‘Marginalized’ Programming Council Without Opinion on HRT’s Work Program for 2018

The Programming Council of Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) did not provide an opinion on the proposal for the Work Program of Croatian Radiotelevision for 2018 during its meeting on Monday, as reported by HRT.

The proposal for the Work Program of the public media service for 2018 was presented to the council members by the director of the Business Unit Program of Croatian Radiotelevision, Renato Kunić, who emphasized that Croatian Radiotelevision will strive to maintain viewership at the level recorded during the last three months of last year when, as he points out, the long-term trend of declining viewership was finally halted.

He also added that a generic programming scheme will be presented by the beginning of April, aimed at achieving stability in operations and program broadcasting, and the processes for acquiring program content will be accelerated.

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He warned that Croatian Radiotelevision has a smaller program budget this year due to two major sporting events, the Winter Olympics (ZOI) and the FIFA World Cup (SNP) in Russia, and that content should be significantly acquired from independent producers during 2018.

The program for children and youth, Kunić says, is part of HRT’s programming where there is the greatest room for changes and improvements.

Some members of the Programming Council of Croatian Radiotelevision expressed praise for the Work Program of Croatian Radiotelevision for 2018, but in the end, it did not receive either a positive or negative opinion from the majority of present members.

“Events are overtaking us”

Some members of the Programming Council of Croatian Radiotelevision expressed dissatisfaction that the meetings of this body are not held more frequently and that the events discussed are no longer at the center of current affairs. As one example, they cited the discussion about the feature film ‘Ministry of Love,’ which was ultimately broadcast on Croatian Radiotelevision. The Programming Council of Croatian Radiotelevision therefore discussed the aspects of the work and communication of this body, and a member of the Programming Council of Croatian Radiotelevision from the ranks of employees, Dean Šoša, said that it seems to him that the council members meet too infrequently.

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“Events are overtaking us, this last one, in which some social groups have abolished the boundary between film and information, was an opportunity for us to do our job. The rare convening of meetings marginalizes our role. We are now discussing some matters with a significant delay,” added Dean Šoša.

Member of the Programming Council of Croatian Radiotelevision Zorislav Lukić emphasized that no one can insist on doing things differently while the Rules of Procedure are as they are, nor can the president of this body be forced to do so. The rescheduling of the broadcast time of the film ‘Ministry of Love’ from 21:00 to 23:00 was not a good enough reason to convene an extraordinary meeting, emphasized Zorislav Lukić. He recalled that during the term of Goran Radman as the director general of HRT, the airing of the fourth installment of the television series ‘Crimes of Communism’ was halted, and that installment was only shown after three months and considerable public pressure, but, as he said, one does not justify the other.

The Programming Council of Croatian Radiotelevision today also accepted the proposal to establish a working group for drafting the Rules of Procedure of the Programming Council of Croatian Radiotelevision to enhance communication of this body with the public.

Inappropriate Works

During the discussion about the program, member of the Programming Council of Croatian Radiotelevision from the ranks of employees Maja Sever referred to the criticisms of certain international organizations related to media freedom in the Republic of Croatia, with an emphasis on Croatian Radiotelevision. In this context, she also referred to a television segment in the show ‘At Home with Us,’ in which a toy depicting the Nazi dictator and criminal Adolf Hitler was shown, and that without any disclaimer.

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In response, the director of the Business Unit Program of Croatian Radiotelevision, Renato Kunić, emphasized that the controversial segment would certainly not have been aired if he had been the editor of that show and assessed that it was an extremely inappropriate editorial and journalistic work.

“I regret that there is no discussion, for example, about the film ‘The Story of Eva Schwarz,’ which speaks about the suffering of Jews from Međimurje during the Holocaust and which we also broadcast a few days ago,” added Renato Kunić.

“Well-paid press service is not functioning adequately”

Some members of the Programming Council of HRT expressed dissatisfaction with the way meetings are reported, both in the news programs of Croatian Radiotelevision and in what they called corporate press releases of Croatian Radiotelevision. Particularly dissatisfied was member of the Programming Council of HRT Vlaho Bogišić, but he did not clarify what he was dissatisfied with, other than saying that “the well-paid press service is not functioning adequately.”

Unlike him, member of the Programming Council of Croatian Radiotelevision Neda Ritz pointed out that, although it is difficult to follow everything that happens in a five-hour meeting, she still expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that her apology to Siniša Kovačić, who was the acting director general of Croatian Radiotelevision in 2016, was mentioned.

Member of the Programming Council of HRT from the ranks of employees Maja Sever said that it would help if the meetings were shorter and held more frequently.

The Programming Council of Croatian Radiotelevision decided that it would address the issue of communication within the framework of drafting a new Work Regulation of this body.