ZAGREB, November 5, 2019 – The law on the Croatian public broadcaster HRT, passed in 2010, provides for the production of programming that is now outdated and not in keeping with current trends, Andreja Arežina Grgičević, editor in chief for the HRT’s website and non-linear media services, told the South East Europa Media Forum (SEEMF) in Zagreb on Tuesday.
“We need more money to be able to produce new content because we will find ourselves in a situation where we are fighting big players such as Netflix and Amazon. We, of course, do not have that money because since 2012, when the monthly subscription was set, we have been getting the same amount of money and have had to produce more programming,” she said.
She added that of the monthly fee of 80 kuna, 55 kuna goes towards the production of programming and the rest to the Media Pluralism Fund and other institutions connected with broadcasting and the activity of the public broadcaster.
“If we now decided to increase the subscription fee, and under the law it could be up to 1.5 percent of the average monthly salary in Croatia, we would immediately face pressure from various social groups, not just political ones. Speaking about the HRT can score political points, and it can be heard in public that public television is not needed, that it does not produce the kind of programming it should and that the subscription fee should be lowered,” Arežina Grgičević said.
She said that the HRT was facing pressure from political and social groups and was trying to produce programming in accordance with the HRT Act and the agreements with the government while at the same time trying to cope with fast changes in the media sector.
“We are in a situation where we have to abide by the law and where politicians decide on the director general and choose the Programming Council. We cannot speak of immediate dependence on politics, but pressure is coming not just from politicians but also from different social and interest groups,” Arežina Grgičević said.
Speaking at a panel discussion on public media services facing financing problems and political pressure, Professor Viktorija Car of the Zagreb Faculty of Political Sciences said that the situation at the HRT in the last 15 years was “the worst ever” because the management was incapable of ensuring prerequisites for satisfactory programming benefiting all citizens.
Belmin Karamehmedović, the director general of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s BHRT public broadcasting service, and Susanne Pfab, the director-general of the German public-service broadcaster ARD, also spoke about problems faced by public media services.
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