President Milanović Presents Order of Croatian Trefoil to War Correspondents Žarko Plevnik and Posthumously Željko Ružičić

23. November 2021.
17:16

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović presented today in the Office of the President the Order of the Croatian Trefoil to war correspondents Žarko Plevnik and posthumously to Željko Ružičić for their extraordinary service to the Republic of Croatia in the Homeland War and in an immediate threat of war.

“It is an honour for me to present these decorations,” President Milanović said at the ceremony, noting that these reporters had played a very important role during the Homeland War. “It was an awful and evil time. In conflicts like that, journalists are ‘sitting ducks’, so to speak. He added that it was dangerous at that time to be a journalist and report from crisis areas and battlefields. “We saw what was happening and how many people got killed while trying to keep the public informed. This was very important at that time, when Croatia was being defended in 1991, because it was very hard for the truth to break through”, the President stated.

In his thank you speech Žarko Plevnik underlined that this recognition is intended not just to him but to scores of his colleagues who as professionals responded to the defence of the homeland. “We had no weapons, our weapons were pictures and words, weapons that definitely contributed to the internalization of the aggression against the Republic of Croatia and the Croatian people”, he stated.

Attending the ceremony with decorated Žarko Plevnik was his wife Katarina and daughter Maša Plevnik Cvitanušić. The posthumous decoration to Željko Ružičić was accepted by his wife Ankica, accompanied by their son Ivica. Attending the presentation ceremony to the war correspondents were representatives of the Association of War Reporters of the Homeland War of HRT (Zbor ratnih izvjestitelja Domovinskog rata HRT-a) president Marinko Ćavar, vice-president Zdravko Fuček, Board of Directors members Petar Granić, Dragica Lemešić, Zlatko Mehun, Verica Mađer, Dubravka Vukoja, Marija Petrinović and Božidar Pipunić, Supervisory Board members Marija Dujmić and Davor Iljadica, secretary Branko Pek, members Rene Babić and Dino Tomaš, and proposer of the decoration Zlatko Dernaj. Alongside President Milanović was the Special Adviser to the President for Homeland War Veterans Marijan Mareković.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Filip Glas