CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REPEALS MEDIA ACT

ZAGREB, Jan 28(Hina) - The Constitutional Court repealed the Media Act on Wednesday because it was not adopted by the parliamentary majority but the decision will go into force on April 30 so that parliament can adopt the law in accordance with the Constitution.#L# The Media Act is an organic law as it regulates human rights and freedoms whose adoption requires the votes of at least 76 MPs, i.e. the parliamentary majority, the Constitutional Court maintains. Given that the law was adopted with the votes of 69 MPs, the Court decided to unanimously repeal it because it was not adopted in accordance with the Constitution. In making its decision, the Constitutional Court referred to its stance during the recent repealing of the Penal Code, which was ended for the same reason, when it was concluded that organic laws are those which regulate individual and political rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and which enjoy international legal protection. The Constitutional Court maintains that media freedoms fall into that category. The Court also referred to its repealing of the Public Information Act in 1995 because it was in violation of the Constitution, as claimed at the time by journalist Denis Kuljis and his attorney Vesna Alaburic, who claimed that the Media Act was in violation of the Constitution too. (Hina) ha sb