10. 11. 2004.

ANTIESPIONAGE  FIREWALL

The last scandal with enlisting of the free journalist Helena Puljiz from POA (Antintelligence agency, one of the legacy of Udba, Z.P.) above all sends a message to our profession; it warns us that it is the final hour to protect ourselves from claws of secret services and the politics which manipulate them.

There will be little help from intercession of representatives of our journalist association or pleaders of protection of human rights. Those are my experiences...

The public calmly excepted the fact that the Council for supervision of safety services in Croatian Parliament, without any further control, although it has legal authorize for that, only by sending a letter to POA, calmly established that POA affirm that it didn't secretly supervise the six journalists because of suspicion, that they, with other foreign secret services, give wrong informations to the public, by writing that deserted general Gotovina is in Croatia.

With that, the civil inspecting committee, under leading of professor Vlatko Cvrtila, believed also the colleague Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, who wrote, in one his Saturday column in "Jutarnji list": "I'm not a fool to complain to those who eavesdropping me".

So, without opposing, HND or HHO, our colleague got satisfaction of believing them, and those our colleagues who wrote, with the handwriting their friends, fortunatelly for eliminated bosses, that the six journalists work for MI6 on discredit of person, work and geography position of hero and knite of Civil war – general Ante Gotovina.

I explained in vein, for all those who are interested in it, that I get from Britain, once in a while, a pound or two, for few statement for BBC Croatia and that I haven't seen a British since 2001., when I gave an interview for IWPR to Dominic Hopkins.

I communicate much more with the Germans, but that doesn't go with the theory of conspiracy, for our policemen and their servants, which they sell at the moment.

So, I think, that the damage out of whole story will suffer first the journalist, who had a "date" with secret agents.

Maybe a slight political profit out of it will have President Stjepan Mesic, and his dismissed agents, Zeljko Bagic and Franjo Turek, and maybe they get the satisfaction, by showing the weekly magazine which regularlly publish espionage dish from their kitchen, to every stranger they meet.

- "You see, mister, I'm retired because of Gotovina, and what are Sanader and Podbevsek doing?!" Isn't it  scandalous, it is possible they are already convincing shopkeepers in quart's stores.

For the journalists who still don't have developed relationships with secret services, in their careers, is even better to keep away from them.

When the words – no free lunch – analyse in the world of market of informations, it is clear that meetings with cops, who are our organic competition, extremely expensive and the tails of that conversations can follow us our whole life.

That's why, above all, we shouldn't go to official discusses in rooms of secret police offices, if there isn't enough legaly justified and for the common sense, clear reason.

If they manage to deceive you, because you're new in the job, and you are not familiar enough with the law, don't let somebody to torture you for five hours. After few minutes in office, they have to explain to you in what way is the national security jeopartized (this time of President Mesic, Z.P.) and how and why you should help them.

Don't consent for a longer conversation, believing that you are going to outwit them and draw out some information for yourself – more then they are going from you.

Ex journalist of "Nacional", Zeljka Godec , was officialy arrested because she took the documents of SZUP, with state secret sign on it, to show Fran Visnar, who was eavesdropped during the first visit of the Pope John Paul II to Croatia.

She was, not by her wish, on questioning in the police for two hours.

She refused to answer the question where she got the state documents with sign of secret, and in that way she protected the colleagues who were the bearers of project of tearing apart of SZUP and Smiljan Reljic. The police went completely by the rules of that time, and it should withstand to that burden.

Our other colleague, in TV-duel with Smiljan Reljić, ex chief of SZUP, found herself in very unpleasant situation when he said that he remembered their conversation in his office about her work on reportage in Beograd and unofficial talks with some of the members of infamous group "Labrador", which established the general of KOS of  JNA, Aleksandar Vasiljevic.

She couldn't denie that.

The journalists of "Feral", Marinko Culic, Ivica Djikic and Zoran Daskalovic , didn't let to be involved in espionge. They came for a conversation with the person who was mentioned in their texts as a representative of intelligence underground, which was used by Tuđman's dearest council Ivic Pasalic, to hear the story of the "called by name".

After all, he was in company of his old colleague from Udba (old cop scenes – a good and a bad cop in one pair , Z.P.). As soon as he started with the story, which smelled on blackmail and enlisting, the people from "Feral" stepped out of the table and wrote a text about everything, not leaving the other side the space to manipulate with the meeting.

The example of Zeljka Godec teaches us how to react in official conversations with cops, and the "Feral" 's how to behave when we can't avoid the meeting with their servants.

Maybe it wouldn't harm for a start, to build in, this mentioned experiences, in our professional antiespionage firewall.

Zeljko Peratovic