ZAGREB, April 21 (Hina) - The European Commission, the Council of Europe and the OSCE Mission to Croatia on Wednesday published an expert report on Croatia's media bill and provisions of the Penal Code referring to defamation, the
OSCE said in a statement.
ZAGREB, April 21 (Hina) - The European Commission, the Council of
Europe and the OSCE Mission to Croatia on Wednesday published an
expert report on Croatia's media bill and provisions of the Penal Code
referring to defamation, the OSCE said in a statement.#L#
The report, which is available on the OSCE's web site, was drafted by
media experts commissioned by the three international organisations at
the request of the Croatian government.
The report provides advice on bringing the government drafts in line
with European standards, particularly with Article 10 of the European
Convention on Human Rights and the relevant case law of the European
Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, reads the statement. The report
also recommends removing provisions on defamation from the Criminal
Code. Defamation, insult and breach of privacy should be regulated
through other means, in particular through the use of civil
procedures, reads the report.
In its statement the OSCE clearly distances itself from reports in
Jutarnji List daily which bring the report and the international
organisations which commissioned it in connection with the
privatisation of Slobodna Dalmacija daily by the Croatian government.
The head of the OSCE Mission to Croatia, Ambassador Peter Semneby, and
the head of the EC Delegation to Croatia, Ambassador Jacques
Wunenburger, today sent a letter to Jutarnji List's editor regarding
those reports.
"While the expert report of the three organizations is clear in
recommending that anti-concentration provisions be introduced in the
draft Law on Media, it does not prescribe which threshold should be
put as the upper limit which a single media company should be allowed
to control but merely suggests that the relevant article from the
previous version of the law could be preserved," the two ambassadors
said in the letter.
"Most importantly, the report does not say anything about who in
Croatia can buy what in the field of media. The privatization of a
state-owned asset is the responsibility of the Croatian Government,"
reads the letter.
Concluding the letter, Semneby and Wunenburger said that allegations
that the international organizations' expert report on the Law on
Media was sent on the eve of the deadline for the decision on the
tender for Slobodna Dalmacija were simply wrong as "the timing and the
content of the international community expert advice has nothing to do
with the privatization of Slobodna Dalmacija but it is part of a
legislative timetable agreed with the Government".
(Hina) rml