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Alert

Journalist finds electronic device under his car, fears bomb threat

(IFJ/IFEX) - The following is an IFJ media release:

EFJ Condemns Latest Threat against Croatian Journalist

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its European regional organisation, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), today expressed their concern about the latest threat against Hrvoje Appelt, a Croatian journalist who found a device placed under his car on 20 November.

"We are calling on the authorities to launch an urgent investigation into this strange case. Even if the police declared it was a false bomb, it cannot be by accident that such a device is found under a journalists' car, who has been receiving several death threats before," said EFJ President Arne König.

Hrvoje Appelt, a journalist at the weekly magazine Globus, recently published articles about oil smuggling and in that context he mentioned Customs and Secret Services former officers. The police found a small electronic device, identified as an appliance used in toys, under Appelt's car.

The EFJ regrets that threats and violence against journalists and media personnel have become routine in Croatia. In 2008 three journalists have been beaten up, one was victim of an attempted murder and two media professionals were killed in Croatia. The EFJ supports its affiliate, the Croatian Association of Journalists, in its repeated request for full investigations into all cases, in particular the attempted murder of the journalist Dusan Miljus. After six months, those who are behind this criminal act are yet to be identified.

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries worldwide.

For further information on the Dusan Miljus case, see: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/95249