Media Landscape of Croatia:

Structure and Economy of Media System

Stjepan Malović, Ph.D. and Gordana Vilović[1]

1. INTRODUCTION

The role of media is the key indicator as to the state of democracy. Free media cannot develop in societies that are not free. Therefore, it is extremely important to explore and to identify precisely the position of media in transition countries, i.e. countries leaving socialism and trying to become democratic. The media landscape of the region of the South-East Europe, of which Croatia is a part, provides answer as to the question of the degree of freedom of media and the level of development of democracy in the particular country.

The aim of this research is to give answer as to what extent the media in the country are developed and whether they are capable of playing the role of free media that promote democratic values. The status of freedom of media is a continuously reappearing issue, even a “mandatory” issue underlying all discussions and analyses, primarily in political debates, yet it is frequently dealt with without the background support of real researches that would be based on serious and scientifically elaborated studies. The authors of the “Media Landscape” have used a uniform methodology in examining the status of media in each of the countries of the region, so that the media picture obtained is founded on the facts and analysed by means of a single descriptive method. The given parameters were used in a uniform way, while the data were obtained from competent and responsible sources.

 1.1. Definition of Basic Terms

The terms used in scholarly literature frequently have diverse meanings, and therefore we felt a need to define the basic terms that were used in this analysis.

State ownership: ownership over the media where the state appears either as the holder of the title or in the form of an agency that yet has to undertake the privatisation of media. Under the chaotic conditions of transition to market economy in doing businesses, criminal forms of transition of property title during the privatisation, with subsidies being given to the papers “of special social interest”, the state ownership has an adverse impact upon the freedom of media.

Independent media: private and financially completely independent media in the sense that they are fully market-oriented, although some of them receive subsidies from abroad.

Yellow press: newspapers that by some of their characteristics (bombastic headlines, sensationalist lead stories) only faintly resemble the British tabloids.  In Croatian journalism however, there recently appeared a special form of yellow press, which permeates even the serious weeklies (long headlines, exclusive and sensationalist stories, unverified facts and unbalanced coverage).

Printing run: the overall number of the printed newspaper copies, which includes both the copies sold (at newsstands and by newsvendors) and returns from agents. Almost all the publishers keep in strictest confidentiality the printing run data, or give incorrect data if they decide to disclose them at all.

Returns from agents: the remaining unsold newspaper copies, returned from the sales agents’ networks. In the same way as the data on the printing run or the data on the number of copies sold, the data on the returns from agents are likewise not available to public. In this work, we rely, as on relevant source, on the data obtained from the biggest distribution network Tisak (Press, Joint Stock Company in Receivership). 

Concession: broadcasting licence for radio, TV and cable TV programmes, given in accordance with the Law on Telecommunications. The prices of licences are regulated by the Rule Book on the Rate of Compensation Fees for Performance of Telecommunications Services and Other Telecommunications Activities, and The Manner of Their Payment. The concessions are granted by the Radio and Television Council (formerly Telecommunications Council), the members of which are nominated by the State Parliament of the Republic of Croatia.  

Public television: National television, arranged in line with the model of “developed democratic countries, fully establishing the editorial autonomy and putting an end to influences of political authorities over the editorial policy.”[2][2] Although the Croatian Television was defined under the Croatian Law on Telecommunications as a “public television”, the parties in power still have considerable influence, so that HRT could not indeed be defined as a public TV house.

State TV: a term that actually describes the position of the Croatian RTV. Although HRT (Croatian RTV) is legally a public TV house, it still uses a “model based on a pattern of state TV”[3][3] (nomination of directors on the basis of party agreements, composition of the Council of Croatian RTV that does not allow for wide influence of public interests to be expressed, etc.).

1. 2. A Brief Overview of the Structure and Contents of the Text

The authors first describe the general socio-economic and political conditions in the country, in order to give the precise picture of the conditions that have a decisive influence on the level of development of media. Contours of the general media landscape are outlined in the first segment of analysis. The economic functioning of the media system was selected as an instrument for in-depth analysis, because in Croatia the majority of problems stem precisely from the issue of unresolved ownership relations, deep economic crisis that racks the country and the lack of free market relations.

2. GENERAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS

After the dissolution of SFR of Yugoslavia in 1990, Croatia eagerly welcomed its independence. The vast majority of the population voted for independent and sovereign Croatia at the referendum [4][4]. However, the further evolution of events unpleasantly surprised the majority of people. The first tensions and conflicts only heralded the violent, gory and long lasting aggression against Croatia. The war (1991-1995) left deep traces behind: a large number of victims, expelled people and refugees, destroyed cities and factories, while one third of the country had been occupied...

