TRADE UNION FEDERATIONS WARN ABOUT 'DARK SIDE' OF THE MEDIA

ZAGREB, Feb 19 (Hina) - Croatia's trade union federations on Thursday sent a public statement in which they warn that "a dark side of the Croatian media undermines the quality of democratic life".#L# The trade union federations complain that corrections of some articles and denials they forwarded to the media had almost never been published, and that a part of the media in search for scandals and conflicts often reported on events tendentiously and disparagingly without respecting criteria for offering fair and true information. "Recently, a daily with a high circulation has refused to publish a joint response of all trade unions in the country to groundless attacks, which would alarm the journalistic profession in democracies," the six trade union federations said. The unions find fault with the media for a lack of investigative approach and expert journalists when they write about topics from the field of trade unionism. The freedom of the media in Croatia is something like freedom without responsibility, and this kind of freedom always implies a lack of freedom for others. The ideal of democracy is not to muster power and freedoms for big systems, corporations or media houses but to ensure that individuals are protected against many power-mongers and not only against those who are outside law but also against those who act in accordance to law but whose ultimate goals are money and profit to the detriment of security and safety of people, labour rights, and the right to true information, or in other words to the detriment of human rights. All the six trade union federations in particular point out cases of reporters who work in some media without legal contracts on the employment and who depend in mental and existential terms on their employers. The statement was signed be the chiefs of all the six federations. (Hina) ms sb