OPATIJA: JOURNALISM DAYS ON LOCAL MEDIA

OPATIJA, Nov 24 (Hina) - Local media and new forms of pressure on the media are the main topics of Journalism Days, which started in Opatija on Saturday. The event is organised by the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND). HND president Dragutin Lucic said in his opening speech it was indisputable the local media were in a less favourable position compared to the leading national media, stressing this particularly applied to the electronic media. Participants in the event pointed to the still strong influence of political parties on the local media. That influence, it was said, is most frequently exerted through the ownership of the bodies of local self-government and administration and public utility companies of local media companies. "The programme of the local media and the composition of their staff are still controlled," it was said. Zrinka Vrabec Mojzes of Radio 101 said there were ways to solve that problem. She spoke about Radio 101, which is partly owned by the City of Zagreb, and stressed relations between the owner, the editors and the journalists should be regulated internally. (hina) sb rml