Ten years of the rule of the President Franjo Tuđman and the Croatian Democratic Union have marked Croatia deeply. They spanned a whole spectrum from euphoria and the embodiment of a "millennium-old dream" to the victims of an ugly policy toward the neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovine, policy that the official Croatian authorities tried to share in common with Milošević. The country was led by a firm, authoritarian fist, the limits of freedom were narrow, media were stringently controlled, while the country was to be run by 200 privileged families.

However, democracy has its starry moments, even under the firm control. The citizens of Croatia participated in about ten various elections; the decisive ones, however, were the elections held on 3 January 2000. After being 10 years in power, HDZ lost, while the coalition of six parties won the elections. It was the beginning of the new chapter and the door to democracy was again flung wide open.

2.1. Political Situation

The rule of the six-member coalition is faced with difficult challenges, constantly meeting the obstacles in administering the country. The legacy of HDZ was more than a difficult burden. For ten years, the criteria of one party and one ideology were being imposed on the country. Throughout the country, either the members or the followers of the ruling party were being placed in high positions. The professional qualifications were not any more the basic criteria. This was particularly important in the state-owned media, where new kind of political “acceptability”, after the model from the time of communism, was introduced.

The new coalition government[5][5] did not act vindictively, yet it did not open the door to the professionals either, but has rather tried to reward the members of their coalition parties. The political scene drastically changed. The former firm rule of President Tuđman and his weak opponents suddenly turned into a vacuum in which no one knew who was supposed to have the last word. This is something quite new and unknown in these parts, so that there arose a cacophony of different political opinions of which some are even indecipherable to the members of the same winning coalition. There are attempts to form centres of power around the President of the Republic, who is popular, but lacks the support of some strong party, or around the Prime Minister of the Government, who is the President of the strongest party (Social Democratic Party – SDP), yet without enough power to rule single-handed. The President of the second strongest coalition party (Croatian Social Liberal Party – HSLS), Dražen Budiša, lost the race for the position of the President and was left without any function, which is also something unheard of before in our parts. The minor parties are attempting to strengthen their position, so that nine months after their winning the elections, the political scene is ridden with conflicts, misunderstandings and trial-and-error blunders in the attempts to fulfil the electoral promises.

2. 2. Economic Situation

The Croatian economy has reached the bottom level of crisis. The unemployment figures have reached the unprecedented number of 350,000, 8.4 % of the population, according to the World Bank report, is at the level of absolute poverty, while the gap between the poor majority and rich minority is deepening. The free market is not fully functioning as yet, the private property was to a large part acquired through fraudulent handling of privatisation, the state still plays the key role and the state budget is not decreasing, amounting to almost 50% of the national income. The average monthly salary amounts to 3,265 Kunas[6][6], but the prices outstrip the payment capabilities, so that, according to the polls of Večernji list and Metron from 20 September 2000, 43.5 % of the interviewees can not meet the basic costs of living with the earnings that they and members of their households have.[7][7]

The problem with the Croatian economy lies in the fact that economic measures and high exchange rate of the domestic currency Kuna do not support production and export, but rather favour the trade, especially the import of cheap goods which are subsequently resold at high prices. The ten years of stimulation of trade at the expense of domestic production have caused the lack of money circulating in the market. Kuna is the most valued commodity, and a deficient one, so that the tradesmen have resorted to setting off their debts by paying in kind, which finally resulted in a big internal debt. The crisis on the Balkans and the vicinity of battlefields have almost cut the revenues from tourism to half, so that Croatia is presently in an utterly unenviable economic situation which, according to the opinion of some, has not yet reached the bottom. 

The media are the victims of the overall poverty, as the citizens are tailoring their household budgets in such a way as to exclude the spending on culture and media. The businesses on their side cannot advertise their products through commercials because they do not have enough money for that. Therefore, the media are left without sound and stable sources of financing and have to manage somehow in closing the financial structures. 

2. 3. Social Situation

Social inequality is more and more pervasive and visible. The gap between the rich and the enormous majority of poor is far greater than it is common for other transition countries.

“Apart from the exact indicators of the level of poverty, which is relatively high, it is indicative that even 80 percent of the Croatian citizens deem that they are below the level which represent the reasonable minimum standard” deems Davorko Vidović, the Minister of Labour and Social Care in the government of Croatia[8][8].

The poverty, subjectively perceived as such, is not stimulating for development of a society, especially not so for society in transition. This also led to an almost complete disappearance of the middle class. The intellectuals are among the poorer ones, which reflects on the consumption of cultural goods. The theatres, concert and exhibition halls are empty, the printing run of the newspapers is cut to half as compared to the runs from ten years ago, while only the products intended for the widest strata of population sell well.

