the lawsuit against Šuker

The court ruled that the Minister of Finance is allowed to withhold information about budget revenue, and the journalist must pay the same court fee three times. The Tax Administration decided to charge the journalist three and possibly more thousand kuna for daring to sue Ivan Šuker, the Minister of Finance, in court.

Šuker was sued for withholding information about public revenue from the state budget derived from the exploitation of natural gas from the Adriatic seabed and the extraction of domestic oil, specifically from mining and concession fees. Instead of a response, Šuker issued an illegal decision to withhold information with an incorrect instruction regarding legal remedies. The Administrative Court, headed by Ante Galić, dismissed the lawsuit due to Šuker’s illegal decision with the incorrect instruction regarding legal remedies and determined that (instead of Šuker) the journalist must pay one thousand kuna as a so-called court fee. The journalist did not back down but paid and continued the proceedings against Šuker. The Administrative Court then ruled that Minister Šuker is allowed to withhold information about public revenue from the state budget and determined that the journalist must
pay another thousand kuna as a so-called court fee.

Then, last week, Ana Molnar, the head of the Tax Administration branch in Zagreb, got involved in the collection of the so-called court fee. With her decision, Molnar threatens the journalist with forced collection ‘if he does not pay the thousand kuna fee within eight days’ because that fee is allegedly unpaid. However, the fee that is supposedly unpaid was duly paid from the journalist’s account at Zagrebačka banka on September 3, 2009. Interestingly, the Tax Administration is collecting the supposedly unpaid fee for the Administrative Court, thus closing the loop: the minister’s people decide on his accusers. It cannot be determined whether Minister Šuker asked Ana Molnar to collect the third thousand kuna or if she initiated this idea herself to demonstrate her loyalty. (I. G.)