Court says Croatia is not obliged to give politician-turned-writer Vladimir Seks access to the transcripted conversations of former President Franjo Tudjman, citing national security.

ECHR Backs Croatia’s Right to Keep Tudjman Documents Secret

Franjo Tudjman. Photo: EPA/DIMITRI MESSINIS

The European Court for Human Rights, ECHR, on Thursday ruled that Croatia does not have to give a writer access to the classified transcripts of the late President Franjo Tudjman’s conversations.

Vladimir Seks, a former politician, wanted access to the documents for a book he is writing on the foundation of modern Croatia.

Tudjman led the former Yugoslav republic to independence in the 1990s via a bloody war with the Yugoslav army, JNA, and allied Serbian paramilitaries. He has also been criticised for his occasional chauvinism towards Serbs, historical revisionism, massive corruption in the 1990s privatisation processes, and the undemocratic practices of his regime.

The court ruled that there had been no violation of Article 10, referencing freedom of expression in the European Convention for Human Rights.

The court noted in particular that, the “decision refusing to declassify some of the requested documents had been based on an opinion of a specialised body dealing with national security”.

“Interference with the applicant’s freedom of access” was, the court said, “necessary and proportionate to the important aim of national security”.

In January 2021, Seks confirmed he was suing Croatia before the human rights court because he was being denied access to Tudjman’s documents. Seks insisted it was in the national interest that the documents were disclosed.

The documents are from the archive of the Office of the President of Croatia and Seks had asked for access during President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic’s mandate.

He was denied access on the explanation was that it was state secret. Croatia’s Administrative and Constitutional Courts later confirmed the decision.

Seks told the Croatian news agency Hina in January last year that the Administrative and Constitutional Courts “for some strange reason have completely wrongly established that publishing President Tudjman’s transcripts would jeopardize national security”, so he had no other option but to settle the matter at the European level. Tudjman died in 1999.

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