The social picture of Croatia is very unfavourable. Out of 4,8 million inhabitants, only 1,320,000 are employed. Out of that number, only 600,000 work in the production sector. According to the latest data, about 200,000 workers are working without receiving any salary at all. ‘According to the calculations of the Trade Union of Croatia (SSSH) concerning the consumer basket, a four-member family needed 4,767,09 Kunas in July (this year, author’s note) for basic costs of living, while the average salary in the first six months this year amounted to 3,265 Kunas.’[9][9]

Pensioners equal the employees in number: 1,018.000. It is obvious that the great majority of the population receives their income from the state budget, while only 600,000 workers generate new values that are to satisfy the increasing needs.

During the war period, there were almost 700.000 exiles and refugees in Croatia. Today, their number has significantly dropped, yet the problem of exiles is still present. A part of them are still accommodated in the hotels. They cannot return to their places due to several reasons. Either their houses are still destroyed or not repaired or there are no jobs for them so that it is impossible for them to return. There is a special problem of two-way return of exiles and refugees, which cannot be easily resolved. In the houses of Serb exiles are accommodated the refugees from Bosnia, while in the houses of the latter, in Bosnia, Serbs from Croatia are accommodated. Someone has to stop the vicious circle in order to star with two-way return, yet it is difficult to do without real investments and real creation of conditions.

3. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MEDIA SCENE

The media scene in Croatia is characterised by extreme changeability. Nothing changes so quickly as the state of affairs in media. Every piece of information soon becomes outdated, especially the data about the staffing, ownership and printing runs. Many data are being concealed and made inaccessible to public. The events on the media scene are full of paradoxes that are difficult to explain and which might create confusion and disorientation during the analysis. It is paradoxical, for example, that it is unknown who is the owner of the best sold daily, that the printing runs are kept secret, that no one knows how some media can financially survive at all and who covers their enormous debts, etc.

 3. 1. The Types and Number of media

The review of the typology and number of media in Croatia prima facie shows that there is a diversity of offer, but the actual picture is different. In electronic media the influence of Croatian TV is predominant, while among the countless press publications to be found on kiosks, the publications for children, enigmatographic publications (puzzles and crosswords), pulp fiction and comic books predominate, while the serious political publications are in minority or are printed in small number of copies. The checkered quality of the media scene is somewhat compensated for by the radio stations, and new, increasingly present, electronic publications.

Table 1: Type and number of media

Sources: Council for Telecommunications, May 1999, Tisak, (Press) Joint Stock Company in bankruptcy, company for distribution of newspapers.

 3. 2. Structure of Radio and TV Scene

Within the umbrella organisation of Croatian Radio Television there is Croatian Radio, which broadcasts Programme One, Two and Three. All three programmes are broadcast at the national level. At the regional level, there are another eight regional radio stations: Radio Sljeme (Zagreb region), Zadar, Dubrovnik, Split, Rijeka, Pula, Osijek and Knin.

The findings of the research conducted by the agency Barometar in February 1998, show that “the rating of all the programmes of the Croatian Radio is very low and that it suffers from the competitive offer of the rival local radio stations ”[11][11] Thus, if we are to judge by the findings of this research into the radio-broadcasting space of Croatia, the small commercial local and regional stations with the listener rating of 47% are posing a significant threat to the rating of all the national state radio programmes taken together.

The nineties have changed the structure of the local radio network in Croatia. In comparison with 1985, when there were 45 local radio stations in Croatia, apart from the existing national network of eight radio stations of the state-owned Croatian Radio, “the number of radio stations in 1996 reached 102, and is still increasing”.[12][12] The increase in the number of the radio stations was accompanied with an increase in the number of hours of the broadcast programmes. Today, the major part of the radio stations, out of the total number of 118 radio stations in Croatia, is broadcasting whole-day programmes.

“About 65% of the local radio stations are privately owned; 30% are owned by local self-governance and administration bodies, while about 5% of them are in mixed ownership”.[13][13]

What characterises the local stations in general is the absence of news broadcasts, which is understandable, since the production of news is far more expensive than the procurement of quality digital equipment, wished for by every radio station. The programmes are usually produced by digital equipment, which doesn’t require much money, since everything is computerised. The news broadcasts are expensive because the information must first be collected by the journalists in the field, then written, rewritten, cut, doctored and edited – and it is only after that that the technology comes into play. The human labour is considerably more expensive than computerised work. The increase in the number of  “breezy radio stations”[14][14], as shown by the enquiries, is directly proportional to the increase of their listener rating. A recent research, conducted in the territory of Croatia with a sample group of 3000 interviewees of 10-74 years of age, and endorsed by the GfK agency, shows that one of the most listened-to radio stations is Narodni radio (People’s Radio), which mostly broadcasts popular domestic music. According to the same research, the Programme One of the Croatian Radio holds second place on the listener rating list. Another point that explains the high rating of Narodni radio is the fact that 57% of the interviewees prefer listening to music, while 25 % go for the news. It is interesting, as shown in the above research, that 196 various radio stations, domestic and foreign, are being listened to in Croatia.

