The following report, Dossier: Croatia. Coordinated Hate. is presented by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights. It addresses the violations of human rights of Croatian citizens and the spread of hatred during the political crisis in Serbia from December 2024 to February 2025. This report, prompted by the ongoing anti-Croatian propaganda in Serbia, which emerged in the context of student protests, aims to highlight the widespread violation of the rights of Croatian nationals and dual citizens, as well as breaches of Serbian laws and the Constitution. The report also calls on relevant authorities to take appropriate action and hold those responsible accountable.
The report identifies provocative and discriminatory statements made by top officials of the Republic of Serbia and their media allies. It provides specific examples of attacks on Croatian citizens, the key propagandists behind these actions, and the main narratives and media spin pushed by tabloids such as Informer, Alo, and Večernje novosti. These tabloids played a pivotal role in promoting and disseminating hate speech. Pro-regime media outlets framed events in a way that intensified xenophobia against Croatian citizens and Serbian citizens of Croatian descent.
This reporting violated numerous professional and ethical standards outlined in the Serbian Journalists’ Code of Ethics. The entire anti-Croatian campaign grossly infringed upon the Constitution, the Criminal Code, the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, the Police Act, the Personal Data Protection Act, the Public Information Act, and the Law on Foreigners. It also violated citizens’ rights to work, privacy, freedom, security, and freedom of expression.
In addition, the report includes recommendations directed at Serbian institutions such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, the Ombudsman, the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media, the Serbian Government, the President of the Republic of Serbia, the Speaker of the National Assembly, and the media. Implementing these recommendations would ensure a basic level of protection and serve as a safeguard against the recurrence of such human rights violations against Croatian citizens and Serbian citizens with Croatian citizenship, as well as those who hold dissenting views.
You can read the analysis in English here, and in Serbian here.
