The issue of the TV coverage of the HDZ party's convention was raised at the Electronic Media Council's session on Monday when it decided ion allocating funds for promoting pluralism in 2009
SDP parliamentarian Nenad Stazic on Sunday criticised Croatian Television (HTV) for having broadcast a 50-minute speech by Ivo Sanader at his party's convention on Saturday when his successor Jadranka Kosor was elected.
Stazic insists that HTV news programme editor Hloverka Novak-Srzic and the director-general of the national broadcasting corporation (HRT) should step down after they "turned the public television into the HDZ bulletin" when broadcasting Sanader's speech on Saturday afternoon.
The law on electronic media stipulates that public media should be unbiased, and it bans political parties' sponsorship of any TV show and their advertisement on the HTV except during the pre-election periods, Stazic said adding that "yesterday's advertisement was provocatively obvious and brazen".
"This was not a speech by the Prime Minister, as Sanader was relieved from the duty on Thursday. It was a highly emotionally-charged speech by a former HDZ leader imbued with insults against the SDP," Stazic said.
He went on to say that the the television editors gave a thinly-veiled reason for this move when claiming that the speeches would be aired because of great public interest.
HTV news programme editor Novak-Srzic said on Sunday that the SDP request for her resignation and the resignation of the HRT director-general represented additional pressure on HTV, stressing that HTV had not aired the HDZ convention live and that she decided to broadcast the speech by Ivo Sanader because this was a top political event of high public interest.
I want to stress that HTV had not broadcast the HDZ convention live, Novak-Srzic said, adding that she did not demonstrate favouring any political option.
The reaction of the leading Opposition party - the SDP - to the HTV broadcast of Sanader's speech can be interpreted only as pressure on HRT and on freedom of the media regulated by the law, HRT public relations representative Janos Roemer said in a statement on Sunday.
HRT reminded that choosing the content in HRT news programmes was exclusively up to the editor in chief, mandated by the HRT Programmes Council.