OSCE: CONCESSION FOR THIRD TV CHANNEL TO INCREASE PLURALISM

ZAGREB, Sept 17 (Hina) - The Mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to Croatia issued a statement on Wednesday stating it hoped the decision to allocate the frequency of the third national television channel to a private bidder would promote the private broadcasting sector in Croatia and introduce healthy competition to the national television scene. #L# The Council for Radio and Television on Tuesday granted a 10-year concession for the third national channel to the HRTL consortium, which is comprised of the media corporation RTL, Agrokor, HVP/Splitska Bank, Podravka, Atlantic grupa, and Pinta TV 3. The decision was adopted with the majority of votes, after "a bidding procedure that appeared to be transparent", Mission head Peter Semneby said in the statement. "This will hopefully contribute to the pluralism of the television market in Croatia and benefit the Croatian public through a wider variety of views in television news programming." "We are satisfied with the openness of the selection procedure, regardless of who was eventually awarded the tender," Semneby said. The OSCE Mission has long recommended privatisation of the third national television channel under an open and transparent process. This was also an expert recommendation to the Croatian government when Croatia entered the Council of Europe in 1996, Semneby said. (hina) rml