Many Croatian investigative journalists were subjected to various pressures. Case of Nataša Škaričić is significant for Croatian investigative (or all) journalism in more aspects. But before the story of hell in which she found, here's short introduction about her career.

Nataša Škaričić is one of the best Croatian investigative journalist specialised in health care. Her articles, columns and researchs were published and presented in many Croatian and international scientific magazines such as the British Medical Journal, Cochrane Moscow, Croatian Medical Journal, World Congress of Medical Law, etc.

She is elected as the Croatian Journalist of the Year, as the best investigative journalist in Croatia, ando also she won the Hippocrat Recognition for the fight against corruption in the health system and the Green Card for the promotion of patients' rights.

She is the co-author of the books „Is The Croatian Health System – a System?“ and „Corrpution in the Croatian health system“. Furthermore, she authored many important articles, covering the cases such as the ovary cell theft in the clinics of the famous Croatian gynecologist Asim Kurjak; the "Pfizer scandal" about the links between doctors and the pharmaceutical company; "Shimadzu case" about the corruption in the public procurements of medical equipment during Mr. Andrija Hebrang's mandate as the Minister of Health; "Brezovica case" about the sexual harrassment of children in the Catholic Church shelter in Brezovica; the case of forced hospitalization of Ms. Mirjana Pukanić; etc. In 2010, Škaričić was the first to introduce the Croatian public to the problem with the secret agreement between the Croatian Institute of Immunology and the swine flu vaccine manufacturer Novartis in which this comapany declared that it is not responsible for the „vacine side-effects and non-efficiency“.

Nataša has been a professional journalist for 18 years.

The story of inferno

Her case is significant for Croatian journalism primarily in three aspects. She is one of the few journalists who were fired due to extensive censorship during the mandate of former prime minister Ivo Sanader. The court verdict in her case is the first in which a false free-lance contract (which are widespread in Croatian journalism) is declared a contract for a permanent job. Her employer, EPH's daily Slobodna Dalmacija does not respect a valid Court verdict six month after the Court's decision.

In 2009. she was fired wihouth a word of explanation from EPH's daily Slobodna Dalmacija which is 50 percent owned by WAZ. The termination of the contract came as a result of Škaričić's public speech on the corruptive connection of the former prime minister Ivo Sanader with all of the owners of Croatian written and electronic media. At the moment, she was the assistant of the editor-in-chief with the freelance contract. This type of contract is obviously contradictory to her job position and to the Croatian's Labour Law. Similar contracts are widely spread in the
Croatian journalism due to publishers intention to minimise and hide the taxes which come from regular job contracts and to minimise the rights of the employed.

Škaričić sued EPH and in June this year she won the case. The verdict of the County Court was that the contract between Škaričić and EPH was a disguised employment contract so the dissmisal was unlegal, and that EPH's Slobodna Dalmacija must return her to the position of the assistant of the editor-in-chief in 8 days. This is the first verdict in the Croatian justice system in wich the court decided that one's author's agreement is in fact an employment contract for a full-time, permanent workplace. The court procedure lasted two and half years althought Croatian Labour Law orders that such cases must be finished in seven months. Unfortunatelly, Škaričić's problems only began with this verdict.

She was waiting until the end of August for the first call from her employer when she was told that „she will not be returned to the position of the editor, as is ordered in the court verdict, and if she does not agree with this, they will delay her return to job for at least six months“. After this Slobodna Dalmacija and Nataša Škaričić concluded that their business relations have deteriorated to much to continue and that Slobodna Dalmacija will pay Škaričić the material and non-material damage which was done by the termination of the contract in 2009. together with her wages from the day she was fired from her job. It never happened because Slobodna Dalmacija never answered the proposals which came from Ms. Škaričić's attorney.

During that time Škaričić was called from HTV (national television) to be a guest commentator in their political talk show „Otvoreno“ but Slobodna Dalmacija prohibited this and violated her right of freedom of speech and public appereance. Finaly on October 20th Slobodna Dalmacija unexpectedly call Škaričić to return to her job position at 9 a.m. When she came she was not
allowed to enter her employer's buliding and after several telephone calls to the editor-in-chief, around 2 p.m. he finally answered and told her that he doesn't want her at his assistant position despite of the court verdict. After a prolonged argument, Škaričić was told to take a vacation before the Directory Board finaly decides what to do with her. At the same time, her attorney insisted that she must receive her wages from the day when she was fired but with no reply. Finally, in November the attorney decided to call the Labour Inspection. When the inspection came, Slobodna Dalmacija told the inspectors that they will immediately send Škaričić the wages lists (a document which enables the employee to obtain the wages from the company) but
they sent only a half the list. All this behavior immensely exhausted Škaričić, up to the point that she is now treated for civil PTSP. From her home she called her editor-in-chief to know whether Slobodna Dalmacija decided to allow her to work according to the court verdict, but with no reply.

In Ms. Škaričić's case even the County Ombudsman decided to take action, but the Croatian Journalist Associations remained silent as in many similar cases. Her case is not only the case of brutal censhorship in the mainstream media but the case of total neglect of a court's decisions and Croatian Labour Law which must be sanctioned. Due to total inefficiency of Croatian state services, I'm calling the Reporters without borders, and and other related international organizations to protect journalists, and the general human rights, to help in this and similar cases, which are of extreme importance to the freedom of Croatian journalism - especially investigative.