ZAGREB, Sept 20 (Hina) - Croatian Culture Minister Ante Vujic on Friday said that we was surprised that his invitation to the Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) Council to give its opinion on amendments to the Law on HRT at a
cancelled meeting of the HRT Council had been evaluated as an insult and political attack on the independence of that media house.
ZAGREB, Sept 20 (Hina) - Croatian Culture Minister Ante Vujic on
Friday said that we was surprised that his invitation to the
Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) Council to give its opinion on
amendments to the Law on HRT at a cancelled meeting of the HRT
Council had been evaluated as an insult and political attack on the
independence of that media house. #L#
At a press conference convened in response to the sharp statements
by some HRT Council members in reaction to Vujic's recent letter to
HRT heads, Vujic said that he was surprised "all the more because at
the same time another body of the HRT sent a completely opposite
reaction to his letter." They in fact thanked him because someone
had finally remembered to ask for HRT's opinion on a law during its
preparation.
A public debate on the law on the media as well as the transformation
of HRT into a public institution and its separation into two public
institutions was initiated by the Culture Ministry prior to any
final solutions being added to the law, Vujic said.
"Inappropriate and sharp reactions to the invitation to be included
in a public debate could be interpreted as exclusivity or an attempt
to protect interests that could be affected with changes to the law
by those in HRT who consider that this institution is above society
and outside the reach of any supervision of the democratic public,"
Vujic said.
The minister said that separating Croatian Television from
Croatian Radio would first require a financial balance between the
two institutions.
He mentioned that the privatisation of Channel Three on HTV still
needed to be decided upon as well as whether privatisation "is
simply to make a profit or to affirm certain social values".
The Culture Ministry intends to collect opinions on changes to the
Law on HRT by the end of next week and have the law adopted by the end
of the year, Vujic announced.
He stressed that the critical opinions of HRT were not his own but
opinions reflected from some public gatherings concerning
discussions about HRT. He added that he partially agreed with some
of these opinions.
As an illustration of the fall in the professional standard,
particularly in news programmes on HRT, he noted amongst else
Thursday evening's news broadcast which presented a report from the
cancelled meeting of the HRT Council without enabling the other
side, which was under attack, to have its say.
Accusations by some members of the HRT Council about a political
attack on the independence of that institution, Vujic sees as
unfounded because everyone agrees that HRT has been de-politicised
and that politics has no influence on its programmes. This, he
believes, is one of the fundamental objectives of transforming it
into a public television and radio.
However, bodies that supervise the work of the HRT have not been
depoliticised because members of these bodies bring out their own
personal opinions and not those of the institutions or bodies they
represent, Vujic said.
He added that he agreed with the criticism that certain bodies of
the HRT were being turned into para-political bodies, i.e. the
mouthpiece of certain political options.
(hina) sp sb lml