ZAGREB, Nov 20 (Hina) - A survey conducted by the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HHO) in the first ten days of the official election campaign for the upcoming parliamentary elections shows that the media have continued
with fair campaign coverage, HHO president Zarko Puhovski said on Thursday.
ZAGREB, Nov 20 (Hina) - A survey conducted by the Croatian Helsinki
Committee for Human Rights (HHO) in the first ten days of the
official election campaign for the upcoming parliamentary
elections shows that the media have continued with fair campaign
coverage, HHO president Zarko Puhovski said on Thursday. #L#
The HHO on Thursday presented the results of the second part of the
survey "Media and Elections 2003", which this association has been
conducting with the support of the OSCE Mission to Croatia. The
first part of the survey which, like the second one, covered two
national TV stations, Croatian Radio and Obiteljski Radio and six
dailies, was conducted three weeks before the start of the official
campaign on November 6.
In the first ten days of the campaign the HHO did not note any major
violations in the coverage of political platforms, however, it
believes that adequate presentation of information on candidates
is prevented by too many presentations in the electronic media.
A total of 798 election programmes have been shown by the two
television stations, of which most (551) by Croatian Television.
Programmes on party rallies scheduled for airing before and after
the prime-time news broadcast are dominated by the coalition of the
Social Democratic Party, the Istrian Democratic Assembly, Libra
and the Liberal Party (SDP/IDS/Libra/LS), followed by the
coalition of the Croatian People's Party, the Primorje-Gorski
Kotar Alliance, and the Croatian Party of Slavonia and Baranja
(HNS/PGS/SBHS).
The coalition of the Croatian Bloc and the Croatian True Revival
(HB/HIP) had most paid advertisements (52), while most airing time
was bought by the Croatian Democratic Union (1,029 seconds).
The two coalitions are followed by the SDP/IDS/Libra/LS coalition
and the HNS-led coalition.
As regards editorial programmes in the HTV prime-time news
broadcast and the Meridijan 16 programme, the SDP and the HDZ were
equally represented with five such programmes each, while Nova TV
gave most coverage to the SDP and its partners (19 programmes),
followed by the HDZ with 12 programmes. Since the start of the
campaign, programmes on government work have dropped by 50 percent
on HTV and by 25 percent on Nova TV.
Information on the ruling SDP and its coalition partners dominates
Croatian Radio and Obiteljski Radio, followed by the HDZ, the HSS,
the HSLS-DC (Social Liberals-Democratic Centre), and the HNS with
their coalition partners, which are given almost equal coverage.
The campaign is followed by dailies in a fair manner, and as much as
45 percent of paid coverage is dedicated to the SDP and its
partners, who are followed by the HDZ with 32.8 percent. The HDZ is
followed by the HSLS-DC and the HNS with their coalition partners.
The head of the OSCE Mission, Peter Semneby, said that he was
satisfied with the quality and results of the survey, which he said
would be of great help to the OSCE in drawing up the final report on
the parliamentary vote.
(hina) rml sb