ZAGREB, Feb 6 (Hina) - A new bill on Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) is based on the highest standards in the protection of media freedoms and political independence, Culture Minister Antun Vujic said in parliament laying out the
government's final bill on the matter.
ZAGREB, Feb 6 (Hina) - A new bill on Croatian Radio and Television
(HRT) is based on the highest standards in the protection of media
freedoms and political independence, Culture Minister Antun Vujic
said in parliament laying out the government's final bill on the
matter. #L#
Commenting on the reasons for the adoption of the bill, Minister
Vujic said this was also one of commitments stipulated by Croatia's
Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU.
He refuted accusations that the function of the new bill would be to
help the incumbent government to exert influence on HRT in the pre-
election year.
According to Vujic, an important advantage of the HRT bill is a role
which institutions of civil society, via parliament, would play
ensuring the maximum autonomy of the work and freedom of
reporters.
The new bill is part of efforts aimed at overcoming a crisis in the
business activities and in relations among key persons in HRT,
Vujic added.
He announced that the government would accept an amendment of the
parliamentary media committee on the election of 11 members of a
programme council inviting the civil society institutions to
propose their candidates for that board.
The committee would receive candidacies and call on party benches
to harmonise their views on the potential members, and the
parliament should then be given a final list to approve it,
respecting opinions of both ruling and opposition parties.
Another important novelty is that HRT employees would also be asked
to voice opinion in the process of the election of the heads of HRT.
The task of HRT would be to supervise the HRT activities and the
Programme Council is to submit reports to parliament on it.
(hina) ms sb