JOURNALIST BEATEN UP IN KARLOVAC

AIM Zagreb, 29 December, 1997

    Instead of improvement, freedom of the media in

Croatia is in the process of constant regression. The latest case of open and brutal manifestation of intolerance to journalists who do not wish to knuckle under the dictate of the current Croatian authorities is beating up of the editor-in-chief of Karlovacki list Nenad Hlaca, who was attacked on 23 December, 1997 around 18.00, and badly thrashed by two young men, after which Hlaca was forced to seek medical assistance and temporarily abstain from editting the daily which can proudly brag with its openness and independence.

That Tuesday evening, Hlaca came out of the editorial premises which are located at the very heart of Karlovac, a few minutes after 18.00 h, after he had sent the last articles of the Christmas issue of Karlovacki list into print. From the building where the editorial premises of the daily are, Hlaca started towards his car parked about ten metres from the entrance. Having reached the vehicle, while he was getting ready to unlock it, he heard someone running behind his back. He did not even have time to turn around when under a shower of blows and punches he was thrown on the ground by young men who continued to kick his entire body when he fell. Having thrashed him badly, the attackers started to run away. After several steps, one of them returned towards Hlaca and took his bag which he had dropped during the attack. "Leave the bag, what do you want with it...", the other one shouted to him and then both disappeared down one of the streets of Karlovac.

The whole incident lasted for a very short time, but the consequences are not at all harmless. Badly beaten up, Hlaca managed to call his colleagues from the editorial office who carried him into the building and called the police and an ambulance which transported him to the hospital in Svarca. Having been offered medical assistance Hlaca was released from the hospital for home treatment, but was ordered to report for a check-up after six days, if necessary before that time. His individual injuries were not characterized as serious, but it is still uncertain what his head injuries may cause, since it is assumed that wounds which had to be closed with five stitches were caused not by bare hands but most probably steel knuckles, which Hlaca also believes the attackers had used.

The attack, which is especially interesting, was carried out in complete silence, without a single threatening word, perfidiously from the back. But the verbal part followed the next day. After he had been released from hospital, Hlaca accepted the invitation of a colleague to spend the night in Karlovac and not to go to his apartment in Duga Resa, partly because of possible complications of the injuries, but mostly for his own safety. The next morning Hlaca decided to go home after all to change the blood stained clothes. But, immediately after he had entered the apartment, the phone rang and a voice threateningly started to murmur: "This is just the beginning... this is just the beginning...". At the same time, the telephone also rang in the editorial office of Karlovacki list, and an also unknown voice suggested to the manager of the daily, Ivan Sostaric, to "reduce the number of the Serbs on the editorial team". Even if there had been any doubt that the attack was carried out for personal reasons or perhaps in order to rob him, it was completely eliminated after these phone calls.

    Immediately after the attack, rumours sterted that

Hlaca was not attacked because of editting Karlovacki list but because of a private showdown with individuals he was in a conflict with, which allegedly had nothing to do with what Karlovacki list revealed. Others tried to explain the attack as an ordinary robbery, perhaps because of the bag which one of the attackers had taken. "I don't believe that this is the result of a personal problem which could be the immediate cause of the attack", Hlaca declared to the journalists afterwards. "I am neither in a personal nor a professional conflict with anyone, especially not concerning problems which could cause anything of the kind. "After having calmly reconsidered all the facts, and after certain new developments, I am certain that this is the attack against me as the editor-in-chief and against Karlovacki list as a whole. The attack was planned, thoroughly carried out, and the attackers had obviously waited for the most convenient opportunity and probably they had followed me before. That I was followed, and still am, is proved by the anonymous telephone call the following morning", said Hlaca.

Who could have been in the back of the attack, the editor-in-chief of Karlovacki list failed to answer explicitly. But, "as a professional paper we entered a series of professional conflicts with individuals and interest groups who were pinpointed in our columns. We have not had any threats lately nor anything which this could directly be linked to, but I cannot say that everybody is happy with our existence and investigation on delicate topics", said Hlaca, adding that it seemed to him "that there is a group of people among the leading team of city authorities and the HDZ which has profitted from the war climate in Karlovac, become rich and acquired advantages they wish to preserve. That is why nowadays, in peace, they are in conflict or collision with a part of the liberal faction of the authorities and the ruling party which wishes to turn to development and which wishes Karlovac a better future". Karlovacki list, according to Hlaca's allegations, has never had any problems with the liberal faction.

Nenad Hlaca has been editting Karlovacki list for six months, exactly from the time Croatia was hit by a wave of confessions of former mayors, government commissioners, intelligence officers and representatives of public and less public authorities in Croatia in which all the conflicts and dirty business accumulated under and behind false fronts of defence of Croatia came out to the surface. Some of the most interesting interviews in this period were published by Karlovacki list. "There were outbursts of wrath and discontent with the writing about the war and postwar in the editorial offices as well. All the citizens of Karlovac like to appear in the role of Mirko and Slavko (young partisan heroes of a cartoon about the Second World War), although it is well known that only about hundred odd citizens defended the city while some of them courageously emigrated to Slovenia", stated Hlaca and added that the results of the elections - which are always won by the HDZ in the first round - showed that Karlovac was a city of obedient subjects.

Work of Karlovacki list, which was among other founded by Rijeka Novi list, was difficult from the very first days, which is best described by its journalists who still tend to tell the story that in the beginning they could not even get the information about the number of trucks owned by city garbage collectors. Only honesty checked prejudice that the journalists of Karlovacki list are "Chetniks with pens" as in the beginning they were experienced in Karlovac and surroundings. But, honesty is the most painful point of many who still hold power in their hands. Much could be tolarated but an honest journalist who sticks his nose into everything - this cannot. Hlaca therefore hopes that the journalists of Karlovacki list will persist in their manner of work and writing and that the fact that he was beaten up will not have serious consequences on the journalists who are mostly young, just graduated from university. "I force them to write on most risky topics, not to be afraid of anything and not to let anyone intimidate them", he says.

Jagoda Vukusic, president of the Croatian Journalists' Society, warned against the atmosphere in Croatia in which it is possible to have the president of the state, "in case of Feral Tribune", or even the entire government in case of Globus, resort to repressive measures towards journalists, which has without doubt led to the case in Karlovac, which is not the first case of a beaten up journalist and the first attack on the life of a journalist in Croatia. Among the first victims of this "constructive dialogue with fists" which has become customary in Croatia, is Heni Erceg, a woman editor of Feral, who was also attacked from the back by a man back in

1. The editor of Osijek Bumerang Goran Flauder, correspondent of Globus Antun Masle, Feral's correspondent Drago Hedl, or last New Year's attacks on workers of Radio Baranja when five persons had to seek medical assistance - are just some of the cases of direct threats to the lives of journalists who dare think differently and write critically. When all these incidents are put in the context of addressing the nation practiced by the Croatian president who regularly states in public his latest lists of "enemies" which is followed by repression against them, it can be concluded that freedom of the media in Croatia will not be a reality for long, but just a day-dream of individuals who did not wish to sell out for cheap housing loans and similar privileges offered by the current authorities in exchange for obedience. But, every regime has the media it deserves, and Croatian regime is no exception to this rule.

MILIVOJ ÐILAS