Croatian Satirist Threatened for Operation Storm Show

Domagoj Zovak, whose satirical TV show News Bar Prime Time airs on regional cable N1 TV, received death threat after the latest episode, about the 23rd anniversary of Croatian military operation 'Storm'.

"You too will also get [a bullet] in the back of the head," said a message sent to Zovak on Facebook.

Zovak told N1 that he has received insults from the same Facebook profile before and that he has reported the threat to the police.

"It is great that we have advanced as a society so much that it became normal that if you see on TV something you simply do not like, instead of [taking] the remote control, people decide to send death threats to the author," Domagoj said ironically.

A report published in May by the Council of Europe's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, ECRI, said that hate speech has been increasing in Croatia and criticised the authorities for their inadequate response.

Hate speech is too often not prosecuted as a criminal offence, the ECRI said.

During Operation Storm in August 1995, Croatian forces regained territory controlled since late 1991 by rebel Croatian Serbs, who had been helped by the Yugoslav People's Army and Serbian paramilitaries.

The operation led to a humanitarian crisis, as up to 200,000 Serb civilians left Croatia during and after the operation. The UN refugee agency estimates that in 1995, a total of around 250,000 Serbs left Croatia.

According to the Croatian Helsinki Committee, 677 Serb civilians were killed during and after the operation.

The Croatian state considers Storm its most important military operation during the 1990s war. Although the state admits that individual crimes were committed, it rejects suggestions that they were planned by the country...