On the 18th of July 2016 the host of ABC's weekly program Q&A, Tony Jones, made claims concerning the involvement of Croatian Catholics in purported terrorist activities.

During a discussion concerning the existence of terrorism in Australia, Tony Jones attempted to create a link between Islamic terrorism in recent times and political activities by Australia's Croatian community in the 1970's. He said in comments addressed to Pauline Hanson;

"When you say we never had terrorism in this country before thats simply not the case. In the 1970's there were multiple bombings by Croatian Catholic extremists. This has happened in Australia before, it is not the first time. You should at least get that straight."

Recent evidence and fresh investigations into the purported crimes of Croatian Australian citizens (namely the 'Croatian Six') have shown that a large portion of the evidence used against the alleged Croatian "terrorists" was fabricated, false and cherry-picked as part of an operation by the communist Yugoslav intelligence agency, known as 'UDBA'. 

Research conducted into the matter has revealed that former Yugoslav officials considered the discrediting of the Croatian Australian community as one of their "greatest successes", making use of Australian Police and intelligence services to ruin the reputation of Croatian Australians as extremists. 

As a leading journalist, Tony Jones, should be aware of the effects that such misinformation can have on a community. It is ironic that he made such negligent statements in an episode which discussed issues of solidarity within the Australian community. 

The Croatian Australian community calls on Tony Jones to make a complete retraction and apology to the Croatian Australian community on Tony Jones' next appearance on the Q&A program. A minority community deserves no less from someone who has such a privileged position in the media. To view Tony Jones statement see video at 3:10 minutes: https://www.facebook.com/abcqanda/videos/10153556528106831/