The Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) said on Friday the journalists called in for interviews over leaks of information from investigations were not suspects and that they were interviewed as witnesses after they were warned about their rights.
"The journalists were called in as witnesses and they were warned about their rights before the interviews," USKOK said on its website.
USKOK said it was incorrect that the journalists were called in for questioning, adding that such claims implied that the journalists were suspects and that they were summoned to USKOK so that their accountability could be established.
USKOK announced yesterday that it would summon all journalists who claimed to have received confidential depositions "from sources close to the investigation" to collect information for launching criminal proceedings.
After the announcement was made, Vecernji List journalist Josip Bohutinski was summoned to USKOK, claiming this constituted political pressure on the media.
He said this was also an attempt to divert attention from what was published to the source of information.
Bohutinski was also surprised by how quickly the summonses were sent after Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said she would try to find out what was happening and who was giving statements, which he said showed that the Croatian judiciary was not independent.
The summonses were also condemned by the Croatian Journalists Association, which said this was an attempt to intimidate journalists and the media to stop them from writing about topics of outstanding importance for the Croatian public, such as the slush funds of Kosor's HDZ party, the syphoning of funds from state-owned companies, the suspicious collection of funds for Kosor's 2005 presidential campaign and the 2007 parliamentary campaign.
