A News Story that Changed the Law

A News Story that Changed the Law

The story “Money Laundering to be Penalized Again” by Andreja Kasanić, created in the first generation of the “Investigative Reporting Program: Stories on the Theme of Organized Crime,” resulted in a provision penalizing “money laundering” being reinserted in the Penal Code of the Republic of Croatia.

The journalist investigated how come a provision was deleted from the Penal Code penalizing individuals for the offence of money laundering. By an omission of the Ministry of Justice and Assembly of the Republic of Croatia, in Amendments to the Penal Code, a provision on the penalty for concealing unlawfully gained money, as money laundering is officially called, was deleted in 2000 from Article 279, Paragraph 1. Four and a half years later, publication of the story “Money Laundering to be Penalized Again” on the front page of Večernji List contributed to changing the mentioned paragraph and restoring the provision penalizing money laundering committed by an individual. The article that affected the change to the law was created during the five-month “Investigative Reporting Program: Stories on the Theme of Organized Crime” which the journalist attended in the first generation of journalists from February to July 2005.This program is one of the most important and largest projects implemented successfully by NetNovinar - Center for Investigative Reporting and Media Education (founders: Mediacentar Sarajevo and Investigative Journalism Center, Zagreb)You can see the front page of the story in Večernji List here.You can see the whole story published in Večernji List here.