HND Concerned over Threats against Journalist Drago Hedl

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The Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) expressed on Sunday, December 11, its deepest concerns over the media harangue that some Osijek-based media and journalists have directed against Drago Hedl, reporter with “Jutarnji list” daily, after Croatian President Ivo Josipović awarded him the “Stjepan Radić” medal on December 7, on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day.

HND notes that, over the past 21 years, Hedl received numerous death threats over his reporting of war-crimes and the ruling methods of Branimir Glavaš, convicted war criminal, collected later in the celebrated and awarded book Glavaš: kronika jedne destrukcije (Glavaš: A Chronicle of Destruction).

"Hedl and the members of his immediate family are now again target of threats. The harangue in some Osijek-based media has played a crucial role in the matter, having in mind that only one step stands between the harangue and the possible realisation of the threats”, HND warns.

Hedl was awarded the Medal of the Order of Stjepan Radić for his human and professional contributions to the fight for human rights, promotion of justice and democracy and uncovering the truth. On December 8, one day after the medal presentation ceremony, the Iustitia et pax Commission of the Croatian Bishops’ Conference demanded from Josipović to revoke the medal, allegedly over a 30-year old report by Hedl in which, the Commission claims, Hedl said that Alojzije Stepinac was “executioner among saints”. (Note: Stepinac was sentenced for war-crimes by the Yugoslav court).

"Of course, the media are entitled to an independent editorial policy and journalists are allowed to say what they want while avoiding use of hate-speech which has obviously resulted in renewed threats against Drago Hedl”, HND says in a public statement.

This year, Hedl also won the Erhard Busek Award for his contributions to inter-ethnic communications and reconciliation and for his investigation of war-crimes committed in Croatia in the wars of the 1990's. (Source: Zamirzine.net)