RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES WELCOME AGREEMENT BETWEEN TELEVISION, CRO BISHOPS' CONFERENCE

ZAGREB, July 27 (Hina) - Representatives of churches and religious communities in Croatia on Thursday welcomed the signing of an agreement regulating relations between Croatian Radio Television (HRT) and the Croatian Bishops' Conference (HBK). The agreement, signed today by HRT director Mirko Galic and HBK president, Msgr. Josip Bozanic, regulates relations between HRT and HBK regarding the production and broadcasting of Catholic religious programmes. Welcoming the agreement, Zagreb-Ljubljana metropolitan and president of the Episcopalian Council of the Serb Orthodox church in Croatia, Jovan Pavlovic, said that "it is understandable that the Roman-Catholic Church in Croatia has been given most space on HRT, given the number of its faithful." The president of the association of Baptist churches in Croatia, Branko Lovrec, described the agreement as positive, adding other religious communities should regulate their relations with HRT as well. The Baptist church will most probably sign a similar agreement with HRT this autumn, Lovrec said. The president of the Christian Adventist church in Croatia, Miroslav Lorencin, and the head of the Muslim community, Sefko Omerbasic, hoped their communities would sign similar agreements as well. Omerbasic expressed regret over the fact that a solution to relations between other religious communities and the state was still not in sight. The acting bishop of the Evangelist church, Andreas Luksa, warned about the provision in the agreement according to which the editor- in-chief of the religious programme is appointed and relieved of duty by the HRT director, in consultations with the HBK. He added he was very satisfied with the presence of the Evangelist church on HRT. (hina) rml