FORUM 21 SUGGESTS CHANGES TO CRO TV LAW

( Editorial: --> 0026 ) ZAGREB, March 16 (Hina) - Forum 21, a group of broadcast journalists, presented a proposal for amendments to the Law on Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) at a press conference on Monday. That proposal is aimed at transforming HRT into a public television in line with European and democratic standards and will be forwarded to members of Parliament, said Forum 21 president Damir Matkovic. He said that the suggested changes foresee that the HRT management functions be separated from the programming and editing sphere to concentrate on strategy decisions. The proposal also suggests a reduction of the number of broadcasting channels reserved for Croatian TV to two instead of the current three. Forum proposes increasing the number of HRT Council members from 19 to 25, and changing its structure to reduce the number of members of Parliament and increase the number of representatives from research institutions, government and non-government organisations. Forum 21 considers that the HRT Council should adopt a new procedure for appointing editors, based on public tender and prior consultation with journalists. Reducing the number of channels will help streamline HRT's operation and provide an opportunity to privatise the third channel, said Forum 21. (hina) mm mrb/as 161652 MET mar 98