At the Level

Freedom House recently published a report about the state of democracy and civic liberties in various countries around the world. The report has put the state of media freedom in Croatia at the same level as the state of media freedoms in neighbouring Serbia-Montenegro.

This report is probably not going to be revised after yesterday's assassination of Dusko Jovanović (Dusko Jovanovic), editor of Montengrin daily Dan and one of the harshest critics of Montenegrin prime minister Milo Djukanović (Milo Djukanovic).

Apart from the use of lethal force and spectacular manner in which the assassination was done, the event isn't that different from many similar events in Croatia. Only few days ago one of Croatia's sports journalists was beaten up by a masked thug and everyone believes that the incident was punishment for the article directed against some of the most powerful men within Croatian soccer world. Ninoslav Pavić (Ninoslav Pavic), one of the most powerful men of Croatia's media, had his car blown up by a bomb not that long ago.