October the 21s5, 2026 – The organisation SafeJournalists is currently demanding an official Croatian reaction after imagery of hanged journalists and other threats to the media have come to light.
Extreme condemnation of morbid threats made against journalists in Croatia have come from the international SafeJournalists network following their reporting on Nazi and antisemitic outbursts by Torcida members in Split, Morski reports. Specifically, the organisation has warned about the publication of journalists’ photographs, calls for their liquidation, and banners depicting hanged journalists from Croatian media.
They demand urgent protection of the threatened journalists from the Croatian authorities and prosecution of those responsible. SafeJournalists warns that a campaign of intimidation against journalists has since begun, with them being accused of creating hysteria and conducting a campaign against Torcida. Today, Interior Minister Davor Božinović himself spoke out, saying that the police have launched an investigation into messages aimed at intimidating journalists while they perform their work.
“I have some information about this, the police has launched a criminal investigation precisely because of inscriptions intended to intimidate journalists,” Minister Božinović said before the HDZ Presidency session. “No one has any authority to frighten or intimidate anyone in this country, especially not those who are merely doing their job,” the minister and Deputy Prime Minister stated.
On the 18th of October, the Facebook page Narodni reporteri published photographs of 11 Croatian journalists and one political analyst under the title “12 horsemen of the Croatian apocalypse.” According to SafeJournalists, some commenters called for the journalists to be expelled from Croatia and banned from working, while others suggested finding their home addresses, expressed a desire for their death, or mentioned compiling a liquidation list. The next day, the 19th of October, photos of new threatening messages appeared in the Facebook group Torcida Split 1950.
On one wall in Dalmatia, the following message was written: “Torcida remembers and does not forgive! Journalists are worms.” Particularly disturbing was a banner on which journalists were called “the greatest evil of Croatian society.” The banner showed a tree with hanged journalists from Slobodna Dalmacija, Index, Jutarnji list, Večernji list and 24sata.
The SafeJournalists network expressed particular concern about the political messages accompanying the incidents. They singled out a press conference that Domovinski pokret president Ivan Penava held today in Split. Penava condemned Nazi and fascist chants, but at the same time accused the police and the media of conducting a campaign against Torcida. He also questioned the publication of photographs of suspects sought by the police and criticised the Croatian Journalists’ Association for its warnings about threats against journalists.
SafeJournalists considers that such political rhetoric further worsens the atmosphere in which journalists are exposed to intimidation.
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