CROATIAN RADIO AND TELEVISION MAKES RULES ON ELECTION COVERAGE

ZAGREB, March 1 (Hina) - Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) released a statement on coverage of the pre-election campaign and the forthcoming elections (due to be on April 13), in the central news broadcast on Saturday evening. "Croatian Radio and Television has made programme rules for the coverage of elections, which enables all political parties, party coalitions and heads of independent county lists to be equally presented in special and regular news broadcasts. In connection with this, full professionalism, qualification and independence of journalists are guaranteed along with strict respect for the code of journalism and generally accepted rules and conventions of democracies," the statement said. "The HRT will present each county in special broadcasts, prepared for the pre-election campaign, where one representative of a party, a coalition, or an independent candidate that have registered their lists for the Croatian Parliament House of Counties, will take part. The running time is determined by the number of participants, and the maximum number is six, and by the presentation of each participant who can take ten minutes at the maximum (for his/her address to the TV audience). More broadcasts will be made for the counties where a large number of lists have been registered. Participants will answer the same questions of our anchorpersons," it said. The counties will be presented in the sequence defined by the law on the counties' areas, and participants will take part in the sequence defined in the published county lists. Furthermore, Croatian Television will present platforms of each political party and heads of independent lists in special five-minute-long broadcasts. The sequence will be decided by lot an HTV special show at 10.10 hrs next Tuesday (March 4). "The HRT rules determine the way and the running time for reports on parties' campaign trails, in daily news broadcasts of Croatian Television," the statement said. Parties which stand for elections and heads of independent county lists have the right to present three rallies from their campaign trail in the central news broadcast at 19.30 hrs. A report on a rally will last two minutes with three tone excerpts from soapbox addresses at the rally. Parties and heads of independent county lists have the right to present three of their rallies in the late news broadcast 'Motrista'. The running time is a minute and a half, including two tone excerpts from soapbox speeches at the rally. As a great number of rallies is envisaged, HRT asks for being informed at least two days beforehand of the rally it should cover. The HRT rules propose that each of three rallies should be selected from one third of the campaign trail. Croatian television has set up its special headquarters for election coverage, which will receive applications for the coverage and notify parties of the relevant matter from 09.00 to 23.00 hrs every day. "We particularly stress that the HRT programme rules enable all parties and lists to be presented evenly and that the rules are favourable to both big and small parties," the statement said at the end. (hina) mš 021159 MET mar 97