She says she has had enough, and knowing that the pressure will not subside, this decision is everything but unexpected
Mirjana Rakić, president of the Council for Electronic Media and director of the Agency for Electronic Media, announced today that she would ask the government to dismiss her from both posts, reports Index.hr on March 18, 2016.
“Today I have submitted to the Culture Ministry my request to be dismissed, and the Council for Electronic Media will at its next meeting submit the identical request to the government because the government is the one that needs to dismiss me from both posts”, said Rakić to reporters.
Noting that there is no need for all members of the Council for Electronic Media to resign, she explained that she had decided to withdraw because she believed that it would be bad for other members of the Council to be collateral victims. “From the very beginning, all the pressure has been focused on me. After two months, I have had enough as a person, a professional, and a person who has integrity”, she said.
Rakić added that she did not know who would be her successor, but that the Culture Ministry probably did know.
The government recently gave a negative opinion on the report on the activities of the Council for Electronic Media and the Agency for Electronic Media in 2014 and proposed to Parliament to dismiss all the members of the Council and its president due to alleged severe failures in the execution of their obligations.
The government’s decision has drawn criticism from the Croatian Journalists’ Association while a group of opposition MPs submitted a letter to the European Commission claiming that the government had illegally initiated the procedure for dismissal of the president and members of the Council for Electronic Media.