The Croatian Television is the most powerful Croatian state media outlet. It is now being restructured into public television. The existing law, the redundant staff and the enormous financial losses of this media outlet – picturesquely described by its present General Director, Mirko Galić, as “an oil tanker on a shallow spot” - do not stir high hopes that the changes will be effected quickly and efficiently. The lead news stories and broadcasts, which have the highest viewer rating, are still being presented more with a view of their protocolar value, less with a view of the value of the events as such.  The general impression gained by the European media is best summarised in a comment that it is still clearly visible from the lead news broadcasts which party is in power in Croatia. The passage of the new Law on Public Television will probably speed up the transformation of the state TV house into a media outlet that would be in service of public interests.

Since the network of the transmitters of the Croatian Television serves to ensure a good coverage of the whole territory of the state, none of the existing local TV stations can threaten the rating figures of its three programmes, irrespective of the quality of their contents. By investing, mainly foreign, capital, the local TV stations have to a certain degree enhanced their transmitter systems, yet the quality of the reception of their broadcasts is still far from equalling the quality of the Croatian Television in that respect.

The characteristics that all the local TV houses (TV Moslavina, TV Nova Pula, TV Čakovec, Vinkovačka TV, Gradska TV Zadar, OTV Zagreb, RI-TV Rijeka, ATV Split, Nezavisna istarska televizija Pazin, Televizija Slavonije i Baranje Osijek, VTV Varaždinska televizija, Kanal RI Rijeka i Nova TV) share in common, are the lack of transparency in regard to ownership, inadequate funds, poor quality and obsolete technology and equipment, and frequent changes of editors. The majority of local TV stations broadcast several hours of news programmes daily, mostly regional news; since June this year they are using the services of CCN network[15][15] in broadcasting the news from Croatia. The Law on Telecommunications from 1999 allows for networking of commercial TV houses. “The new law allows for networking up to five hours a day. This opportunity offers undreamed-of possibilities of combination in exchanging the programmes and creating shared broadcasts.”[16][16] Such a possibility, provided that the technological infrastructure is improved to a much higher level of quality, can in near future generate real competitors to the state TV house.

The above technological shortcomings and a small number of journalists working in the regional and city TV houses set aside, the foreign media observers who followed the local TV programmes in Croatia are of opinion that the broadcasts of the “small TV houses” are frequently more professionally made than the broadcasts of the “big HRT (Croatian RTV)”.

 3. 3. Structure, Printing Runs and Distribution of Press

The characteristic feature of the present moment in regard to press media in Croatia is that the new newspapers are not popping up as frequently as it was the case in early 1990, when the new law made it possible to anyone who had the start-up capital and a bunch of young journalists around to become a newspaper publisher. During the past ten years many newspapers flashed for a moment to be extinguished shortly after, because the small Croatian market could not absorb the new products.

The economic crisis from the time of “neither peace nor war” set the limits to the consumer habits and customs. People restricted themselves to buying one daily only (not even each day) and occasionally a weekly like Globus or Nacional. This is illustrated by the fact that several news magazines (Novi Danas, Tjednik, Obzor) had appeared during the period, which did not manage to survive.

In May this year there reappeared a new independent political weekly, Fokus, of news newsmagazine type, edited by a group of highly renowned Croatian journalists. However, due to financial difficulties, the editorial management was forced to change the format already in September, so that it is not a newsmagazine any more, but a weekly newspaper.

There are still many publications published in Croatia for which it is difficult to see how they survive. It is difficult to determine the exact number of newspapers that regularly appear in the market, simply because some periodical papers are erratically published. The statistical data show that “in 1996 there were 1378 different newspapers being published in Croatia, along with 1622 magazines, for which there were no data on their printing runs”.[17][17] According to the data given by the company for sales and distribution of newspapers, Tisak d.d. u stečaju (Press, Joint Stock Company in Receivership), during the first seven months in 2000  there appeared 307 different publications.  

Table 2: Types of newspaper publications sold by the company Tisak. d.d. u stečaju

Comment: Large figures indicate two things - attempts are being made at attracting the readers by the diversity of offer, and less demanding formats, relatively easy and simple to produce, predominate.

