Who is really making decisions at the Croatian public broadcaster?
The recent decision by Croatian Radio Television (HRT) to cancel “Show Trial”, a satirical show about politics, has provoked negative reactions from many who claim that HRT’s newly-appointed management is trying to prevent anyone from criticizing the new government in its programme. The management explained that the decision was made by the Programming Board at its meeting. That prompted GONG, an NGO which is usually devoted to monitoring elections, to send a list of demands to HRT regarding the composition and powers of the Programming Board. The answer which GONG received was quite interesting.
On 21 March, 2016 , GONG sent the following list of demands to HRT:
1. Publish the decision on establishment of the Programming Board.
2. Publish the official document which specifies powers of the Programming Board.
3. Publish the list of members of the Programming Board.
4. Publish the minutes from the meeting of the Programming Board at which the decision to cancel the show was made.
Instead of all these documents, GONG received an official reply from Croatian Radio Television, signed by its information officer Janja Miličević, which rejected GONG’s requests on the grounds that “Croatian Radio Television does not have the requested information and does not know where it could be found”.
On its website, GONG wonders isn’t it amazing that HRT does not have such information? One would expect that such an important decision should have been made at an official meeting of a body which is authorized to make it. And that meeting, given the importance of the decision, should probably have some kind of document or records made.
It would seem that Croatian Radio Television believes that the answer to the question is “no”, so there is hardly any other conclusion to be made except that the public broadcaster is turning into a version of News Bar, a satirical website.
