HND called the behavior of the Serbian minister towards Croatian journalists scandalous

The Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) announced on Saturday that it condemns the decision of the minister in the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Jadranka Joksimović, to deny a statement to Croatian journalists during the meeting of high political representatives of Southeast European countries held in Brdo near Kranj on April 25, 2018.

Journalist from the Zagreb editorial office of N1, Hrvoje Krešić, confirmed to HND that Minister Joksimović refused to give a statement to Croatian journalists. Shortly thereafter, she gave a statement to journalists from Serbia. When colleague Krešić at one point asked Minister Joksimović why she did not give a statement to journalists from Croatia, she replied that she chooses to whom she will give a statement, and those are, as she told him, the journalists she brought. The claim of colleague Krešić is also confirmed by video and audio recordings of the minister’s statement.

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After that scandalous statement from the cabinet of the Minister of European Integration of the Republic of Serbia, HND states, an equally scandalous explanation of her behavior arrived in the form of a claim that Croatian journalists had been rude and insulted her.

Although there is no evidence for that claim, Minister Joksimović repeated it for Belgrade TV B92, stating: “It is obvious that the essence of the actions of the mentioned Croatian journalists is provocation and setting up. They are full of aggressive energy, they intercepted me, shouted at me, and yelled…”

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The Serbian Minister of European Integration, as well as Serbian President Vučić and Slovenian Prime Minister Pahor, but also Croatian politicians whose behavior towards journalists HND has reacted to so far, their current position does not give them the right to divide journalists into ‘their’ and ‘theirs’, and journalistic questions into suitable and unsuitable, states the HND statement, signed by President Saša Leković.

It was also emphasized that a political position cannot be an alibi for spreading falsehoods about the actions of journalists.