Hrvoje Zovko, president of the Croatian Journalists’ Association, at the ‘awards’ ceremony in Sofia on Tuesday. Photo: HND.
CASE, the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe, named judge Ivan Markovic, the president of the Zadar County Court in Croatia, as Europe’s biggest judicial SLAPP offender on Tuesday at a ceremony in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Bulgaria,.
Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, SLAPPs, are lawsuits used as a tool to silence journalists, activists and civil society groups through costly and time-consuming legal battles, overwhelming them with legal costs.
Markovic received the “title” for over 20 lawsuits he filed against journalists and media outlets. He filed up to 16 against Hanza Media alone, and several more against individual journalists who reported critically on his decision to release from pre-trial custody several suspects who were accused of rape, sexual abuse and filming a 15-year-old girl, according to a press release from the Croatian Journalists’ Association, HND
“Judge Ivan Markovic is one of the clearest examples of how journalists and the media in Croatia are targeted by SLAPP lawsuits,” said Hrvoje Zovko, president of the HND, at the ceremony in Sofia.
He noted that this is the third time in five years that the “SLAPP champion” has come from Croatia, “which says a lot”.
In 2021, the same “award” was given to Croatian Radio and Television, HRT, which, under then-director Kazimir Bacic, filed a series of lawsuits against journalists and its own employees.
Two years later, in 2023, the award went to the then-president of the Osijek County Court, Zvonko Vrban, for filing a series of lawsuits against the Telegram website, its journalist Drago Hedl and editor-in-chief Jelena Pavic Valentic.
Ivica Nevescanin, a journalist with the newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija, who participated in Tuesday’s award ceremony via video, said that, as a Croatian journalist, he is “extremely proud of the fact that in the last five years Croatia has had three winners in the tough competition of European SLAPPers”.
“In this case, it is a judge, a person who should fight against such practices, who should advocate for a fair trial and justice for all,” Croatian journalist Maja Sever, president of the European Federation of Journalists, told BIRN.
BIRN attempted to contact Judge Markovic for comment but his office said he was unable to respond immediately.
He has previously said he was not legally permitted to comment on the court decision in the sexual violence case because the investigation was confidential due to the involvement of a minor. “I cannot reveal anything to you because I would have to tell you the reasoning, which is secret. The investigation is secret by law, not by my decision,” he told a reporter from Index.hr.
