ZAGREB, Dec 13 (Hina) - The chairman of the Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) Council, Vlatko Silobrcic, said on Friday that a new draft law on the HRT was a "step back" from public television.
ZAGREB, Dec 13 (Hina) - The chairman of the Croatian Radio and
Television (HRT) Council, Vlatko Silobrcic, said on Friday that a
new draft law on the HRT was a "step back" from public television.
#L#
At Friday's first news conference of the HRT Council, Silobrcic
mostly criticised the provision stipulating a decrease in the
number of Council members and a change in the way of their election.
They should, namely, be confirmed by parliament.
Dismissing claims that the Council had been incompetent in
realising tasks stipulated by law, Silobrcic said the current law,
under which the key role was entrusted to "a publicly-elected,
pluralist council," had enabled the beginning of HRT's
transformation from a state institution into a public one.
"Recently the Council has been accused of all problems at the HRT,
as if the company had functioned flawlessly before," Silobrcic
said. He added that "such accusations can be interpreted as a
political wish to prepare the ground for amending the law, under
which the Council constituted of representatives of the public
would be replaced by a council which would be elected by the
parliament."
"By overthrowing the current Council," politicians wish to assume
control over the HRT, said Council member Ante Covic, asserting
there was a wish to change the law urgently because of the coming
electoral year.
Covic said that the current HRT law, which he dubbed "a progress" in
comparison to previous laws, had been commended on numerous
occasions by international institutions.
(hina) lml sb