URGENT APPEAL ON BEHALF OF CROATIAN JOURNALIST
AIM, the alternative information network established by independent journalists from all parts of former Yugoslavia, has sent us the following urgent appeal.
On 29 August 1994, Drago Hedl, AIM's correspondent in Osijek, sent an open letter to Branimir Glavas, the Prefect of the Osijek-Baranja district in Croatia, to protest against threats made by Glavas against his life. Mr. Hedl has for many years been a thorn in the flesh of the local HDZ [the party of President Franjo Tudjman] authorities led by one of the most infamous hardliners in the party, known as the Sheriff of Osijek".
Drago Hedl was born in Osijek in 1950, studied literature and first worked as an editor of the literary magazine Revija, from 1974 - 81. He then joined the Osijek regional newspaper, Glas Savonije (Voice of Slavonia), later becoming its editor-in-chief from 1985 to 1991. He succeeded in achieving the highest circulation figures in the paper's 48 year history and turned it into "perhaps the finest regional paper in the Republic" (Misha Glenny) with a strongly independent editorial policy.
As tensions rose in Slavonia in Spring 1991, the authorities, led by Glavas, took over control of the paper by imposing on it a new management board - with Glavas as its head. They even obliged Mr. Hedl to publish an advertisement calling on readers to boycott his own paper. This, however, only led to an increase in circulation. Drago Hedl and his staff faced death threats; Hedl was briefly drafted into the army; and finally the Prefect Glavas burst into his office accompanied by ten armed soldiers and expelled the staff from the building.
Drago Hedl then went on to work as Osijek correspondent for the then independent Split newspaper, Slobodna Dalmacija, from September 1991 to December 1993. When the HDZ authorities took control over Slobodna Dalmacija by imposing a new management board, Hedl started to work for the independent weekly, Feral Tribune. He also writes for other independent papers in Croatia (Arkzin, Novi List, Start nove generacije, and the recently launched, Osijek based, Bumerang) and is correspondent for AIM and the London based War Report.
As Mark Thompson stresses in his book, Forging War (published by Article 19), the Croatian authorities continue to keep a tight grip on the media.
"Means of controlling and disciplining the media have included:
(...)
using government-controlled media to attack, slander and demoralise journalists and media outside government control,
instigating or tolerating paramilitary means to intimidate journalists and gain control of the media."
In July 1994, the government increased pressure on the highly respected Feral Tribune by removing a sales tax exemption which is given to all newspapers except for pornographic magazines. By doing so, Zagreb sought to equate the FT with an extreme nationalist and anti-semitic paper, Hrvatski Vjesnik.
On 26 July 1994, the southern Austrian regional paper, Kleine Zeitung, reported on this affair under the headline, "Sales tax for extreme newspapers", simply repeating Zagreb's version. It even went as far as to give the names of Drago Hedl and two other well-known independent journalists, accusing them of having been loyal to the former communist regime. This article was then translated by the official Croatian news agency, HINA, and distributed to the entire press, including the journalists' names.
In August 1994, Branimir Glavas sent verbal threats to Mr. Hedl via a deputy from Osijek in the Croatian parliament, warning him that he will "crush and reduce him to ashes and dust" and calling on him to "move to Istria because that is where you belong". On 29 August, Drago Hedl wrote an open letter to Glavas in protest. This was published by Feral Tribune, Novi List and the AIM network.
Glavas replied early in September with an extraordinary long letter which was also published by Feral Tribune. He at no stage denies making threats. The letter is above all remarkable for the language and "literary" style used by someone who is after all the prefect of a region and the official representative of the authorities in Zagreb.
AIM is convinced that these threats should be taken seriously, especially when they come from a man like Glavas.
We therefore call on you to write to the Croatian Prime Minister, Nikica Valentic, and warn him that you are closely following this affair and that you hold the government responsible for Drago hedl's security.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has already protested in an open letter. Branimir Glavas responded through the Croatian press. He claims that Croatia is a democratic country despite journalists like Hedl who are trying to prove the opposite.
Address your protest to:
The Prime Minister, Mr. Nikica Valentic
Zagreb (Croatia)
Fax: +385/41 432041
For more information, contact: AIM, 13 rue Gazan, F-75014 Paris; Tel: +33/1 45898949; Fax: +33/1 45809940.