CROATIAN PARLIAMENT CONCLUDES DEBATE ON MEDIA BILL

ZAGREB, Sept 26 (Hina) - The Croatian Parliament's House of Representatives on Thursday concluded a discussion on the Media Bill. "Legislators can iron out this law and make it ideal, but it won't have any effect as long as Parliament passes other laws providing for disciplinary measures against journalists," said Marin Jurjevic of the Social Democratic Party. Istrian Democratic Assembly deputy Damir Kajin said that there would be no freedom of information until the distribution of radio and television frequencies had been liberalized. Some provisions of this law could threaten freedom of enterprise as well as freedom of the press, Vladimir Primorac of the Social Liberal Party said. Petar Zitnik of the Peasant Party criticized the government for failing to incorporate all Council of Europe recommendations into the law. Urgent legal proceedings for damage compensation were in direct contravention of a constitutional provision on the equality of citizens before courts of justice, he added. The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) supported the bill because it found it to be in full harmony with the Constitution, HDZ deputy Vladimir Seks said. Rejecting as completely unfounded objections by "some foreign circles that Croatia has laws which threaten critical opinion," Seks said that value judgments were not subject to criminal accountability. "Provisions on responsibility for damage protect publishers to such an extent that in certain circumstances they are not accountable for disseminating false information," Seks said. "If fines are several times higher than a a journalist's salary, then he will think twice before publishing a certain article," Srecko Bijelic of the Popular Party said. (hina) vm mm 261637 MET sep 96