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PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHVB #0970 2981404
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 251404Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY ZAGREB
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8264
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS ZAGREB 000970 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FOR EUR/SCE, EUR/PPD, AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM HR
SUBJECT: CROATIAN JOURNALIST DETAINED, RELEASED 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Zagreb police arrested freelance journalist, 
Zeljko Peratovic, on October 18, and released him the following the 
day, charging him with posting classified documents to his website. 
Human rights and media groups and the opposition Social Democratic 
Party (SDP) quickly protested the arrest.  Prime Minister Sanader 
expressed support for media freedom in the days following. 
President Mesic characterized the search of Peratovic's apartment as 
a mistake and said that the case should have been handled 
differently.  END SUMMARY 
 
¶2. (U) Zagreb police arrested free-lance journalist Zeljko Peratovic 
October 18 on charges of revealing state and military secrets on his 
website, releasing him on October 19.  The police seized three 
computers, a mobile phone, and documents from his apartment.  While 
Peratovic is the subject of a criminal investigation, prosecutors 
have not decided whether he will be brought to trial.  Police are 
seeking to identify the government officials who allegedly leaked 
the documents. 
 
¶3. (U) According to Peratovic, the documents in question were 
already in the public domain and had been on his website for months. 
 One of the documents allegedly had been submitted to the Parliament 
to substantiate his claim that Croatian intelligence had trailed him 
as a result of his reporting on the ICTY case against retired 
General Gotovina.  Peratovic claims that newspapers had published 
the other two documents, which included references to the British 
Secret Service and meetings between British intelligence and the 
 
SIPDIS 
former Croatian Police Chief, Ranko Ostojic. 
 
¶4. (U) Croatian Prime Minister Sanader commented on the case on 
October 18, announcing that he would request a report from the 
Minister of Internal Affairs.  Sanader expressed full support for 
media freedoms, declaring that he was always on the side of 
journalists.  On October 22, President Mesic called the police 
search of Peratovic's apartment a mistake, said that the case should 
have been handled differently. He said that the police had taken the 
path of least resistance in investigating the person who had 
received the classified documents rather than those responsible for 
the information, and said this was this totally wrong. 
 
¶5. (U) The Zagreb police department announced on October 20 that the 
head of the criminal investigation department, Darko Dundovic, would 
assume a new post as the senior professor at the Police Academy. 
While police deny any linkage between Dundovic's stepping down and 
the arrest, PM Sanader suggested that Dundovic had been reassigned 
as a result of the incident. 
 
¶6. (U) The Croatian Journalists Association, the Croatian Helsinki 
Committee on Human Rights Media Council, Reporters without 
Frontiers, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Center for 
Development of Democracy, and journalists spoke out against the 
arrest.  The Croatian Journalists Association condemned the arrest, 
calling it a drastic example of endangering journalistic freedom and 
argued that the government employees leaking the documents should be 
investigated, not the journalist who informed the public.  The 
opposition Social Democratic Party called Peratovic's detention an 
attempt to intimidate the press. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Comment:  While Peratovic's arrest has caused controversy 
in Croatia, it appears to be an isolated case and not indicative of 
a pattern to suppress the media.  The police and the prosecutor's 
office have sought to blame each other for the incident.  With 
parliamentary elections just one month away, the GOC would not 
likely seek to anger the media.  At the same time, Peratovic is 
known for his investigative reporting on war crimes and the 
intelligence services and certainly has enemies. 
BRADTKE