ZAGREB, CROATIA – A month ago Great Britain’s Foreign Office warned its citizens who are planning to travel to Croatia to be aware of the dangers of organised crime in the country. The negative campaign against Croatia was additionally heated up by the BBC in its article headlined “Croatia Cursed by Crime and Corruption”. The author of the text recalls the murders of young attorney Ivana Hodak and journalist Ivo Pukanic, as well as attacks on reporters and business people in Zagreb. 

- The BBC’s criticism could be more favourably directed at Britain itself – especially considering high

The London-based web site is the leading source of news for business people who are interested in Croatia. 

The Croatia Business Report furthermore states that it is interesting that the damning reports and warnings about Croatia were issued just ahead of the tourist season. 

- The murders in question happened last year – why wait until now? – the British reporter wonders. 

Apart from Croatia, the BBC also mentioned Romania, Bulgaria and Italy as countries with problems, but never mentioned Great Britain itself. 

- Britain is a far more violent society than Croatia. The prevalence of knife crime amongst the young is a major issue, with murders taking place with terrible regularity. Official figures have recently shown that the amount of people in England requiring hospital treatment after being hurt in fights and assaults have risen by 50 percent in the last five years. Further, British Home Office figures show 4 million ‘anti-social’ incidents in England and Wales last year. But due to under-reporting the British Crime Survey thinks it could be as high as 35 million – the Croatian Business Report writes. 

Great Britain leading in numbers of poor and unhappy children 

The news site says that the UK has no reason to slam other countries, since most poor and unhappy children in Europe live in the UK which has also been hit by the economic crisis, so its enormous debt has reached as much as 90 billion pounds. 

Also, Great Britain cannot boast with its fight against corruption. The BBC itself has been targeted by other media recently for frequent scandals. In the end, the Croatia Business Report stresses that, despite everything, it does not claim that there is no corruption in Croatia. 

- It is legitimate for the BBC to look at Croatia’s problems, especially in light of possible EU membership. What is wrong is to fail to mention that Croatia’s problems are no worse than many others– not just Italy, Romania etc  - but also arguably Britain itself. Accession should not be held back on the grounds of crime and corruption. 

But then, maybe Croatia is just not corrupt enough for some in the EU – Croatia Business Report writes.

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