ZAGREB, June 19 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament on Tuesday afternoon resumed its session which started today with reports on the operation of Croatian Radio Television (HRT) and the work of its management and the HRT Council in 2000.
HRT director Mirko Galic said that some progress had been made last year regarding HRT's functioning but the changes were far below expectations due to many limiting circumstances. He expressed belief the new HRT management and council, which should take over their duties in the next several months and have a full mandate, would carry out the planned transformation of Croatian Television (HTV) into a public institution, in line with a new law on the HRT. Last year, HRT made profits despite inherited losses of 260 million kuna and saw the end of the year with a profit of eight million kuna, he said. HRT's income last year was 14 percent higher than planned and 21 percent higher
ZAGREB, June 19 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament on Tuesday
afternoon resumed its session which started today with reports on
the operation of Croatian Radio Television (HRT) and the work of its
management and the HRT Council in 2000.
HRT director Mirko Galic said that some progress had been made last
year regarding HRT's functioning but the changes were far below
expectations due to many limiting circumstances.
He expressed belief the new HRT management and council, which
should take over their duties in the next several months and have a
full mandate, would carry out the planned transformation of
Croatian Television (HTV) into a public institution, in line with a
new law on the HRT.
Last year, HRT made profits despite inherited losses of 260 million
kuna and saw the end of the year with a profit of eight million kuna,
he said.
HRT's income last year was 14 percent higher than planned and 21
percent higher than in 1999, Galic said.
The president of the HRT Council, Ivo Skrabalo, said that before it
adopted HRT's programme orientation, the council tried to build in
it the principles and criteria of public television so that HRT's
transformation could start before the adoption of the law on the
HRT.
Galic recalled that almost all political groups had frequently
expressed dissatisfaction with HTV's news programme.
The HRT Council has warned several times about the lack of
professionalism and sensationalism in HTV's news programme and we
have managed to achieve rather fair coverage of all more relevant
political events although lack of balance can still be felt in HRT's
news programme, Skrabalo said.
He expressed hope the new management and council would make further
progress so that the HRT, as a public and politically independent
media company, could become part of the European media family.
(hina) sb rml