The organizers of the Regional Journalist Award “Srđan Aleksić” strongly condemn the calls of the Homeland Movement to terminate public funds for the weekly newspaper Novosti, which is published by the Serb National Council (SNC) in Croatia. In addition to practically trying to impose the abolition of a professional, influential and socially responsible media, the Homeland Movement, with its public statements, launched a hunt for Novosti and the journalists of that weekly, who have been receiving vile threats for the last few days, as a result of which their physical integrity is also at risk.
We condemn all kinds of pressures and attacks on media freedoms and the suffocation and narrowing of the media space, especially pressures that are done because of politics and political interests. The very idea of imposing repression against one media as a condition for concluding a political coalition agreement is worrying, because at its core, such an idea is undemocratic, discriminatory and as such absolutely unacceptable and scandalous.
Last year, the Internet portal of the weekly Novosti received the Regional Journalist Award “Srđan Aleksić”, in the category “For Media”. The award was presented to it on the International Human Rights Day – December 10, 2023 and according to the evaluation of the expert jury, this portal deserves the award because it is a socially engaged media with top authors who every week bring texts that truly affect a society, but also the region as a whole. It is a weekly magazine that is, without a doubt, one of the most respected media publications in Croatia, but also more widely, and which is known for its investigative texts, uncompromising comments and prominent authors.
We remind you that the leader of the Homeland Movement, Ivan Penava, stated a few days ago that his party received a guarantee from the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) during the negotiations for the formation of the new Government of the Republic of Croatia that the financing of the weekly Novosti will stop, and that this is the point they insisted on.
We believe that any self-respecting society should never allow a professional media and a national minority to become the “scapegoat” of a blackmail policy with discriminatory tendencies. It is inadmissible that such an insidious narrative, which aims to determine what and how the media are allowed to write, and harness them to a nationalist imaginary, becomes the official policy of a democratic state. This ultimately opens the door wide to the dangerous intentions of authoritarian politics to discipline and subjugate the entire media scene that fulfills its social obligation – to be critical and not subject to political pressures.
We sincerely hope that our colleagues at Novosti will bravely deal with this kind of unexpected pressure and continue to write and fight for a better and more tolerant society, just as Srđan Aleksić did with his heroic act, after whom the journalist award was named.
The Regional Journalist Award “Srđan Aleksić” is announced by the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Banjaluka, the Network for Peace Building, the Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina, the Montenegro Media Institute and the Association for the Promotion of Media Culture, Art and Tolerance “Lupiga – the World through Ordinary Eyes” from Croatia.
The award is given for professional and socially responsible media coverage that results in concrete benefits for people and communities (contributes to reconciliation, protection of human rights, inclusion of marginalized and vulnerable groups, gender equality, rule of law, culture of dialogue, fight against hate speech and fake news), and for demonstrated journalistic courage.
