15 February 2005. See also:
http://cryptome.org/mi6-looms.htm
15 February 2005. Thanks to Zeljko Peratovic.
Dear Cryptome, see these articles:
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Croatia10feb05na.html
CROATIA: Journalists demand inquiry into alleged abuses by security agency
New York, February 10, 2005 Five independent Croatian journalists filed a petition on Monday requesting that the government investigate allegations that the Counter-Intelligence Agency (POA) tried to discredit them after they reported on sensitive war crimes issues, according to local and international press reports.
The journalists called for an inquiry after the February 4 edition of the independent Zagreb weekly magazine Globus published a POA document titled "Information on intelligence-media manipulation," which accused the journalists of working for foreign security services in order to discredit the government and impede integration with the European Union.
According to a March 2004 presentation that POA Director Franjo Turek gave to senior government officials, the agency had conducted surveillance against the journalists in 2003 and 2004 and accused them of espionage after they reported on the government's failure to arrest war criminals indicted by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
The five journalists are: Gordan Malic of Globus; Ivica Djikic of the independent Split weekly magazine Feral Tribune; Marijo Kavain and Ivanka Toma of the independent Zagreb daily Jutarnji Listi; and Zeljko Peratovic of the Zagreb state daily Vjesnik.
The journalists have filed the petition with the Parliament, attorney general, and Council for the Civilian Supervision of Security Services. The council held an initial hearing on the matter yesterday.
During the 1990s, the nationalist HDZ government relied on security services to persecute independent journalists. Reformist governments since 2000 have made limited progress in changing the politicized agencies.
In October 2004, POA agents threatened and attempted to blackmail independent journalist Helena Puljiz into becoming a POA informant.
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http://www.humanrightshouse.org/dllvis5.asp?id=2933
Croatia: Journalist wiretapped again
The special working group of the Parliamentary Committee for Internal Affairs and National Security is opening an investigation today over Croatian Counter Intelligence service (CIS). The principal cause for the investigation is the recent public address of five journalists who were the subject of secret treatment of the CIS during 2003 and 2004, under the allegation that they have deliberately published wrong information about Hague fugitive general Gotovina in order to obstruct Croatia to enter the European Union. (11-FEB-05)
The special parliamentary working group was formed after five Croatian journalists Gordan Malic, Zeljko Peratovic, Ivanka Toma, Mario Kavain i Ivica Djikic have sent an official request to the Croatian Journalist Association, Civic Committee for the Oversight of the Secret Services, Parliamentary Committees for National Security and Human Rights to examine the allegations from the text published in newsweek magazine Globus , in which the author Gordan Malic claimes that the CIS was conducting a secret operation against the above mentioned journalists, accusing them of media-intelligence operation against Croatia .
Namely, mentioned news article brings a document called Information about media-intelligence manipulation aiming to discredit Croatia which was presented in March 2004 to the President Mesic, Prime Minister Sanader, Minister of the Judiciary Skare-Ozbolt and Minister of the Internal Affairs Mlinaric by Franjo Turek, former director of the CIS. In short, the document of the CIS accuses the journalists for planed and coordinated misinforming, which prevented respective bodies from arresting general Gotovina.
"In my opinion the reason why the authorities in charge didn´t react upon the receival of the report from the CIS is because they were only concerned with how the report is going to look like to Carla del Ponte," said Zarko Puhovski, the Chairman of the Croatian Helsinki Committee.
According to the CIS, except from journalists, several higher state officials also participated in the media intelligence operation against Croatia . Judging by the documents published in the media, the CIS permanently wiretaped Ranko Ostojic, the former Head of the Croatian police in charge of arresting general Gotovina and former spokesperson of the Ministry of the Interior Zinka Bardic.
The Civic Committee for Oversight of the Secret Services and the Parliamentary Committee for Internal Affairs and National Security will decide in the coming days whether the secret listening to the above mentioned Croatian citizens was illegal or not. However, the latest affairs related to the work of the CIS, including the Puljiz affair , raised some serious questions about the overall situation of the Secret Services and the way they function in Croatia.
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Zeljko Peratovic
III Pile 25
10 000 Zagreb
Croatia
home: +385 1 606 1570
fax: + 385 1 606 1569
gsm: +385 91 22 999 66
web site: http://www.peratovic.net/zeljko/appeals/MI6/mi6.html