HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE POINTS TO MONOPOLY IN PRESS DISTRIBUTION

ZAGREB, Jan 22 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee on Human Rights (HHO) maintains the Croatian media corporation Europapress Holding (EPH) and Austria's Styria are monopolising the distribution network of Croatia's print media. EPH and Styria have come to dominate the publishing and distribution sector after acquiring management rights in Tisak, Croatia's largest press distributor, HHO's Daniel Zderic told reporters in Zagreb on Tuesday. He added Tisak was also a 50-percent owner of the distribution of the Slobodna Dalmacija daily, and that just one more share would enable Tisak, and thereby EPH and Styria, to take over the entire distribution of the Split-based newspaper, thus further strengthening their monopoly of the market. Any new publishing venture in Croatia without the participation of the two corporations is virtually impossible, said Zderic, adding the Glas Slavonije daily was indirectly pressured into becoming part of one of the corporations. HHO president Zarko Puhovski maintains the EPH-Styria monopoly could undermine the plurality of Croatia's media sector and reduce the media to those within either of the two corporations. (hina) ha sb