Review article
Media Policy and the Public Broadcasting Services in Croatia
Nada Zgrabljić Rotar
Abstract
The present article reviews the Croatian media policy before the most recent
Law on Telecommunications and the Media Act. Croatia, like other
countries, has its own history and strategy of public media development. Using
the examples of the Croatian News Agency (HINA), and the Croatian Radio
and Television (HRT), the author examines the similarities between Croatia’s
media policy and that of other countries in transition. The common characteristic
of all these countries is the lack of tradition in the public media, because
the media in a single party system were controlled by the state, and the establishment
of the public media has proved a challenge for both civil society and
politicians. However, since there is no single definition of the public media,
there is no single rule on their structuring. The present direction of Croatia’s
media policy is positive, marking a departure from the normative model of renationalization
(Splichal, 2000) and a move towards a model that will develop
a modern identity of the public media on Croatia’s media scene. The transformation
into public media is slow and is the product of a delicate balancing act
between the law on one side and the programming, marketing, and organizational
requirements imposed by the new media market on the other. It is to a
much smaller extent the product of a deliberate orientation towards modern
programming challenges brought about by new technologies. It is not yet clear
what route the Croatian media policy and the public media will take, but this is
a situation not unlike that which could be observed in other countries in transition
before the domestic public television was exposed to national competition
and the injection of foreign capital (Jakobowicz, 2001). The pluralistic media
system as an alternative to media concentration, monopoly, and oligopoly, can
be designed only through a proper regulation of the public and commercial
systems.
Keywords
civil society; media policy; public broadcasting service; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
23325
URI
Publication date:
10.6.2003.
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