ZAGREB, Oct 13 (Hina) - Croatia's new Government has no clear media policy, and since they took office, the incumbent authorities has done nothing to settle the situation in the electronic media, the Forum 21 said in a statement it
released in Friday. The Forum 21 regards that it is inexplicable how slow the Government is changing the relevant legislation, and recalls that no new acts on public television and telecommunications have been adopted so far. Six parties which make up the ruling coalition, have failed to fulfil even their moral obligation they assumed when they together with the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) and the Forum 21 signed a charter for public television. The Forum 21 informs that Council of Europe experts have assessed some segments of a draft act on the Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) as lagging behind European standards. The Croatian Television
ZAGREB, Oct 13 (Hina) - Croatia's new Government has no clear media
policy, and since they took office, the incumbent authorities has
done nothing to settle the situation in the electronic media, the
Forum 21 said in a statement it released in Friday.
The Forum 21 regards that it is inexplicable how slow the Government
is changing the relevant legislation, and recalls that no new acts
on public television and telecommunications have been adopted so
far.
Six parties which make up the ruling coalition, have failed to
fulfil even their moral obligation they assumed when they together
with the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) and the Forum 21
signed a charter for public television.
The Forum 21 informs that Council of Europe experts have assessed
some segments of a draft act on the Croatian Radio and Television
(HRT) as lagging behind European standards.
The Croatian Television news programme has no "clear criteria in
the coverage of events in the Croatian society," the statement
read. Besides, spectators can sometimes get an impression that it
pays off for journalists to be converts, said the statement signed
by Forum 21 President and Vice President, Damir Matkovic and Drago
Pilsel respectively.
Asked what kind of the converting they referred to, Matkovic told
Hina that the public had recently testified to the re-appearance of
"those who, while the former authorities were in power, had behaved
like their spokespersons," and this, according to Matkovic, brings
into question the television's credibility.
He added that although he was now an assistant to the HRT Director
Mirko Galic, he had no influence over television programmes.
Matkovic warned that competent institutions were late in the
clarification of suspicions about cases of abuse of office which
happened during the ex-authorities, and held that it was
incomprehensible that nobody had answered for a debt of 210 million
kuna of a debt which the new HRT management inherited from the
former one.
Forum 21, which gathers journalists from electronic media, called
on reporters to hold an assembly, on 6 November - the third
anniversary of the Forum 21 establishment - at which they could
define a strategy for their activities and offer expert assistance
to the Government in the efforts to arrange the situation in the
electronic media.
(hina) ms