The Board of Directors of the BH Journalists Association strongly condemns the new verbal attack on journalist Avdo Avdić, who, after months of institutional silence from the Croatian authorities on the reasons for the ban on entry to the Republic of Croatia, is now being politically targeted by senior Croatian officials, the association announced.
“In Boris Brezo’s podcast, published on Thursday, July 16, the Secretary General of the Homeland Movement Mladen Barać and the MOST MP Nikola Grmoja made unfounded and discrediting claims about Avdo Avdić, placing him in a negative political and security context without a single piece of evidence. Such statements are a continuation of pressure on the journalist who has been investigating organized crime, corruption and abuse of political power in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region for years,” the statement said.
According to the Association, it is particularly worrying that Croatian institutions have been refusing to provide any explanation for the ban on entry to journalist Avdić in Croatia for nine months, despite numerous requests from domestic and international organizations for the protection of media freedom. Additional concern is caused by the fact that there is still no response or visible progress in the proceedings regarding the criminal report of Avdić’s lawyer from November 2025, submitted to the competent state attorney’s office in Osijek due to the entry ban, which is not documented or explained.
The new, public labeling of journalist Avdić by political officials further confirms the justified concern that a coordinated discrediting campaign is being waged against him, in which institutional non-transparency and political attacks act as interconnected forms of pressure on his journalistic work.
In this context, BH Journalists call on the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, the Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency, the competent state attorney’s office and other institutions to provide, without further delay, a legally based explanation on the ban on entry to Avda Avdić, as well as information on the action taken according to the submitted criminal complaint.
The Steering Committee of BH Journalists reminds that politicians and public office holders have a special responsibility not to incite hostility towards journalists with their public appearances or to present them as a security threat without evidence. Such rhetoric threatens media freedom, encourages attacks on journalists and creates an atmosphere of fear for investigative journalism.
BH journalists will inform international organizations for the protection of media freedom about this case, including the Council of Europe Platform for the Protection of Journalism and the Safety of Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and other relevant international institutions, the association announced.
