ZAGREB, January 16, 2018 – About 20 non-profit media outlets on Tuesday sent an open letter warning about their dire financial situation, notably in the last two years, and the fact that the institutional financing of non-profit media was not envisaged in 2018 either.
“Non-profit media were erased from the Regulation on criteria for determining the users of and allocation of a part of income from games of chance in 2016 and 2017, which is adopted by the government, and in 2016 a grant programme was cancelled, which was no ‘accident’ or a ‘mistake’ by then Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic bur rather a part of the media policy of the governments led by the Croatian Democratic Union,” reads the letter sent to the Electronic Media Council, the Parliament, the Culture Ministry, the Parliament’s Committee on Information, Computerisation and Media, the Public Ombudswoman, the Council for the Development of Civil Society and the Government.
Financing of non-profit media in 2018 uncertain
They warn that their financing is in no way foreseen in 2018 either, as evidenced by the draft budget and a draft regulation on criteria for determining the users of and allocation of a part of income from games of chance.
Non-profit media have thus been left without their only institutional support, which, even though it was not big, had significantly contributed to their development and to the professional work of reporters, the non-profit media outlets said, noting that at the same time, commercial private media had received more than HRK 160 million in various tax breaks and incentives.
They recall that the programme of financing non-profit media was cancelled under the excuse that procedures for the allocation of grants were non-transparent and that it was stated that some form of institutional financing would continue once a media strategy was adopted and the concept of third-sector media was defined more precisely.
Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek has announced that a media strategy will be adopted and that applications for community media will be invited on several occasions over the past year, but that has still not happened, the media outlets said in the letter, among other things.
