It has never been easy or simple doing journalistic work. However, the specificity of today’s times is the increasingly frequent threats, primarily security threats, addressed to journalists and media workers.
For this reason, the Croatian Journalists’ Association and the Trade Union of Croatian Journalists recently agreed on cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior on the actions of the police at public gatherings and in the event that journalists and media workers are victims of criminal offenses while performing their duties.
At today’s meeting with representatives of the media and media associations that represent the majority of media in Croatia, we presented the Agreement on Cooperation, the Protocol on Police Behavior in Criminal Offenses Against Journalists on Assignment, and the Protocol on Behavior of Police, Journalists and Media Workers at Public Gatherings in the Interest of the Public.
The representative of the Ministry of Interior, Marina Mandić, pointed out that the Protocols establish a process and presented the concrete steps of implementation. The protocol on handling public gatherings was first activated during three parallel protests that took place after the start of the terrible conflicts in Israel and Gaza.
“Some journalists knew about the Protocol, some did not. Everyone came to say Hi to the spokeswoman of the police, who is also the contact person for journalists and media workers for security issues at the gathering. In this case, the journalists did not use the safe place defined by the Protocol, but they welcomed the fact that it exists”, Mandić described how the first application of the Protocol took place.
The representative of HUP – Association of Newspaper Publishers, Tomislav Wruss, welcomed the fact that this is the way in which the actions of the police are structured during events of high security risk. The representative of the Croatian Association of Digital Publishers, Ozren Kronja, as well as the director of Nova TV’s news program, Ksenija Kardum, and the representative of HRT, Renato Kunić, also welcomed the implementation of the Protocol.
The meeting was also a great opportunity to introduce employer representatives in more detail to the activities of the Ministry of Culture and Media. The Director of the Directorate for Media and Development of Cultural and Creative Industries, Jasna Vaniček-Fila, reported that they continue to work on training judges regarding SLAPP, and about the Council of Europe’s campaign on the safety of journalists.
“This campaign is a platform that is open to as many participants as possible who can come up with useful measures to protect the safety of journalists”, explained Vaniček-Fila and added that even in the National Plan for the Development of Culture and Media, which is being drafted, the first measure is precisely the protection of safety of journalists and improving the position of the profession.
Times are challenging, there are many problems, but talking is definitely the best way to start solving them. That is why we believe that today’s meeting is only the first in a series of meetings with employers in the media and the beginning of social dialogue.