A draft law that has been criticized both at home and abroad was approved by the Croatian parliament on Thursday. In the future, informants who pass on information from judicial investigation files to the press could be punished.
After protests from journalists’ associations and opposition supporters, the passage according to which journalists could also have been punished for publishing this information was removed from the original draft law. Critics say their work continues to be hampered by the fact that whistleblowers are threatened with punishment. The new arrangement is popularly called ‘Lex AP’, after the first letters of the name of civilian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. His government introduced the new regulation in criminal law.
Investigative files have been leaked to the highest prosecutor
The opposition accuses Plenkovic of making it easier to cover up the corrupt machinations of his fellow party members with the new rules he introduced. Plenkovic has recently received increasing criticism on the subject of justice. At the beginning of February, parliament, at his instigation, elected the controversial lawyer Ivan Turudic as the highest public prosecutor.
Turudic, a former Supreme Court judge, is accused of having friendly contacts with several people suspected of corruption. This is evident from leaked information from research files.
Parliament also decided to dissolve it
The Croatian parliament also decided to dissolve itself on Thursday, paving the way for early parliamentary elections in the spring. The prime minister’s decision to bring forward the parliamentary elections was blamed by the opposition on citizens’ growing dissatisfaction with his government and the ruling HDZ party. The long-standing ruling party has been accused of corruption and cronyism; the left-liberal opposition has been increasing pressure for weeks with anti-government protests. After a large demonstration in mid-February, new protests in five Croatian cities have been announced for March 23.
Source: Krone
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