HND leadership said that transparent public financing was necessary for the long-term independent functioning of local media and for ensuring stable conditions for journalistic work in the public interest. They underscored the need for such public financing but under clear conditions and criteria and with an assessment by an independent expert committee.
Zovko: Local media must be financed with public money
HND leader Hrvoje Zovko recalled that the association had been warning for years about the problems of local media, and the project Models for Financing Local Media, created in cooperation with the Croatian Journalists’ Union (SNH) and financed by the Active Citizen Fund (ACF) Croatia, was a solution by journalists’ associations for improving the quality of independent journalism.
SNH leader and the president of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Maja Sever, said that the project highlighted the seriousness of the problems of local media and journalists exposed to great pressure.
That is the first step towards the goal of building a system that will protect journalists and the media more strongly and transparently, but political will is needed to take a step forward in order to get local media out of the cycle of dependence on local politics and advertisers, she said.
Project authors Andrea Milat and Melisa Skender presented an analysis of the financing of local media from public funds and models of public financing of local media with recommendations.
Tomašević: Local media shouldn’t be levers of local authorities
Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević said he supported the presented models because their goal was to build a transparent financing system that is in accordance with the law and under proper supervision.
He said that local topics were getting lost due to the excessive centralisation of the state.
Tomašević announced a public call for financing the media this year and promised that the amount for media financing would increase.
We want the financing to be fair and that local media contribute to informing the citizens without being levers of local authorities, he said.
Split Mayor Ivica Puljak said that he found the HND’s model acceptable so Split authorities would apply it, addressing possible problems along the way.
State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture and Media Krešimir Partl said that the ministry supported the project.
