ZAGREB, Sept 26, 2020 – Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Korinek has said in an interview for Hina that her department will see to it that the culture and creative industries and the media sector get out of the corona crisis with as few scars as possible.
Commenting on the fact that the world media was added to the official name of her department after she was reappointed the minister in late July, Obuljen Korzinek recalls that since 2002 the ministerial department of culture has been authorized to cover the sector of media. Adding the word media to the official name of the ministry was made with the purpose of highlighting that sector, the minister explained.
Bill on electronic media on government’s agenda soon
Considering concrete steps that the ministry is taking to enhance the status of the media sector, Obuljen Korzinek says in the interview published on Saturday that the draft law on electronic media is being fine-tuned by the relevant ministries and is expected to be on the government’s agenda in October.
The ministry is preparing activities to release the media legislation for public consultation, she said.
Following the government aid schemes made available in April and May, and enabling the media sector to have access to credit lines for which the government provides collateral, we are considering some other measures to support the media sector within the European Union’s funds for recovery, she says.
“We are conducting dialogue with professional associations to finds modalities for assistance aimed at enhancing the status of journalists,” the minister said.
“All those assistance measures should be carefully prepared so that they remain neutral and do not affect the independence of media.”
Asked about a growing number of defamation suits against reporters, the minister reiterated that politicians and office-holders should refrain from taking libel suits against journalists and media.
“I am strongly for the preservation of media freedoms as an important pillar for the development of democracy.”
In parallel, every citizen who feels to have been defamed is entitled to the court protection, she said recalling that in the first term of the Andrej Plenkovic cabinet abolished the criminal libel act.
Web portal with criteria for the assessment of epidemiological risks for music events
Considering the music industry in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, the minister says that the authorities in cooperation with the Croatian Musicians Union are hammering out the project of the support to this industry.
One of the steps in the preparation of a web portal for the assessment of epidemiological risks for music events which will standardize the criteria for all kinds of events, she says.
Restoring quake-damaged listed buildings to take a lot of times
Commenting on the damage caused by the 22 March quake to monuments and listed buildings in the capital city and its environs, the minister said that immediately after the earthquake, the ministry experts and representatives of the department of Zagreb’s city planning system toured the damaged sites and held consultations so as to immediately respond to the situation.
Conservators and restorers have been engaged in making a list of the damaged buildings and we were also actively involved in the preparation of the law on the removal of the consequences of the earthquake and on preparing the documentation for the European Solidarity Fund, she says underlining that the restoration of the registered sites of heritage significance would take a lot of time.
It will require a complex multi-disciplinary approach with the aim of improving the urban standards in Zagreb, alongside preserving the historical center, she explained.
Damage done by the quake to listed buildings is estimated at 7 billion euros.
Commenting on the achievements of her first term in office, the culture minister says that that the outlays earmarked for the ministry rose both in the absolute figures and their proportion in the total budget, reaching now a 1% share.
This has been achieved through a rise in the original sources of funding from the budget as well as through the better absorption of the EU funds, she added.
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