 3. 3. 1. Newspaper Sales in Croatia during January - September 2000 Period

The newspaper sales figures are among the most strictly kept business secrets. The publishers, naturally, want to create the impression that their editions sell well, in order to attract the advertisers. Because of that, the publishers are ready to disclose only the printing run figures, without saying anything about the figures of returns from the agents (unsold copies), and very rarely boast of number of copies sold.

There is no uniform method for collection of data on newspaper sales in Croatia. The state Statistics Bureau publishes these data with a long, several-year delay, but even these data are incorrect, because the data provided by publishers are used as sources.

In Croatia, the newspapers are mainly sold in kiosks, grocery stores or by newsvendors, and, as of recent, at the street crossings in Zagreb and other bigger cities. The number of copies sold by way of subscriptions is negligible. 

The focal points for the collection of the data are therefore the sales services. The biggest company for sales and distribution of newspapers, Tisak d.d. u stečaju, readily put at our disposal the data on the sales of newspapers through their network for the first seven months of the year 2000. This was the first time that such data were made publicly available. These data are of great value, since they are genuine, yet they are not complete and the newspaper sales through other networks should also be taken into account. However, what remains stable regardless of the number of copies sold by other networks, are the sales trends, regional share and the success figures for sales of particular types of newspaper publications.   

Table 3: Dailies

*Significant sales through Distri press (private newspaper distribution company) were not taken into account

**Own sales and distribution network was not taken into account

*** Additional 3,488 thousand (3,488,000) copies were sent abroad

Source:  Tisak d.d. u stečaju; average daily run calculated by the authors

Comments to the table:The data are incomplete, since the local newspapers have their own, rather influential, sales and distribution networks; thus, Novi list and Slobodna Dalmacija have a higher printing run, Večernji list sells well abroad, while Jutarnji list is sold through Distri Press. However, the table correctly shows the ranking order of  dailies  in regard to sales.

General impression: very low printing run figures as compared with the period up to 1990, during which Večernji list had almost 350,000 copies, and Slobodna Dalmacija about  100,000 copies.The data indicate that some dailies could not rely only on their own sales to be able to survive, so that the question remains as to how they keep surviving. Until 1990 there was a considerably larger Yugoslav market, and the buying power of the population was higher. The prospects are rather bleak if the buying power does not increase, yet it all depends on the improvement of the economic situation.  

Table 4: Political Publications

Source: Tisak d.d. u stečaju, (Press, Joint Stock company in receivership)

Comment to the table: Political publications are not much in demand in the market. The best-sold Globus has an average daily sold run that does not exceed 50,000 copies per issue, which is really not much. Two newspapers from the list have already disappeared: Imperijal, and Fokus, which appeared only to run into financial difficulties in less than six-months time. 

Table 5: Reviews and magazines with over 100,000 sold copies in the January – July 2000 period.

Source:  Tisak d.d. u stečaju

Comment to the table: By far, the best-sold press products are the ones intended for women: Gloria. Tena, Mila and similar. The classifieds are also well-sold, which indicates that the citizens engage in buying and selling outside the official channels, while more money is being paid in the kiosks for crosswords and enigmatographic magazines than for political publications or culture reviews.

3. 4. Professional Organisations and Associations

Professional organisations and associations have played a very significant role in the struggle of Croatian media for independence and autonomy during Tuđman’s rule. The key role in that struggle had the Croatian Journalists’ Society (HND), the oldest and biggest professional organisation, founded on 18 December 1910.

HND is an NGO, the funding for which comes from the membership fees and from the rent received for the premises of the Journalists’ House, built by Croatian journalists between 1926 and1934. The Journalists’ House was nationalised after the Second World War, but HND regained it as their own property in 1992, after engaging in sustained and obstinate efforts.  HND is a member of the International Federation of Journalists since 1992, and it has about 3,300 members, about 60% of whom are working in Zagreb. About 1,800 members are working for daily newspapers or for HRTV (Croatian Radio-Television). The Society has its branches in all bigger editorial offices or municipal and city centres. The journalists are also organised by specialised professional trades (tourism, agronomy, court reporting, etc.). HND publishes its own paper Novinar (Journalist) and awards annual prizes for best pieces of journalism. At he HND there is also active the International Centre for Education of Journalists and Journalists’ Workshop.

The Association of Local Media was founded in 1962 and is deemed to be the oldest active association of its kind in Europe. The members of the association are the local radio stations (out of 115 of them, 107 the members of the association) as well as 19 local newspapers. The membership is voluntary, and its mission in the capacity of a non-political, non-governmental and professional organisation is to build the system of local public information. 

The National Association of TV Houses (NUT) was founded in 1997 with the aim to protect its own production and promote the production of TV programmes.

