Journalists in front of the Banski Dvori: ‘Lex AP’ must be completely withdrawn from parliamentary procedure

‘You will never become the editor-in-chief of Croatia!’ This was the message from the president of the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) Hrvoje Zovko to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković at a protest gathering of journalists held today at Zagreb’s Markov Trg, in front of the Government and the Croatian Parliament buildings. The protest was organized by the HND, where around 150 to 200 protesters conveyed to the Government and the parliamentary majority that they would not reconcile with the proposed provisions of ‘lex AP’, as they referred to the Criminal Code, which criminalizes the leaking of information from police investigations to the media.

Yesterday’s concession from the ruling party was resolutely rejected by journalists, who did not dispute that a step forward had been made towards abandoning this legislative proposal. According to the Minister of Justice and Administration Ivan Malenica, under the new proposed provisions, journalists will not be punished if judges determine that there was a ‘predominant public interest’ in publishing information from the investigation and if the information was published to protect the victim of a criminal offense, in the interest of defense in criminal proceedings.

However, protesters believe that the judges’ authority to assess what constitutes public interest could be problematic. Regardless of yesterday’s Government concession, protesters stated in front of the Banski Dvori that the Government would not deceive them with this move and that they continue to insist on the withdrawal of the disputed provisions from the proposed Criminal Code.

Zovko assessed in a rather sharp tone that the proposed provisions of the Criminal Code represent ‘an act of state aggression against public interest, journalists, and the journalistic profession’, calling on Prime Minister Plenković to ‘be a statesman and withdraw them from parliamentary procedure’.

Journalists were supported at the gathering by civic activists, association leaders, actors, and opposition parliamentary representatives, and they were addressed by the vice-presidents of the HND Executive Board Drago Pilsel and Chiara Bilić, as well as the president of the European Federation of Journalists Maja Sever, who is also the president of the Croatian Journalists’ Union, and journalist and columnist Branko Mijić.