Regulator Receives No Complaint about Electronic Media Coverage of Quakes

The VEM president Josip Popovac told Hina on Tuesday that the regulator had not received any complaint on the reports on this topic and he himself had no objection on how the electronic media had covered that topic so far.

Popovac said that despite the circumstances marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and strong quakes that have hit Croatia, the country’s media system had managed to perform its main role.

He said that “accurate, reliable and trustworthy information” was provided to the general public by electronic media.

“Considering their stable finances and a relatively mild exposure to the market, public broadcasters are supposed to be the source of reliable and fact-checked information and promoters of professional standards,” he said, calling on both the national radio and television HRT and the Croatian news agency Hina to make additional efforts in fact-checking information and in combating anomalies in the information spaces on a permanent basis and not only in times of great crises.

Popovac praised the role of local media in the quake-hit central Croatia and said that the contribution of local media outlets in the those areas was immeasurable.

The Petrinja and Sisak radio stations, whose buildings were destroyed in the quake, restarted operating four days after the quake. The radio stations Banovina and Quirinus that did not sustain extensive damage, resumed operating immediately after the earthquake, Popovac said, praising the journalists, editors and other personnel, whose homes suffered damage, for their dedication to their profession in such difficult circumstances.

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