ZAGREB, January 10, 2019 – At its meeting on Thursday, the government recommended to parliament to adopt the annual reports on the work of the Electronic Media Council and Agency and the report on the operation of the Croatian Broadcasting Corporation (HRT).
Speaking of the work of the Electronic Media Council in 2017, Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek said that it had issued 44 sanctions, including 36 warnings and eight cautions.
The Electronic Media Agency made a great contribution to efforts to reduce hate speech in the public sphere by raising public awareness and encouraging pluralism. The agency continued promoting media literacy via the medijskapismenost.hr website by participating in and conducting research on the media habits of children and parents, working on new projects and bringing together participants in media literacy projects.
As for the recent wave of lawsuits against journalists and editors, the minister proposed establishing a Media Council to reduce the pressure on the media.
Speaking of the public broadcaster HRT, Obuljen Koržinek said that the company had generated a profit of 100 million kuna (13.5 million euro) in 2017, most of which had been used to improve its business and cover the losses from the previous period. However, the loss carried over at the end of 2017 was still high, reaching 549.6 million kuna (74.2 million euro).
Business results indicate that certain progress has been made, as seen in the increased profit, but the focus should continue to be on reducing labour costs so that more money can be directed at production, she added.
In 2017, the government and the HRT concluded a new five-year agreement.
More news on the media in Croatia can be found in our Politics section.
