April 20 (SeeNews) - Croatia fell five spots to 63rd position in Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) latest freedom of press ranking, the non-governmental organisation said on Wednesday.
Media freedom in Croatia was the fourth highest in southeast Europe, after Slovenia (40th), Romania (49th), and Serbia (59th), the World Press Freedom Index 2016 showed.
"Journalists investigating corruption, organized crime or war crimes are often subjected to harassment campaigns," RSF said.
Humiliating media content has been criminalized since 2013. The following year, Slavica Lukic became the first journalist to be accused of this crime due to an article that medical company Medikol was heavily in debt despite major state subsidies.
Published by RSF annually since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index measures the level of freedom available to journalists in 180 countries using the following criteria – pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative environment, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses.