The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Croatia has a right to secrecy related to conversations involving the former Croatian president Franjo Tudjman, citing national security reasons.
Vladimir Seks, a former high-level Croatian politician, requested access to the transcripts for a book he was writing about the end of communism, the Yugoslav Wars, and the formation of the modern Republic of Croatia.
The 25 documents relate to conversations between 1994 and Tudjman’s death in 1999.
According to a unanimous decision by the ECHR panel of seven judges, Croatia’s presidential office had a right to deny Seks access to the documents. In doing so, it did not violate Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, referring to the right of freedom of expression and right to access government information.
The ECHR said Croatia had properly handled Sek’s request for access, given that it was reviewed and rejected first by the Office of the National Security Council. Sek’s request was then later rejected by Croatia’s Information Commissioner, the independent body tasked with protecting and monitoring the right of access to information.
According to the Information Commissioner, Seks had failed to demonstrate why his access to the transcripts would outweigh “crucial public interests.” The Croatian Constitutional Court upheld the decision based on the grounds that the transcripts’ declassification would threaten national security and foreign relations.
“The court considers that the interference with the applicant’s freedom of access to information had been necessary and proportionate to the important aims of national security,” reads the ruling.
In fact, Seks’ was provided with 31 out of the 56 documents that he requested access to in 2017. Classified as “state secret- strictly confidential,” the files relate to the period from 1994 to 1999, before the end of the Bosnian War in 1995 and Tudjman’s death in office in 1999.
A communist general turned national dissident, Tudjman was the leader of Croatia through its declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, and the proceeding four-year conflict with rebel Serbs.
This chapter of Croat history is widely viewed at home as the country’s own struggle for liberation, earning Tudjman the title of “father of the nation.” His human rights record, however, remains controversial: the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was purportedly ready to issue an indictment against Tudjman when he died of cancer in 1999.
Even so, Croatia’s shift to the political right since 2012 has seen somewhat of a revival of Tudjman’s repressive legacy, alongside a drop in the country’s international media freedom rankings.
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