The committee again supported Šveb’s candidacy after on Tuesday its members from the Opposition walked out of the session, citing a breach of the Standing Orders.
HDZ MP Mario Kapulica said his party proposed Šveb for the post because he had 20 years’ experience in the media sector, that he knew how a multimedia organisation operated and what was necessary to provide a quality public service.
He recalled that Šveb had announced in his platform that he would introduce modern principles in human resource management that would attract professionals and recognisable media figures.
Seven committee members supported Šveb’s nomination, just as at Tuesday’s session, and two voted against.
Vilim Matula of We Can! had proposed Dario Špelić for the post as the candidate of the Green-Left Bloc, but his nomination did not receive support.
The Committee also rejected a conclusion put forward by MP Zlatko Hasanbegović (Bloc for Croatia) who asked that it annul the call for applications for HRT director-general and repeat the procedure due to alleged irregularities.
Hasanbegović said that the entire process of appointment of the HRT director had been a farce because it had been known from the start that Šveb was the favourite candidate of Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek and was nominated “despite serious suspicion that he could be in a conflict of interest due to his connections to companies that do business with the HRT.”
The committee’s new session was held after the Opposition, which on Tuesday walked out, asked Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and Committee chair Natalija Martinčević to call a new session so that a vote could be taken in line with the Standing Orders, under which the parliament’s working bodies make decisions by majority vote if most members are in attendance.
The Committee on Tuesday accepted Šveb’s nomination by the HDZ without the presence of six opposition deputies, proposing that the parliament appoint him as the HRT director. However, the session was not attended by Dario Hrebak (HSLS) and Andro Krstulović Opara (HDZ) who entrusted other committee members with voting on their behalf.
Martinčević told Hina that so far committee members had been able to ask other members to vote on their behalf and that that was considered as quorum.
“But the truth is that the Standing Orders do not envisage such a situation. In order to avoid annulling the decision solely for the sake of the procedure, we decided to repeat the session,” she said.
The session was requested by all six Opposition members of the committee.
The parliament will vote on Šveb’s appointment as HRT director on Friday.