Forum 21 was founded in 1997 by a group of electronic media journalist, members of HND, who were dissatisfied with the situation in the Croatian media space, and particularly with the role of HRTV (Croatian RTV). Forum 21 demanded that HRTV be transformed into a public television and advocated for development of private radio broadcasting, market competition and protection of journalists’ autonomy. 

The trade union of the Croatian journalists is an independent organisation that implements, upholds and protects the rights and interests of its members, primarily in the domain of better working conditions and collective agreements, safeguarding the material, working, status and social interests of its members. The trade union also provides free legal counselling to its members, representing them in legal suits against their employers, organises mutual assistance to the members and organises all forms of trade-unionist actions, including strikes. It was founded on 15 May 1990 in Trogir; it has 2,500 members from almost all the media outlets, and its membership is continuously growing. 

The Croatian Union of Catholic Journalists was founded in 1991. It gathers Catholic journalists, editors, publishers and professors of journalism from Catholic and secular media in Croatia, as well as the media from the Croatian-speaking areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vojvodina and Kosovo. The Union is the member of the International Union of Catholic Press (UCIP) based in Geneva. Until 1991, there was an active Union of Catholic Journalists in Yugoslavia, which later on split into the Croatian Union of Catholic Journalists and Slovenian Union of Catholic Journalists. 

The Association of Employers was established with the purpose to try to restrain the monopoly of the newspaper distribution company Tisak. It has not fully taken hold as yet, and there is an urgent need for publishers and owners of media houses to organise more firmly and to become the matching partners to the associations of journalists.

The Association of Independent Radio Stations was founded in 1999 with the purpose of promoting the system of delivery of more objective information to the listeners and mutual linking of independent Croatian radio stations. 12 radio stations have joined in to date.

3. 5. Education of Journalists and Media Staff

There are two graduate level schools of journalism in Croatia, both of them at the University of Zagreb. The School of Journalism at the Faculty of Political Sciences is older, more renowned, more ramified in its activities, with well-tuned routine curricula, while the School of Journalism within the Croatian Studies Department has been in existence only for few years and is still in the development phase. Its destiny depends on the decision of the Senate of the Zagreb University.

The young people who opt for university studies show big interest in both Schools of Journalism. There are usually 15 candidates who apply per one enrolled student. Already during the studies the majority of students get involved in the work of some editorial board. Those among them who demonstrate a talent and a flair for journalism start very early working as part time contributors, and this is something that often has a devastating effect on their studies. There are no exact data showing how many students get employed in press, but just for illustration, we can give the findings of an ad hoc enquiry conducted among the students of the third year of the School of Journalism at the Faculty of Political Sciences in 1997. Out of 78 students, 53 worked as contributors in some editorial board.

Table 6: Qualification structure of HND members, as of 14 March 2000

Source: Administrative services of the Croatian Society of Journalists

Poor pattern of skills and the need for professional training of journalists have induced the Croatian Society of Journalists to launch a Workshop for Journalists, the purpose of which was to provide education to young journalists, of 25-35 years of age, with little professional experience, working in any of the Croatian media editorial boards. Supported by donors from abroad, like Press Now, Open Society Institute, IREXProMedia, European Union, the Freedom Forum and several embassies (German, French), the workshop started working in 1997, and it held 6 three-month courses of lectures at which 150 journalists have been trained. More than 60 domestic and foreign journalists, media experts and professors of journalism gave lectures during the workshop.

The success of the Workshop for Journalists served as a starting ground for initiating the International Centre for Education of Journalists (ICEJ) in Opatija, which was the fruit of cooperation between the City Administration of Opatija, Open Society Institute Croatia and the Croatian Society of Journalists. Since its establishment in October 1998 until September 2000, ICEJ arranged about fifty different domestic and international courses, workshops, round-tables and scientific meetings addressing the issue of media, with about more than one thousand journalists from almost all the European countries taking part in them.

Media houses also engage on advance in-service training of journalists; thus, the Croatian radio and television has its own education centre, while the editorial board of Večernji list occasionally holds internal courses for newly employed journalists. Preparations are under way to establish the Journalists Academy of EuropaPress Holding, the biggest private press house in Croatia. The Union of Croatian Catholic Journalists also organises courses for their members and young journalists working in Catholic media.

The education of regional journalists is also very important; thus, AIM[18][18] organises in Eastern Slavonia the regular courses for journalists, while the Embassy of Local Democracy has organised several-year courses in Sisak.

The organisers of these courses co-operate among themselves, using the expertise and logistic support of the HND’s Workshop for Journalists. The education of journalists has become one of the key issues for development of journalism in Croatia, so that increasing attention is given to it. However, the existence of large number of young, inadequately educated journalists, calls for more elaborate system of education. The Croatian Society of Journalists is trying to raise the standards of education of journalists to a higher level, but the changes are being slowly introduced due to the cumbersome system.

