European experts issue report on Croatian draft law on media and criminal defamation
The report of international experts issued on 21 April 2004 recommends removing provisions on defamation from the Croatian criminal code. (OSCE) Photo details
ZAGREB, 21 April 2004 - An expert report on the draft Croatian Law on Media and on defamation provision of the Criminal Code has been made public today by the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the OSCE Mission to Croatia.
The report was prepared by media experts commissioned by the three international organizations at the request of the Croatian Government. It 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.
The publication of the report comes in the wake of an article in a Croatian daily which mistakenly put the report and the international organizations which commissioned it in connection with the Government's privatization of another daily. The particular issue raised in the article concerns anti-concentration provisions.
In a letter to the Editor-in-Chief of the Jutarnji List daily, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Croatia, Ambassador Peter Semneby, and the Head of the EC Delegation to Croatia, Ambassador Jacques Wunenburger, said on Wednesday that:
"Recommendations for amendments to the law include provisions on programme contents, accessibility to public information, the promotion of pluralism and anti-concentration provisions. The main goal of anti-concentration measures in the media field is to safeguard media plurality, since it protects the fundamental right of each individual, namely the right to free speech."
"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. 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.
"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. 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 are simply wrong," the Ambassadors concluded.
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.
The report was prepared by media experts commissioned by the three international organizations at the request of the Croatian Government. It 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.
The publication of the report comes in the wake of an article in a Croatian daily which mistakenly put the report and the international organizations which commissioned it in connection with the Government's privatization of another daily. The particular issue raised in the article concerns anti-concentration provisions.
In a letter to the Editor-in-Chief of the Jutarnji List daily, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Croatia, Ambassador Peter Semneby, and the Head of the EC Delegation to Croatia, Ambassador Jacques Wunenburger, said on Wednesday that:
"Recommendations for amendments to the law include provisions on programme contents, accessibility to public information, the promotion of pluralism and anti-concentration provisions. The main goal of anti-concentration measures in the media field is to safeguard media plurality, since it protects the fundamental right of each individual, namely the right to free speech."
"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. 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.
"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. 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 are simply wrong," the Ambassadors concluded.
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.