July 08, 2021

Croatian journalist raises his voice against corruption

topic:	Transparency and Corruption
located:	Croatia
editor:	Katarina Panić

Croatian police and anti-graft body USKOK arrested a dozen people last week as part of the anti-corruption investigations connected with the late mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandić, who had served six terms. 

A number of people affiliated with the former long-ruling mayor are suspected of bribery, abuse of office and trading in influence over construction initiatives and Advent, the capital’s famous Christmas fair.

The recent arrests come as good news in a region where powerful people were historically known to evade culpability. Former ministers, the mayor’s closest associates, Zagreb city officials and other employees are among the defendants. One person who has attracted particular public attention is the general manager of the Croatian public broadcaster HRT, Kazimir Bačić, who had been arrested too.

Prominent journalist Aleksandar Stanković, author and host of the TV show Sunday at 2, who used to be the target of his own management earlier, is one of the rare independent voices at HRT. 

Instead of operating as a public media service, HRT often behaves as a state agency under political control, just like most public media outlets in the region do. That is why many colleagues all over the Balkans greeted Stanković’s introduction that opened the last edition of his show, in which he apologised to the audience, especially those who regularly pay the TV fee of 80 kunas, for having to witness the shame that happened at HRT last week. 

He also apologised for the whole range of wrongdoings HRT is responsible for - from lawsuits HRT has launched against journalists to suppressing public content from the program and the network’s attempts at revising history.

"This my apology is not lonely. Many people in HRT think alike. They blush when meeting viewers who talk about these issues, but they have no opportunity to say that like I do since they don’t have their own show. But I know they would sign every single word I just said," Stanković wrote on his Facebook, and then read the post in the show last Sunday.

“If only that could happen here,” a man from Bosnia commented on his Facebook.

At the end of the week, the five-member Supervisory Board unanimously voted for the dismissal of Bačić, which the Parliament now has to confirm. 

While Bačić is placed under a one-month pre-trial detention in prison, Remetinec, his lawyers, informed HRT on Monday that he would use three weeks of vacation and sees no obstacles to continuing his duties afterwards.

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