HRT COMMENTS ON PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN COVERAGE IN BOSNIA

( Editorial: --> 0369 ) ZAGREB, Sept 14 (Hina) - Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) on Monday issued a statement about its coverage of the pre-election campaign in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "During the pre-election campaign in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the HRT was constantly under OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) pressure to make its political programmes "equally available" to all parties, coalitions and individual candidates," the HRT statement said. "Such requests were based on the fact that the HRT broadcasts all its three (television) channels via the Eurotel network throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina, which made its programmes subject to the "Rules and Regulations" of the Provisional Election Commission. "In cases of these rules being disobeyed, the judges of the OSCE's Election Appeals Sub-Commission (EASC) had the authority to remove Croat parties' candidates from the election lists, even to forbid a political party participating in the elections. "It was also possible for the OSCE to simply interrupt HRT broadcasts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which would have left the Croat electorate in the neighbouring country without its only television source of information. "It should be noted that the Serbs and Bosniaks (Muslims) have their own TV broadcasts, which rarely present Croat views on the current situation in or the future of Bosnia-Herzegovina. "From the election campaign's very beginning, the HRT promoted 'objective and impartial' coverage of all political parties. In the period between August 1 and 22, as our statistical figures show, the ratio between the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) and the New Croat Initiative (NHI), an issue particularly insisted upon by the OSCE, was almost equal, having in mind the fact that (NHI president) Kresimir Zubak had declined giving a two-minute interview. "The OSCE monitors publicised their report for a period of only 7 days, and that solely (based) on the central evening news bulletin. This information was incorrect and biased, a new form of pressure on the HRT, which announced potential serious consequences. "Commenting on the removal of (Bosnian Croat) General (Stanko) Sopta from office and the HRT's reports on the case, as well as the reports of the monitors according to which the HRT had allegedly allotted four to even six times more coverage to (Bosnian HDZ president Ante) Jelavic than to Zubak, which was fully incorrect, the EASC removed four HDZ candidates from the election lists. "The decision of the judges also included a threat that they would 'if the HRT continues to provoke, remove one candidate from the list every 24 hours'. "Such retribution against candidates of a party, regardless of its political denomination, fought over the HRT, could be considered an attempt to engineer the elections, even more so because the offered explanation was not based on facts. And all this was to the detriment of Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "Beside a broadcast titled "Elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina" and the adequate parties' coverage in its news programmes "Dnevnik" and "Motrista", in the last phase of the campaign the HRT broadcast several programmes with promotional material of parties from Bosnia-Herzegovina, in compliance with the OSCE rules. "Some material, particularly those that promoted Serb parties and those of extremely Communist platforms, caused the justified indignation of a part of the Croatian public, especially various associations of homeland war volunteers and victims. "Therefore the HRT apologises not only to them, but also to all of the Croatian public for the contents of certain promotion materials, which reflect the current political situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and not the views of Croatia or the HRT. "It has to be emphasised again that if these materials had not been broadcast, there could have been serious consequences for Croat candidates in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which would have directly influenced the election results in a neighbouring country, and been unfavourable to the Croat electorate," the HRT statement said. (Hina) jfk jn /mbr 142040 MET sep 98