30 Blogs Closed By Court

30 Croatian blogs were closed by court order due to slander, Ustasha symbols and pornography. Police had to intervene in 15 cases.

In most cases minors are involved, but also adults. Contentious contents are slander and threats. Attention of the Croatian public was recently directed to the Croatian ‘Pro Ana’ blog, in which Croatian teenage girls support each other in anorexia and give each other advice on how to starve themselves. Children’s Public Attorney Mila Jelavic said that the above mentioned blog would also be closed.

Dario Markus, one of the founders of the Craotian site Blog.hr does not agree with Jelavic and says that closing down such blogs will cause an opposite effect. He added that Jelavic should get a court order to find out the identities of those girls and provide them much needed help.

At the same time, Mila Jelavic is aware that teenage girls can, after banning their blog, open a new one on another location, but she believes that banning would send a message to all those who visit the blog that it is inappropriate.

All the power of intimidation on the Internet has felt by MP Davorko Vidovic, when he had to notify the police after receiving a death threat on his blog.