The director of Zagreb's Child and Youth Protection Centre, Gordana Buljan-Flander, announced in Nova TV's news programme on Thursday evening that she was resigning following negative reactions to her demand for a court injunction to stop the H-alter website writing about her and the Centre.

Buljan-Flander said she had been trying in vain for three months to reach Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic to seek support for the work of the institution she led.

Tomasevic said earlier in the day that he would dismiss the Centre’s governing council and order an inspection, following the announcement of the court injunction. He noted that he did not have powers to sack Buljan-Flander, but that he could dismiss the governing council.

“I am tendering my irrevocable resignation already this evening. I hope you will find an expert, or you may already have one, to continue leading this institution in a way that will ensure that it remains recognised and an example of good practice in Europe. I respect the right of any mayor to choose their own associates,” Buljan-Flander said in a message to the Mayor.

She said that as soon as she realised that she did not have the mayor’s support, she knew that further cooperation would not be possible.

Buljan-Flander told the media in the afternoon that the H-alter website wrote untruths about her work, but that today she would have sought another way of protection instead of seeking a court injunction.

“Had I known that it would provoke reactions of this kind and that it would be seen as an attack on freedom of the media, I would have tried to find another way, although I do not know which, or I would have tolerated it as we tolerated it for a month and a half before seeking a court intervention,” she said.

Buljan-Flander and the Centre sued H-alter over a series of articles by journalist Jelena Jindra which questioned the Centre’s work. Buljan-Flander insisted that Jindra “systematically wrote untruths and vilified” the Centre despite the fact that they had provided her with true information. Buljan-Flander said that the articles were least about the system, but that their aim was to obstruct the Centre’s work and disparage its staff.

“There have been a lot of threatening reactions, calls for lynching on social media. Some parents have stopped visiting, an atmosphere of mistrust has been created, which really hampered the Centre’s work,” she said.

Buljan-Flander said she would seek satisfaction in court over the articles published by H-alter.