Dear Members of the new 7th convocation of the Croatian Parliament,
Dear members of the new convocation of the Media Committee,
Dear Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia,
Dear Minister of Culture,
We appeal to you and request that you take responsibility for the future of Croatian Radio and Television, the most important media service, whose financing is crucially contributed to by the citizens of the Republic of Croatia, but whose reform from a state-owned to a public media outlet over the past decade has unfortunately proven unsuccessful.
Today, HRT is not independent from either political or commercial interests. The program is increasingly driven by profit, instead of being focused on the public interest, which irreversibly undermines quality and credibility. The participation of the profession and civil society in defining program guidelines has been reduced below the level of an understandable and permissible minimum, so that the program fails to respond to its public tasks, to the diversity of interests and needs of the audience. The HRT management system is neither transparent nor effective in relation to program goals, financial and human resources, which directly results in unnecessary costs, non-transparent business arrangements in all segments of work, and the underutilization of competent personnel and an unsatisfactory program.
Given that such a situation continued even after the adoption of the Law on HRT in December 2010, it is obvious that its adoption did not result in the expected effect. Clientelism, incompetence and irresponsibility continue to be generated at HRT. It is especially devastating that the model of public supervision of HRT through the Program Council proved to be ineffective, both because of the politically compromised and irresponsible way of electing members, and because of the dominance of particular interests in the way it operates.
It also showed It is illusory to expect that the Management Board will respect the perspective of the program management and creative employees and pursue a business policy that creates the most favorable organizational and financial conditions for the achievement of HRT's public tasks.. The program and reputation of HRT are at their lowest ebb, drama, cultural, children's, scientific-educational, documentary, and regional programs have been devastated or completely shut down. The organization is on the verge of a thoughtless and non-transparent "restructuring" (based on a plan adopted without adequate participation of program management and without public debate), which will result in impersonal savings and the collapse of HRT's public assets, rather than program and technological development.
The clientelistic, incompetent and irresponsible management of HRT needs to stop. And immediately. Therefore We expect the Media Committee of the Croatian Parliament, as well as all parliamentary groups and the plenum, to hold a thematic debate on the situation at HRT as soon as possible. and at the parliamentary level, make the concrete decisions necessary to stop the programming and organizational devastation of HRT.
We suggest that The Media Committee of the Croatian Parliament, in cooperation with the competent executive body – the Ministry of Culture, shall urgently conduct supervision over the quality of management and program management of HRT., establish responsibilities and sanctions, initiate necessary leadership changes, suspend the implementation and initiate the revision process of the Interim Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Croatia and HRT, and in particular the HRT Restructuring Plan. The situation at HRT and the necessary decisions should be discussed as soon as possible at a thematic session of the Media Committee of the Croatian Parliament open to the interested public.
It is needed as soon as possible. determine the following responsibilities for management and program development of HRT:
- the responsibility of the editor-in-chief of HTV for the attempt to censor a report (Dnevnik broadcast on 18.12.2012) in which the editor publicly responded to the HRT Programming Council's criticisms regarding the report on Vukovar (Dnevnik broadcast on 20.11.2011);
- the editor-in-chief's responsibility for the lack of a current program orientation and scheme for 2012;
- the management's responsibility for the drastically reduced credibility of HTV, including the inadequacy of program management at HTV;
- the responsibility of the members of the Programming Council for the lack of responsible oversight of the program over the past year (absence of thematic discussions, requests for investigations outside the Council's jurisdiction that have the effect of censorship) and the selection of an incompetent person as editor-in-chief of HTV;
- the responsibility of the Management Board, the Program Council and the current composition of the Supervisory Board for the adoption of the Financial Plan for 2012, which favors HTV's sports program and ignores other HR and HTV programs, which goes against the fundamental principles of public media service and prevents the achievement of HRT's programming goals;
- Management Board's responsibility for the lack of transparency and weaknesses of the Restructuring Plan;
- the responsibility of the Management for the lack of a multi-year strategy for the development of HRT as a public service;
- guidelines for amending and supplementing the Agreement between the Government and HRT in order to determine public needs through consultations with professionals and the interested public;
- guidelines for drafting amendments to the HRT Act, and in particular to the article of the law on the method of election, tasks and mechanisms for preventing conflicts of interest of members of the Programming Council.
It is necessary make a decision and agree on the process of revising the HRT Act with a focus on the problem of ineffectiveness of the current management model and public supervision over HRT. It is necessary to determine precisely, not decoratively public obligations of HRT and to find a more politically and culturally effective management model that would more effectively prevent and sanction possible abuses of all management functions.
In connection with the necessary changes to the laws and strategic documents that regulate the operation of HRT, Consultations with key stakeholders and experts are mandatory and obtain the opinion of the Croatian Journalists' Association, the Croatian Audiovisual Center, the Media Coordination of the Croatian Producers' Association and the Croatian Film Directors' Association, educational and cultural institutions, human rights organizations and other interested associations and experts.
In accordance with all of the above, we request that a discussion on all these issues be urgently initiated in the Croatian Parliament and its competent committees, thereby opening up space at both the legislative and executive levels for necessary changes regarding the situation at Croatian Radio and Television, as well as for resolving its future status as an institution of the greatest public interest in the Republic of Croatia.
In Zagreb, January 16, 2012.
Signatories of the Appeal:
Croatian Journalists' Association (HND)
Croatian PEN Center
House of Human Rights – BaBe!, Center for Peace Studies, Documenta - Center for Dealing with the Past
Media coordination of the Croatian Producers Association and the Croatian Film Directors Association
Center for Education, Counseling and Research (CESI)
Center for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights Osijek
DOLPHIN
Fantastically good institution – FADE IN
Forum for Freedom of Education
GONG
JEF Croatia
Coalition of healthcare associations
Kurziv - Platform for issues of culture, media and society/portal Kulturpunkt.hr
Peace group Oaza Beli Manastir
Croatian Youth Network
Nenad Puhovski, director
Queer Zagreb, Center for LGBT Equality
The right to the city
Serbian Democratic Forum
UDD - Association for a Democratic Society -
Self-advocacy association
Radio Network Association (Radionet)
Association for Independent Media Culture
Volunteer Center Zagreb
Volunteer Center Osijek
Zagreb Pride
Green action
PeaceNET