3. 6. Media Regulation and Self-Regulation 

The Croatian legislation has for the past ten years been working intensively on the regulation of media, yet the result was not always fully satisfactory. The legislator had first, during the transition from the socialist self-management system into a democratic society, to align the laws not only with the changes in the social system, but also with the commitments undertaken, necessitated by European and international integrations. Ten years of Tuđman’s era resulted, on one hand, in a number of rigid restrictions imposed on the freedom of media, and the great declarative freedom of media, almost at the level of world’s highest achievements, on the other hand.

The media are governed primarily under the Article 38 of the Constitution of Republic of Croatia, which guarantees freedom of thought and expression, encompassing particularly the freedom of press and other means of public expression, freedom of speech and public expression, and freedom to establish any public information agency.

The "key law" that regulates the relationships in media is the law on public information, which was prepared in line with the European standards and which is quite liberal. The trouble is that this law does not provide for all the details, and the constraints to the freedom of media are “hidden” in the penal code, which had a very deleterious effect on the work of the journalists and on the grounds of which an avalanche of court actions was instituted against the journalists.

The commercial radio broadcasting is regulated under the Law on Telecommunications, and the Rule Book on the Amount of Compensation Fee for Performing Telecommunication Services and Other Telecommunication Activities and the Way of Payment. The Council for Radio and Television, nominated by the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia on the basis of these legal acts determines who can be granted concession for a particular radio and TV wave bands.

The Law on Croatian Radio and TV has been modified as much as 6 times since 1990, and at this moment the latest draft law, the passage of which is anticipated for the end of 2000, is presently undergoing the parliamentary procedure. This law will regulate HRTV as a public TV house, which will be funded through mandatory subscription, and which will also be entitled to generate income through commercial ads, and by selling its products and services. The Law on HRTV was subject to numerous criticisms, particularly on the part of the international community, so that the public is waiting with great interest to see how the new government will regulate this extremely important matter. The influence of the society is ensured through the Council of HRTV, nominated by the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia.

A special law also regulates the work of the Croatian Informative News Agency (HINA). The Law on the Croatian Informative News Agency (HINA) was passed in July 1990. The law regulates the operation of HINA in line with the regulations that are applicable for the administrative bodies and agencies. According to the Article 7 of the Law, the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia nominates ten members from among its own ranks of MPs, in proportion to the party structure of the Parliament, while the government of the Republic of Croatia also nominates another ten members. If we are to judge by the composition of the Council, which is supposed to represent the wide public interest, it is obvious that HINA is fully a state agency. After the change in the government in Croatia, following the 3 January 2000 elections, certain amendments were made in the laws and, inter alia, the Article of the Penal Code, which particularly served to protect five highest state officials against libel and defamation, was repealed. However, irrespective of these changes, other provisions remained that do not allow for full freedom of the work of the journalists.

It is paradoxical that the language of hatred was not sanctioned at the same time, although it is in contradiction with the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia.  Therefore it is up to the new government to undertake the radical changes in the laws that regulate the media relations. 

Self-regulation is reduced to the Code of Ethics of HND, which is among the most progressive of its kind, but its influence is limited only to the moral condemnation on the part of the profession. The Court of Honour of HND examines every reported case of violation of the Code and passes its judgment, which however can contain only one sanction: making the judgment public. Therefore, those violating the Code are liable only morally, and even that only as ascertained by the opinion of their colleagues. The institution of Ombudsman is non- existent. Some media houses, incited by the growing number of cases of violation of the Code, have adopted their own codes of conduct, but without any significant results.

The result of such regulations is that there are “more than 300 criminal actions against journalists and more than 600 civil cases (for compensation of damages) against newspaper publishers pending before the Croatian courts. Due to the enormous case overload, the procedures take relatively long (some taking even several years). The court practice is just being established and the outcome is very uncertain."[19][19]

It sounds almost ridiculous that the public prosecutors have demanded the compensation for damages from the publishers to the amount of more than 30 million Deutsch Marks on the grounds of mental pain and fear, allegedly caused by the information published!

3. 7. Economic situation inside the media scene

The media market in Croatia has not as yet taken hold, so that the media are driven into space which is on one side delimited by a strong influence of the state and its bodies, which dictate the conditions under which the media are to operate, and on the other side exposed to the most crude market laws which disregard the rules of the game, which the government authorities had set up without making themselves responsible for the consequences.

The result of such an economic situation is an extremely difficult position of the media, especially private ones, which attempt to devise various ways to survive.

