"Tabloidization of police" seen as present-day danger

"Tabloidization of police" seen as present-day danger

This murder is reminiscent of the 1990s also because the same people are in power now as was the case then, he added.

However, this journalist noted, "it is important to stress that there is a significant difference":

"What is important, and I hope will not happen again, is that we did not know then where the authorities ended and the mafia began, because everything was bound together and even police generals were killed. I hope that this period is behind us and will not happen again."

Švarm added that "something else causes concern," and explained it was "various factions within the police fighting one another, while the tabloids are informed about police cases on a daily basis. Also, policemen are talking among themselves in strange ways. I'm not sure that the war among policemen (fighting) for various positions is not being abused."

According to him, "various sides have the support of the media and everyone is pushing their story."

"I was stunned when I read in the newspapers the questions that (BIA deputy director) Dragan Marković Markoni was asked, and which ones he failed in the polygraph test - how could the journalist have that, unless it was given to him," Švarm remarked.

He recalled that similar situations occurred before, but that with this government the practice escalated, "because the whole country is tabloidized". "Politicians are starting to talk like the tabloids and the tabloids have become services of parties and political factions."

Asked what could be the motive for the killing of Rade Rakonjac, a former bodyguard of Željko Raznatović Arkan, Švarm said it may have been "redistribution of power in the underworld given the recent arrested of drug cartel leader Darko Šarić - or some other, banal motive."

Speaking about the acquittal of Sreten Jocić, aka Joca Amsterdam, who stood trial accused of organizing the murder of Croatian publisher and journalist Ivo Pukanić and his associate Niko Franić, Švarm said the decision of the court was expected since a Croatian court that dealt with the same case also did not convict him.

The Vreme editor-in-chief added that there are two possibilities - that Jocić really had nothing to do with the murder - "or that maybe only a few people are aware of Jocić's involvement but have decided to keep quiet."

Švarm recalled that neither Croatian nor Serbian indictments mentioned the motive for the murder, while the person who ordered it also remains unknown.

Švarm said he did not believe in the theory that Pukanić's articles published in his weekly Nacional were a possible motive:

"We speculate about all (possible) motives, the Albanian mafia is mentioned, mafias in the region, which could have had a motive to kill him. But, if this could not be established by courts, it can hardly be done outside them. I do not believe that someone was reading articles in Nacional and then got upset and said Pukanić should be killed. "

Švarm noted that it is possible the Croatian publisher "knew something that could have endangered those people from the gray zone of crime and politics" - or that he "knew something else."