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Sasa Lekovic resigned as the president of the Croatian Journalists’ Association on Thursday after a dispute with its executive board over an award given to a reporter who some journalists accused of biased coverage of the sentencing and public suicide of Bosnian Croat military chief Slobodan Praljak.
After the Journalists’ Association gave the award to Nova TV reporter Ivana Petrovic last week, 11 journalists returned the awards they won in the previous years to the Association on Wednesday.
Lekovic refused to influence or pressure the jury to revoke its decision despite not personally agreeing that Petrovic should have won the award.
“Juries must have the autonomy prescribed to them, and it must not be distorted because we do not like the decision, no matter how much personal discomfort this situation caused,” Lekovic said in a press release.
He added that it would be “hypocritical” to countermand jury to present the Journalists’ Association in “a better light”.
Lekovic, a senior investigative journalist and editor, became president of the body in April 2015.
In November 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia convicted six former Bosnian Croat officials for wartime crimes against Bosniaks, after which the former chief of the Main Headquarters of the Croatian Defence Council, Slobodan Praljak, took poison in the courtroom.
While covering the incident, Ivana Petrovic appeared to question the verdict by asking during a broadcast: “Who will guard our narrow border from Split to Prevlaka? According to this verdict, probably the Mujahideen returning from Syria.”
The HND’s explanation for giving Petrovic the award stated that her reporting on the day was “analytical and flawless”.
