For four positions on the HRT Supervisory Board, 32 candidates have applied

For four members of the Supervisory Board of Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT), 32, or rather 31 applications have been received – one was, in fact, late, it was learned on Monday in the parliamentary Committee for Information, Informatization and Media which announced the competition for a new HRT Supervisory Board after the old one, led by Anja Šovagović Despot, was prematurely dismissed in July this year.

It was dismissed by the Croatian Parliament with the votes of the parliamentary majority which interpreted that the Supervisory Board, in which, along with Šovagović Despot, were Katarina Bakija, Miroslav Grgić, and Šenol Selimović, was dismissed due to repeated violations of the law, while the opposition SDP insisted that the report of the Supervisory Board for the previous year, in which the Supervisory Board listed numerous irregularities at HRT, was to blame for everything.

>>>HRT with 29.2 percent in the second group of the most-watched EBU member televisions

The Media Committee did not want to provide any information about the candidates, but unofficially it is learned that Miroslav Grgić, who was dismissed last summer, wants to return to the Supervisory Board.

Former members of the County House, economist Vlado Ošust and lawyer Marko Lapaine, former representative in the Zagreb City Assembly Morana Paliković Gruden, former minister, graduated psychologist Bernardica Juretić Rožman, master of social and theological sciences in the field of philology, actor Mladen Čutura also want to oversee HRT.

Applications were also sent by economist Denis Nikola Kulišić who started his professional career as an engineer at HRT, was the president of the Management Board of Odašiljači i veze, a member of the Management Board of Zagrebački holding, former head of operations at HRT Darije Vladimir Josić, former president of the Management Board of Hina, economist Josip Veber.

In the Supervisory Board, at least one lawyer and one financier

Journalists Tomislav Radić, Ivan Ugrin, and Damir Pijaca, doctor of communication sciences Danijel Labaš, graduated mechanical engineer and long-time member of the Council for Civil Oversight of Security and Intelligence Agencies Zoran Grgić, master of information sciences Ivan Božičević, doctor of humanities Antun Pavešković also want to be in the Supervisory Board.

Economists Krste Čveljo, Ivan Šimek, Vedran Tolić, Ivan Tkalec, Željko Šundov, Maja Martinović, doctor Matija Prka, lawyers Ana Ljubić Budanko, Željko Serdar, Eduard Kunštek, Ljiljana Očko Marković, engineers Hrvoje Tkalčić, Filip Starčević, Nino Karamatić also applied for the competition.

In accordance with the Law on HRT, when selecting members of the Supervisory Board, care will be taken that at least one member is from the financial and legal profession and that the majority of members have work experience in the media field.

>>>The change of members of the HRT Supervisory Board in the Parliament sparked a ‘creative’ debate

State officials or persons holding positions in political party bodies or bodies of local and regional self-government cannot be elected as members of the Supervisory Board of Croatian Radiotelevision.

Persons who are employed or perform any other work in competing legal entities, i.e., legal entities that engage in the production, provision, and/or transmission of media audio services and audiovisual or similar services, cannot be elected as its members either.

The Information Committee will consider all submitted applications and propose members of the HRT Supervisory Board to the Croatian Parliament, which appoints them by a majority vote of all representatives. The HRT Supervisory Board has five members, the fifth is elected by HRT employees.