They accused the government and Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek of inaction.
The Andrej Plenković cabinet had enough time, the law could have but has not been amended, for which the Culture and Media Ministry, with the minister at the helm, is also responsible, the HND and the SNH said in a press release.
They said they could not support the selection procedure which, after complaints about regularity, consisted of two meetings of the parliamentary Information and Media Committee.
At the first one, on 12 October, before it was made public who the candidate was, two committee members who did not attend deposited their votes, which were declared valid. The ruling majority’s claim that the votes of five of the committee’s 13 members were enough to choose the HRT head fully reveals the farce. After complaints from the opposition, another meeting was held, the press release said.
Framework must be created to build professional and independent public broadcaster
The HND and the SNH said it was important to create a framework for building a professional and independent public broadcaster.
It’s enough to watch Croatian Television’s (HTV) feature on the parliamentary committee’s 13 October meeting, which made no mention of the opposition’s complaints about the selection procedure, the irregularity of the call for applications or the conflict of interest of the ruling majority’s candidate for that position, they said.
That is the picture of the HTV’s information programme in 2021, the programme which sends the prime minister interview questions in advance, they added.
The selection of the director general has shown the validity of our years-long demands for amending the HRT Act in order to enable its business and programming stabilisation and ensure an independent and transparent selection of the director general without evident political influence, thus opening the door to HRT’s transformation from a state into a true public broadcaster, the HND and the SNH said.
