A PERFORMANCE FOR EUROPE

AIM, ZAGREB, January 29, 1995 A four-member delegation of rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe visited Croatia in order to determine whether conditions for its reception into the respectable European society have been fulfilled. Unconcealed intention of the Croatian party to present itself in the most favourable light to the guests from Europe, in the end, due to a total lack of temperance, turned the carefully directed play into a farce. Similar performances were on numerous occasions given to delegations of European experts and officials which occasionally come to check the situation concerning human rights and the rule of law in Croatia. With the slogan - it does not matter what it is really like, what counts is what we tell them - the "Europeans" are bombarded with information on "excessive freedom of the media", "the highest world standards" and similar platitudes common on the domestic political scene.

On this occasion, numerous talks of the Parliamentarians (from chiefs of opposition parliamentary groups, Assembly deputies to the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mate Granic), except for the talks with representatives of the media, were again held behind closed doors, so that the journalists were forced to satisfy their curiosity and interest of the public by partial information and odd pieces of paper that they happened by some fortune to get hold of.

Apart from the topical dismissal of the UNPROFOR, and therefrom the possibility of flaring up of the war conflict, meetings significant for decision-making on reception of Croatia into the Council of Europe were dominated by discussions about legal, legislative issues. What impression the guests got will be known from their report which, as announced, will be adopted at the session of the Council of Europe in the end of January. The domestic, and so far the only source of infomation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, claims, however, that the parliamentary delegation of the Council of Europe assessed legal regulations as highly favourable, and that the only remarks referred to their implementation. But, if the talks have passed in compliance with the letter Milan Vukovic, President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia sent to the Ministry as his opinion about the report of one of the offices of the Parliament of the Council of Europe which relates to the legislature in Croatia, the guests from Europe could have got the impression that they were at least unwelcome, since they are meddling in the internal affairs of Croatia. Explaining why, according to his opinion, the part of the report referring to legislature was in dispute, in his letter addressed to the experts from the Council of Europe who have come with the mandate to assess the entire state system, from the President downwards, Vukovic denies them the right to do that.

But, despite the careful direction, the whole affair got out of hand one more time. It all began with the talks with the representatives of the Assembly, when behind closed doors, a dispute broke out between the President of the Assembly Human Rights Committee, Ljubomir Antic, and Vice President of the Serbian National Party, Veselin Pejnovic, who even threatened he would leave the room. The dispute was caused by Pejnovic's allegation about 300 thousand Serbian citizens who have left the Republic of Croatia, which as Pejnovic claims, caused an inappropriate reaction of the Assembly defender of human rights.

The talks of the Parliamentary delegation with the representatives of Croatian medias passed in the atmosphere of "convincing" Europe that we were "good democrats", but to such an extent that in the end, it all had just the opposite effect. The Assembly Foreign Policy Committee as the organizer and host of the visit, made an effort to invite to this meeting delegates of what it considered representative media ("Vjesnik", "Vecernji list", "Slobodna Dalmacija", HTV, Croatian Radio, HINA, "Globus", "Novi list"), and in order to make it apparent that all had been invited, some "independent" journalists also appeared: Aleksa Crnjakovic, Olga Ramljak and Andjelko Perincic. This carefully chosen group of journalists, in the absence of those less "obedient", had the task to verify allegations of the authorities about great, and even excessive freedom of the media. The intention was to skip the "disobedient" by all means, and it was successful despite the intervention of the guests. Namely, "Feral Tribune", "Erazmus", "Arkzin", OTV were invited only after the guests insisted they should be, but too late and not quite clearly. None of them appeared, so the organizers succeeded in their attempt to prevent the Parliamentarians to hear a different opinion about the domestic media.

Everything would have passed according to a tested scenario with the organizers satisfied and the guests happy about an increased freedom of the media in Croatia, if due to a too ardent wish to control everything, things had not got out of hand. The choice of the host to have Antun Vrdoljak, a politician and the until recently Director of Croatian Radio-Television proved to be completely wrong. Namely, "Tonci" explained to the surprised Europeans that "we are already tired of Europe", because, as he said "it looks out for each and every mistake of ours". He spoke at length about Europe which is also the Maginot line, which is Dachau..., to such length that the others (and not all of them) managed just to briefly present themselves and the houses they come from. Due to a lack of time, only two problems were clearly articulated concerning the freedom of the media - ultra-nationalist journal "Hrvatski tjednik" from Vinkovci and the satyrical weekly "Feral Tribune", which, it was explained to the guests, would not be tolerated by any European state. The Europeans did not comment on any of the allegations, and to the few specific questions they managed to ask they got absolutely no answer, least of all precise ones.

Thanks to the efforts of the organizer to have everything pass in perfect order and under control, the delegation of European Parliamentarians had the opportunity to hear that the problem of a lack of freedom of the media does not exist in Croatia, on the contrary, that there was an excess of freedom which our young democracy was afraid to tackle, for the sake of Europe, of course. Information such as the one that in this empire of freedom of the media, "Feral Tribune", due to the pulp tax levied on it by the state, is threatened with financial collapse, was not even mentioned by the representatives of Croatian journalism, nor did anyone care to wonder whether there was a formula for survival of a journal when the states takes between 10 and 13 thousand German marks a week, dependent on the circulation, on account of only one of the taxes. Nor did anyone care to ask how come "Hrvatski tjednik" is still published, although according to the same state criteria, it should have been closed down long ago by this very pulp tax.

But, the attempt to make life in young democracy look better by puttinga lot of make-up on its face did not end with the meeting with the journalists. The analysis of the situation in the sphere of operation of the legal state prepared by the experts of the Council of Europe was declared confidental by the hosts, and thus hidden from the domestic public. The analysis especially warns against many deficiencies: evictions, lack of freedom of expression and independence of media, absence of criminal prosecution of those who are guilty of acts against members of Serbian nationality... It is too early to conclude that relevant standards in protection of human rights have been satisfied, is one of the conclusions in the material our authorities have spared us from seeing.

Croatia is eagerly waiting to be accepted as the full-fledged member of the Council of Europe, which even Romania and Albania beat us to, so the organizers, in accordance with the tradition here, did everything to look well in front of the Europeans. The carefully prepared performance which was supposed to convince the Parliamentary delegation of the Council of Europe in the existence of the Croatian empire of freedom of the media did no good to anyone. Even in the case the guests saw nothing they were not meant to see, despite the bad direction and exaggerated dramatization. European rapporteurs are our guests because Croatia asked for it and accepted their rules of the game. Things are as they are for us here in Croatia, but it would be in the interest of all of us - to join the European society even if it meant intrusion into our private affairs. What they might find is our problem, not theirs.

BRANKA VUJNOVIC