"Croatian Radio is celebrating its 90th anniversary and Croatian Television its 60th anniversary, which means 150 years of radio and television programmes. This is a huge wealth, which is subject to swift changes, and this wealth should be preserved because it is part of Croatia's historical and cultural heritage. A media museum may provide an overview of media development since the publication of the first newspapers onward, and the museum would help permanently protect the heritage," communicology professor Nada Zgrabljic-Rotar said in an interview with Hina.
She has initiated the plan to establish such a museum after realising that journalism students had no opportunity to familiarise themselves with old technologies no longer in use in the media industry or to peruse the first editions of Croatian newspapers "Feral Tribune" or "Vjesnik" which are no longer on the market.
Zgrabljic Rotar hopes that such an institution would help citizens improve their media literacy.
The museum should save from oblivion audio recordings of famous announcers and newsreaders such as Gordana Bonetti, Ivan Tomic or Mladen Delic. The earliest models of TV sets and radios would also be put on display.
Zgrabljic-Rotar said that the promoters of the Croatian Media Museum project had in mind the Newseum in Washington D.C. "We may be a modest variant of that museum," she said, calling on the City of Zagreb to support them.
The project is supported by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU), the Matica Hrvatska cultural institution, the Culture Ministry, the Electronic Media Council, the Croatian Journalists' Association and local museums.
The museum might be housed in the Zagreb Trade Fair Centre, and the initiators call on private investors to donate funds for this purpose.