ZAGREB, February 9, 2018 – Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) on Friday reopened its bureau in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, after a four-year break.
HRT general director Kazimir Bačić announced that HRT would soon open a bureau in Sarajevo as well. He said that the Sarajevo bureau would cover the Bosnian capital, Croat communities in central Bosnia and, to a large extent, the Bosnian Serb entity from where more than 150,000 Croats had been expelled in the last war.
“Those communities particularly need our assistance and… with our programmes we will continue to encourage Croats to stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as encourage cooperation among all people living here,” said Bačić. He added that the reopening of the Mostar bureau was evidence of HRT’s care for the Croat people in the neighbouring country.
The Croat Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Čović, warned that Croats in that country still did not have a public media service channel airing programmes in the Croatian language and that the presence of HRT would mean that the local Croat community would be able to exercise its right to be informed in Croatian.
The first HRT bureau in Bosnia and Herzegovina was opened in July 1992 in Široki Brijeg. Another bureau was later also established in Sarajevo.
In 2007 the bureau in Široki Brijeg moved to Mostar, where it operated until 31 December 2014, when it was closed down in line with the then HRT’s management decision.
The opening of the HRT bureau, to be located in a building housing the offices of the Croatian cultural society “Napredak”, was attended by the highest government officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina and representatives of the country’s cultural, research, education and religious institutions as well as media outlets.
Also attending was the head of the Croatian government’s Office for Croats Abroad, Zvonko Milas.
