Croatian DPA, (in further text: DPA) faced with a media lynch that followed after the Conflict of the Interest Board in Croatia removed from its website the property cards of the government officials, has tried, using reasonable and legal arguments – to send a message to the general public about a completely false presentation of its decision and has also denied unfounded and unverified facts imputed to the DPA, primarily emphasized the fact that DPA has never ordered the removal of the property cards nor it has ever ordered the removal of the legally publicized data of the government officials.
Due to a completely one-sided presentation of the situation published in the media, DPA sent the factual and legal arguments to the Government, to the Parliament and to the Croatian representatives in the EU Parliament. The DPA has also adressed to the media presenting the real facts (backed by firm evidence) some of which published a statement of the DPA.
On 14 May 2015, DPA in a press release to Nova TV, among other things pointed to inconsistencies with regard to the publication of the personal data of the government officials on the Internet in a way that many property cards were not filled with the relevant data which fact is completely ignored, while on the other hand to the data which are published on-line contrary to the national and EU legislation is imputed conspiracy and instead the relevant courts decides about the matter, a legal issue turned into a political issue. By certain incomprehensible moves for which the DPA is not responsible, all public anger and unbearable pressure of the media is directed to the DPA and its management.
Since on the one hand the DPA is imputed responsibility for the removal of the property cards and since other false allegation were made to harm the reputation of the DPA (such as – the DPA is trying to hide the data etc.), and since the media and politicians discuss and judge the decision of the DPA, instead of the relevant court, which caused a huge damage to an independent authority, which now existed for more than 10 years protecting the constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy, thus jeopardizing the independence of the institution in general, the DPA addressed to the European Commission in Brussels.
ATTACHED PLEASED FIND THE LETTER TO THE EC IN BRUSSELS
