ZAGREB, July 1 (Hina) - The director and head of management of Croatian Radio-Television (HRT) on Thursday forwarded an open letter to the prime minister and president of the parliament in relation to a parliament decision which
reduces the permitted time limit for commercials from nine to four minutes in one hour. "The recently passed Law on Telecommunications," which parliament adopted on Wednesday and which sets a new time limit for commercials, "brings into question HRT's programme, financial, and business stability, and even its future as a public institution of national interest," reads the letter signed by HRT's Ivica Vrkic. He said "first calculations indicate that HRT's annual budget is automatically reduced by DM50 million to DM60 million, which is 80 percent of the current direct costs of annual production. In these circumstances, the HRT cannot execute the informative, cultural, scientific, and other fu
ZAGREB, July 1 (Hina) - The director and head of management of
Croatian Radio-Television (HRT) on Thursday forwarded an open
letter to the prime minister and president of the parliament in
relation to a parliament decision which reduces the permitted time
limit for commercials from nine to four minutes in one hour.
"The recently passed Law on Telecommunications," which parliament
adopted on Wednesday and which sets a new time limit for
commercials, "brings into question HRT's programme, financial, and
business stability, and even its future as a public institution of
national interest," reads the letter signed by HRT's Ivica Vrkic.
He said "first calculations indicate that HRT's annual budget is
automatically reduced by DM50 million to DM60 million, which is 80
percent of the current direct costs of annual production. In these
circumstances, the HRT cannot execute the informative, cultural,
scientific, and other functions envisaged by the Law (on HRT) and
the decisions of the HRT Council."
Vrkic pointed to the fact that the parliament decision "also
directly jeopardises the informing of Croatian citizens in the
world via satellites, to which the Law on the HRT also obligates
us."
HRT's director further reminds that "in May of this year, Croatia
signed the European Convention on Transborder Television,
according to which all European countries protect their public
televisions, to which end they allow up to 12 minutes of commercials
per hour."
The newly adopted law on telecommunications is contrary to European
standards, Vrkic says in the letter, "because it reduces commercial
space on a public television to such a short time limit, which is not
the case on any public television in Europe which is of national
importance and function," .
He points out "the HRT has always advocated and stimulated media
competition and media pluralism, but not in a way which would
jeopardise the public interest it promotes."
"The passed Law will certainly lead the HRT into bankruptcy," Vrkic
says in the letter, adding the new situation has "forced" HRT's
management board and programme senior figures to take specific
steps.
"Due to possibly great losses, the HRT will be forced to increase
the subscription fee to at least 98 kuna (the present being 45
kuna)." Furthermore, the HRT, "based on European practice, demands
the revocation of Value Added Tax on subscriptions."
According to Vrkic, only five of 49 European countries, permanent
members of the European Broadcasting Union, pay VAT on television
and radio subscriptions. These, he adds, are lower than Croatia's
22 percent, and are paid in highly developed economies and with
subscribers' figures dozens of times higher than in Croatia.
The HRT further "demands the government to finance specialised non-
commercial, socially-relevant programmes, and the payment of
satellite broadcasts for Croats living abroad. In these
circumstances, the HRT will press charges at the Croatian
Constitutional Court for the violation of European conventions on
the functioning and financing of public televisions as public
property."
"We expect the government will urgently voice its opinion regarding
these suggestions, otherwise HRT's leadership will not be able to
execute the obligations envisaged by the Law, and will be forced to
take all measures of financial protection within its authority,"
concludes the letter.
(hina) ha