ZAGREB, Feb 27 (Hina) - A group of European media experts met representatives of the Croatian Radio and Television (HRT), journalists' associations and civil associations at the OSCE Mission headquarters in Zagreb on Friday to discuss
possible changes to the media legislation.
ZAGREB, Feb 27 (Hina) - A group of European media experts met
representatives of the Croatian Radio and Television (HRT),
journalists' associations and civil associations at the OSCE Mission
headquarters in Zagreb on Friday to discuss possible changes to the
media legislation.#L#
OSCE officials would not comment on the meeting, which was held behind
closed doors.
Participants said the meeting was attended by representatives of the
Council of Europe's mass media committee, Karol Jakubowicz and Mario
Oetheimer, British lawyer Gavin Millar, HRT's interim director Mirko
Galic, HRT Programmes Council chairman Zdenko Ljevak, Croatian
Journalists' Association (HND) vice-president Zdenko Duka, Omer Rak of
the Croatian Helsinki Committee's Media Council, and Darko Glavas of
the IREX association.
HND vice-president Zdenko Duka said the foreign experts had
established that amendments to the HRT Law were not a requirement for
Croatia's admission to the European Union.
He added that the two-hour meeting mostly addressed that law, and
somewhat less the Electronic Media Law and the Media Law. Participants
only stressed the need to amend the Media Law, Duka said, recalling
that this law was also challenged by the Constitutional Court because
it had received an insufficient number of votes.
In a discussion on the HRT's Programmes Council, we said that the
Council should be enabled to carry out the initiated procedure for the
selection of the general director and that the annulment of that
procedure would be considered a political intervention in the work of
a public television, Duka said.
The chairman of the HRT's Programmes Council, Zdenko Ljevak, said the
foreign experts claimed that changes to the HRT Law should not be
rushed and that the current Programmes Council should be allowed to
complete its term under the existing law.
Ljevak said the meeting was informed that the government had been
advised that the HRT leadership should carry out their mandates in
full if they were selected from among applications which had been
invited.
He said it had been "clearly stated" that the representatives of the
Council of Europe had been invited by the government to hold
consultations on possible changes to the media legislation.
Before the meeting, members of the youth of the Croatian Peasant
Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party handed to the
OSCE Mission a note protesting "over the latest statements by HDZ
leaders about changes to the current HRT Law".
European experts previously discussed the media legislation with
representatives of the government and the parliament.
(Hina) rml sb