Croatia- Car bomb kills owner and executive of weekly Nacional

Ivo Pukanic, owner and former editor of the weekly Nacional, and marketing executive Niko Franjic were killed a few months ago in a car bomb explosion.

This was shock to many; however, it is a time of high violence in Croatia right now. There is still an investigation going on to establish exactly who did this, and why they did it. There is a lot of organized crime in the Balkans and it seems to only be getting worst. Many journalists are being murdered by taking too much interest in their activities.

An article and instance like this shocks me greatly. This goes hand in hand with the press freedom issues we have been discussing in class, however, this is an extreme measure. I couldn't imagine the outrage that would occur if situations like this happened recently in America. Croatia is ranked a partly free nation, but this just proves how dangerous it is to be a journalist. When it's your life on the line that you have to consider when thinking about whether to publish a story or not, things get serious. Hopefully, all the issues with Croatia and the European Union can get sorted out, and there can start being more peace for the country.

Vikash Kothari
Croatia