Mass media in Croatia
In the years following the fall of communism and the subsequent liberalisation of the media market, HRT was reorganised with its infrastructure branch established as a separate company, Transmitters and Communications Ltd (OiV), and a system in which privately owned corporations can acquire renewable broadcast licenses at the national and county levels was adopted.In May 1990, following Franjo Tuđman's election victory, he and his ruling Croatian Democratic Union party began a takeover of radio and television stations in Croatia.[3] In the early 1990s, the democratization process was accompanied by the strong role of the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND/CJA) as well as of Europapress Holding, the main publishing group.[6] In 2013 the Croatian parliament passed an amendment criminalizing "vilification", intended as systematic and deliberate defamation of a person, institution or legal entity.[4]: 46 OSCE Media Freedom Representative Dunja Mijatovic characterized the Croatian legal definitions of "insult" and "shaming" as "vague, open to individual interpretation and, thus, prone to arbitrary application", calling for decriminalisation by stating that "Free speech should not be subject to criminal charges of any kind".Yet, nominal ownership often does not equate to control: in Croatia's dire economic situation, several publishing groups are on lifelines extended by few major banks, often foreign ones.Holders of national broadcasting licenses are prevented from owning newspapers with a daily circulation of above 3,000 copies, or more than 10% shares of a news agency, and vice versa.Holders of national and regional licences are forbidden from owning more than 30% share in similar media or local dailies in the broadcasting area.[5] Advertising revenues in the Croatian media are in line with international standards (around 55% of their income), though their distribution is skewed towards the television market (up 75% of the total, in spite of 40% global averages).The Archdiocese of Zagreb also publishes Glas Koncila, a weekly magazine dedicated to presenting a Catholic perspective on current events and widely distributed in churches.In addition, there is a wide selection of Croatian editions of international monthlies, such as Cosmopolitan, Elle, Grazia, Men's Health, National Geographic, Le Monde diplomatique, Playboy, Reader's Digest and Forbes.It is required by law to promote Croatian and provide programming which caters to all social groups in the country, and is mainly funded by a compulsory license fee (collected in monthly installments from all citizens owning a TV set, with a very high – 96% – collection rate), covering 50% of its budget, with additional revenue coming from advertising (though dropping from 40% of its budget in 2010 to less than 15% in 2015).The appointment of board members of the public service broadcaster HRT by simple parliamentary majority leaves it vulnerable to political influences and pressures.[4]: 51 HTV channels trace their roots to RTV Zagreb which was established in 1956 as a regional division of Yugoslavia's national broadcaster JRT.Although a small number of local stations began operating in the 1980s, HTV had a monopoly on national broadcasting until 2000 – until when it was also under strict political control by the government.That year HTV3 was shut down and its frequency was taken by the privately owned Nova TV which had won the first public tender for a national-level 10-year broadcast license in 1999.[13] In addition, in September 2010 the Electronic Media Council granted two new 15-year broadcast licenses in a tender for specialised nationally aired channels, won by Nova TV and RTL.[16] Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is also gaining ground in recent years, with most ISPs offering a wide selection of channels very similar to cable packages.The Fund finances "productions of public interest" of up to $120,000 for a total annual budget of 6 to 7 million $, with some aspects of positive discrimination towards minority-language media.Some verifiable form of connection to Croatia – such as being a Croatian citizen or a permanent resident, or a company registered in the country – is common to all of the categories except for the .com.hr subdomain.Two of the main appealing political groups for the young voters, the environmentalists of ORaH and the anti-eviction Živi zid, are strongly based on the internet.[4]: 50 In late 2013, Wikipedia in Croatian (Wikipedija na hrvatskom jeziku, also hr:wiki) received attention from international media for promoting fascist, right-wing worldview as well as bias against Serbs of Croatia and Anti-LGBT propaganda by the means of historical revisionism and by negating or diluting the severity of crimes committed by the Ustaše regime (see Croatian Wikipedia).[21] The Agency for the Protection of Market Competition monitors and reviews all planned concentration in the media sector, regardless of the total revenue of the companies.Even if it has started to conduct self-initiated investigations in cases of suspect ownership concentration, it usually continues mostly to react to companies' reports.[5] Frequency allocation by the Agency has been transparent for some time; its main challenges still concern the independence of its members from the political arena (particularly in terms of their appointment) and the lack of expertise of its stuff, leading it to underestimate the need for alternative web radios too.[28] In its recent history, Croatia has experienced most of the problems which are common in post-socialist states, including self-censorship, threats against journalists, pressure by advertisers and political actors, etc.[6][32] Although by now "a truly internalized value",[4]: 45 freedom of speech in Croatia suffers from a certain fatigue in times of deep economic crisis, after many consecutive years of recession.Paradoxically, international pressures have eased after Croatia's accession to the European Union, and media freedom in the country is today deemed in a worse condition than in 2013.The appointment of board members of the public service broadcaster HRT by simple parliamentary majority leaves it vulnerable to political influences and pressures.Tycoons use editorial policy as a long-arm of their own business interests, while journalists try to anticipate their wishes, thus resorting to self-censorship and partisan journalism.
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