ZAGREB, January 20, 2018 – The importance of a public broadcasting service for a democratic society is incalculable, and in restoring trust in Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) it is necessary in institutional and legal terms to clearly separate the responsibilities of politicians from those of the broadcaster, Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek said on Saturday.
“The Law on HRT is one of the most frequently changed pieces of legislation in the history of independent Croatia. All the time we have been looking for an ideal model, but there is no ideal model without raising awareness of the importance of the public broadcasting service,” the Minister said in an interview with Croatian Radio.
She said that the government had made it clear several times that it had no intention of interfering in the HRT’s independence, noting that changes to the law made in 2012, during the government of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), further challenged the separation between politics and management. “Unfortunately, after the law was amended in 2012 and the parliamentary majority, regardless of who makes up this majority, was given the power to choose the director general, there will always be a suspicion that that person is an extension of politics. That is not good in my opinion. And it’s not good that this law has also, to a large extent, disempowered the Programming Council,” Obuljen Koržinek said.
She added that this law was precisely the cause of criticisms from an international mission of leading organisations for protection of media freedoms, which visited Zagreb on January 15 and 16 and singled out the situation at the HRT as one of the key sore spots of the Croatian media system.
The previous law, dating from 2010, offered a much more democratic solution than the existing one, the Minister said. “I think we are close to a consensual solution that we had before. We need to find a solution which will, in institutional and legal terms, more clearly separate the responsibilities of politics from those of the public broadcaster.”
Speaking of the situation at the HRT, Obuljen Koržinek said that it was not bad. “At this point, it is important that the HRT has a stable management and that it embarks on the necessary restructuring,” she added.
Asked about proposals that the HRT should be financed from the state budget, Obuljen Koržinek said that that would not be good because the existing system guaranteed the HRT independence in raising funds. “The existing model is good, relatively stable and comparable to those in Europe that are considered more successful financing models. I don’t think it would be good if the amount of funding for the HRT depended on the decision of any prime minister, finance minister or culture minister,” she said.
As for content, the Minister said that the responsibility for programming solely lay with HRT editors and staff.
Commenting on the mission’s report, according to which Croatia fell by 10 spots to 74th place on the Media Freedom Index, Obuljen Koržinek said that the delegation made its recommendations based on its visit to Croatia slightly more than a year and a half ago.
The conclusion from the meeting with the mission is that the recommendations from the report overlap with government priorities in terms of further improving the system within which the media operate, respecting the highest standards and ensuring the highest level of media freedom and independence, the Minister said.
“I am sure our views and our policy will be acknowledged and I don’t see any reason for Croatia to backslide on media freedom,” Obuljen Koržinek said.
