Croatian parliamentarians discuss media law amendments with experts

ZAGREB, 12 October 1998 - On Friday, 9 October, the OSCE Mission to Croatia organized a meeting between members of the House of Representatives of the Parliament and media experts from the Council of Europe, in order to discuss amendments to the HRT Law.

Journalists from Croatian media were present throughout the meeting. The experts were Mr Christophe Poirel, Head of the Media Section at the Council of Europe; Mr Karol Jakubowicz, Head of Strategic Planning and Plenipotentiary of the Board of Management for Restructuring at Polish Television; and Mr Norman McLean, Deputy Director of the Broadcasting Standards Commission, in the United Kingdom. Mr Vladimir Seks described the bill of amendments that has been prepared by the HDZ Club of MPs, while Mr Bozo Kovacevic described the alternative bill prepared by a group of six parties in opposition. The experts began by acknowledging that several of the Council of Europe's earlier recommendations - offered in March of this year - had been included in the HDZ draft amendments.

They went on to remark that nothing was unique about the challenge of transforming HRT into a public broadcaster. Identical problems had, they said, arisen throughout Central and Eastern Europe. The experts emphasized that Croatia is not required to make exceptional reforms in the broadcasting sector, beyond what has been achieved elsewhere. They expressed hope that Croatia would want to learn from the experience of other countries in transition in order to avoid mistakes that, once made, were difficult to rectify.

The experts noted that all transitional countries are trying to define what the "public interest" is, and hence they all need to address the threat of "the politicization of everything in public life" - a threat that is less serious and immediate in the mature democracies of Western Europe. They also pointed out that democratic institutions in the transitional countries are very fragile; special care must be taken to protect them.

While it is true that there is no single model of public broadcasting, the criteria for judging whether or not an institution, or a body within an institution, is independent, are more or less universal. In this context, and recalling the Council of Europe's "Recommendations for the further democratization of the broadcasting sector in Croatia" (March 1998), the experts offered the following concrete suggestions for amending the HRT Law:

• Members of Parliament should not be eligible for appointment to the HRT Council.
• Parliament should not have the right to veto appointments to the HRT Council.
The Director of HRT should be appointed by the HRT Council, not by Parliament. Members of the Management Board and key members of HRT staff should not be allowed to hold party office. The Law should allow for the privatization of the third channel of HTV.

In conclusion, Mr Vladimir Seks invited the Council of Europe experts to comment on both sets of proposed amendments.