Human rights organisation condemns university’s attempt to discredit one of its staff

A Croatian court’s indictment of the attempt by a medical school to undermine the authority of one of its professors, after he spoke out about corruption in academia, was upheld last month by the Croatian office of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights.

The Administrative Court of the Republic of Croatia had ruled last October that the Zagreb School of Medicine’s decision to seek a psychiatric opinion of the work of the scientist Matko Marusic set a “dangerous precedent according to which anyone making critical statements about specific interest groups, communities, or individuals could be subjected to a review of their mental soundness.”

Last month’s decision by the Croatian office of the Helsinki federation to uphold the court’s ruling has been welcomed by the academics and scientists who have been campaigning for almost three years on behalf of Professor Marusic, founding coeditor of the Croatian Medical Journal.

Iain Chalmers, editor of the James Lind Library, welcomed the office’s decision and said: “Nada Cikes [dean of the Zagreb School of Medicine] and other officials at the medical school . . . have behaved outrageously to both editors in chief of the Croatian Medical Journal.

“Their character assassinations appear to have been attempts …