Conference paper
HTV: PUBLIC TELEVISION? HRT’S PROGRAMME COUNCIL: INSTITUTION OF PUBLIC SCRUTINY OR POLITICAL CONTROL?
Viktorija Popović
; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
There are two key tasks of public television in a liberal democracy: to support the democratic government and the rule of law, which is at the same time a guarantee of its independence and freedom, and provide for the public accurate and comprehensive information and an egalitarian and free public forum for debating major social issues. In this work, the author looks into how the composition of the HRT Programme Council, in line with the tasks stipulated by law, directly influences programming of the HRT, the biggest and the most prestigious Croatian TV house. According to the Law on HRT of 2003, eleven members of the HRT Programme Council, whose task is to promote and protect public interest by monitoring and improving the programmes, is appointed and relieved by the Croatian parliament (Sabor). This has once again evoked the spectre of the direct control of the state over the Croatian television. One of the Council’s priorities is the creation of the framework of an independent, pluralist and balanced TV programme, which requires the establishment of a complex, transparent structure of dynamic relations between the professionals – journalists and editors, the organizations of the civil society, the relevant social groups and the interests of the entire public.
Keywords
public television; HTV; Law on HRT; HRT Programme Council
Hrčak ID:
22802
URI
Publication date:
11.1.2005.
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