Index.hr

Index.hr is a Croatian tabloid online newspaper, launched in December 2002 and based in Zagreb. It was founded by Matija Babić and was originally designed as a news aggregation website, providing news content from Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The website quickly grew in popularity, and over time more original content produced by the growing staff was being added to the site, until it became a popular media outlet in its own right, but with "strong liberal bias", described of having a "reputation of an independent, liberal, and strongly opposition outlet".

The news site covers politics, business, sports, show business, and features columns covering everything from gossip to political commentary, self-credited for exposing many scandals which "changed Croatia". According to Alexa Internet in 2010, Index.hr is one of the top sites in Croatia, and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. , it is the leading Croatian news website. However, nevertheless its big popularity, it is one of the two Croatian news brands with lowest trustworthiness.

Court trials

In 2004, part of the lawsuit against Index.hr by Croatian singer Severina, due to release of naked photos from a sex tape, about intellectual property was dismissed, but was approved violation of privacy with a compensation of 100,000 kuna. In 2012 was initiated enforcement action because Index.hr did not pay the compensation, risen to 200,000 kunas with interest and court costs. In 2014, after ten years of court proceedings against Index.hr without compensation, through enforcment action the intellectual owner of brands trademark and logo became Severina, but Babić denied domain relation with it, and soon court ruled that couldn't seek compensation from publisher's account.

In 2014, the then Minister of Finance, Slavko Linić, initiated two lawsuits against Index promocija d.o.o. (Index.hr publisher) and Index.hr for damages valued at 210,000 kuna, first dismissed at the Rijeka County Court at first instance.

In 2016, Index.hr and its journalists received harsh criticism and dead threatening messages after controversial article about the veneration of the remains of Croatian Catholic saint Leopold Mandić. Both the brand for its offending the feelings of believers and received attacks were condemned by Croatian Journalists' Association (HND), but Croatian Journalists and Publicists association (HNiP) also condemned Council for Electronic Media (VEM) of unethical ideological bias for not to call for responsibility the publisher of the Index.hr (Index promocija d.o.o.) and "contextual defense of insulting religion and the religious feelings of Croatian citizens of the Roman Catholic faith". In 2017 five civil associations in first instance ruling lost the court case against Index.hr regarding texts they claim discriminated against people of the Catholic faith, as was accepted Index.hr's defense that the believers were not the target and article was satirical criticism.

Bankruptcy

In February 2014, after long period of account blocking due to amassed debt, the Croatian finance agency Fina rejected the proposal for a pre-bankruptcy settlement of 2.4 million kuna by two companies Index portal d.o.o. and Prva stanica d.o.o. related to the business of the brand and owned by Babić. Later in the same year "Babić was also accused of using fictitious contracts with Vana Šalov Violić to sell his company damaged for around 2.8 million kuna, so in April 2015 he was sentenced at the Zagreb County Court after pleading guilty and settling with the prosecution. He was sentenced to one year in prison, which was replaced by community service, and he was fined 300,000 kuna. According to the verdict, Babić and Šalov Violić had to pay about 1 million kuna to the state budget, and about 600,000 kuna to the company they damaged". In 2016, Sport Index d.o.o., another company related to Index.hr and Babić, was opening bankruptcy proceedings with an established debt of over 290,000 kuna.

References

External links

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Index.hr
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100214133958/http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/index.hr , date=2010-02-14 at Alexa.com

Croatian news websites
Internet properties established in 2002
2002 establishments in Croatia
Mass media in Zagreb
Croatian-language websites