ZAGREB, April 16 (Hina) - Croatian Television (HTV) is no longer a propaganda machine in the service of the government or ruling parties, but its programmes still leave a lot to be desired regarding the serving of public interests,
Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HHO) members said on Wednesday, presenting the results of a research.
ZAGREB, April 16 (Hina) - Croatian Television (HTV) is no longer a
propaganda machine in the service of the government or ruling
parties, but its programmes still leave a lot to be desired
regarding the serving of public interests, Croatian Helsinki
Committee for Human Rights (HHO) members said on Wednesday,
presenting the results of a research. #L#
The purpose of the project, called "Politics on HTV", was to
establish to what extent politics affect the programmes of the
national public television and how HTV influences the public in
terms of politics. The project was based on a month-long analysis of
programmes conducted last November.
The purpose of the research was also to establish to what extent HTV
met the specific needs of the post-war Croatian society, including
the promotion of tolerance, multicultural society and the co-
existence of different ethnic communities.
The results were compared with the results of a similar research
conducted in a pre-election period, in October and November 1999.
Along with programme analyses, the research was also based on
interviews with 14 experts.
According to the research, HTV, as the most powerful medium in the
country, has reduced the share of politics in its programmes and
increased the number of reports about unions, judiciary, public
administration, economy and the non-government sector.
TV programmes no longer equate the interests of the ruling
coalition with general public interests, and government stands no
longer make up the main part of the programme. The presence of
ruling and opposition politicians in programmes has been balanced
compared to the situation three years ago, when ruling politicians
were three times more present in programmes than those from the
opposition.
The least covered topic are minority issues. HHO claims that HTV
still avoids being "an attorney" for underprivileged and
marginalised groups.
Although the displaying of national symbols has been reduced and
the language of hatred has become less frequent, HTV continues to
neglect its role of educating people about participation in the
process of democratic decision-making.
Unlike political programmes, documentary and education programmes
focus to a great extent on history topics, while the values of the
modern civil society are still neglected, HHO says.
HHO president Zarko Puhovski says one of the drawbacks of the
research was the comparison of its results with the results of the
1999 research, which was conducted at the election time, "however,
its purpose was to establish the situation on public television in
an empirical way".
Expressing satisfaction with the report, Croatian Radio Television
temporary manager Mirko Galic said its results outlined goals HTV
should strive towards.
The research was conducted by the Institute for Social Research and
was financially backed by the OSCE Mission to Croatia.
(hina) rml