The state regulatory mechanisms concern also electronic media. The state, through the laws and the Council for Radio and TV, decides which radio or TV station is to be granted the concession for a particular frequency. The concession strictly prescribes the power and the coverage of signal, the area where the signal is to be broadcast and therefore the market that a particular station is to address.  The frequency that covers underdeveloped rural area offers no marketing possibilities, because the advertisers are not that stupid to waste their money on commercials that would be broadcast in scarcely populated and commercially dull areas. Therefore, the local stations must look for their sponsors, which they usually find in form of socio-political communities or city and cantonal administration. This naturally means that they thus lose the financial, and, consequently, editorial independence.

The printed media on the other hand have no constraints regarding the start up mechanisms, but the monopolistic company Tisak conducts the distribution of their products in the market. No press product that aspires to at least a minimum degree of seriousness can survive without relying on the distribution network of Tisak. The company Tisak was a source of big dissatisfaction of publishers and even bigger fraudulent behaviour, so that its former owner Miroslav Kutle is presently in custody. The Attorney General has instituted a court action, while the company went bankrupt and is presently in receivership.

The economic situation that the media are in is also precarious due to the deep crisis of the Croatian economy. The buying power of the population has considerably dropped, so that people find it very hard to find in their household budgets the funds for buying the newspapers. Radio and television subscription amounts to 45 Kunas a month, which is too large a sum for many unemployed and retired people. Whoever wants to buy a daily paper every day, must put aside 150 Kunas a month. If we add to it a weekly news and political magazine, it means additional 48 Kunas, and then comic book, a cross-words or entertainment magazine, it means further 20 Kunas, so that at the end a modest basket of papers would amount to more than 200 Kunas, which is a lot for an average salary of 3,275 Kunas a month.

The additional unfavourable circumstance is the poor payment capacity of the Croatian economy. The enterprises lack money; the scarcity of cash has become proverbial, which means that the firms that buy a space for commercials in some media outlet very often are not capable of paying for the commercial. The fact that some companies are trying to pay the media companies for their commercials in kind creates ridiculous situations, so that in some editorial offices you can even get potatoes, washing powder or similar things. The share of the commercials in the income of the newspapers does not exceed 25%. The greater part of the income is generated through sales, this making the role of distribution networks and the buying power of the population more important.

Small, private media companies can hardly withstand the pressure of such unfavourable conditions, and thus many newspaper editions appear for a moment in the kiosks soon to vanish from the scene. Due to scarcity of money, the owners do not pay their contributors, do not send the journalists to field trips, do not enable them to be further trained in their profession, etc, etc.

The influence of the state is on the other hand reflected in the fact that some media outlets are for years deep in debts, receiving no income, publishing small number of copies, advertising nothing, and yet they do somehow survive and manage to print. This serves further to deteriorate the relations between media, so that some operate completely untouched by market laws, while the others must endure all the hardships of a market subject to conditions dictated by the state, and not by the market itself. The state is directly or indirectly, through its enterprises or funds, still very significant media owner.  Hrvatska radiotelevizija, (Croatia Radio TV), HINA, Vjesnik, Slobodna Dalmacija, Hrvatska tiskara, Tisak, Halo 92, etc. are still owned by the state.

The foreign investors did not show too much interest for investing in media. The biggest foreign investment was the purchase of the 50% of the shares of the biggest private publishing house Europapress Holding. The buyer was the German concern WAZ, which now has almost the same number of shares as Ninoslav Pavić, yet he has one share more and thus the final word in decision-making. The latest media scandal was the buying and selling of the best-selling daily Večernji list, which was bought under mysterious circumstances by Caritas Limited Fund for which it was only recently found out to be the property of Croatian entrepreneurs who had conducted the transaction on behalf of then ruling party HDZ, while now the Austrian firm Styria wants to buy this paper. Whatever the case may be, the scandals and unknowns that accompany foreign investments into media are obviously an obstacle to any serious inflow of foreign capital.

The foreign donations support small but independent media, like Feral Tribune weekly and some independent radio and TV stations, but this support is not adequate enough to be able to change the economic situation the media are in.

3.8. Main Implications of Regulatory and Economic Conditions

The basic impact of the previously described regulatory and economic conditions on the media picture consists in the fact that the state regulatory mechanisms still dictate the scene through laws and regulations, even more by regulating the economic relations, in the former, state socialism manner. The state, in whatever form it appears, still has a dominant influence on the economic life of the country, and consequently on media as well. The state sometimes does not know what to do with the media, and yet it does not know how to get rid of them. The best example is the case of a daily Vjesnik, which is wriggling under the ten-year unpaid debts, constantly changing the owners (all of them quasigovernmental) and is incapable of subsisting without subsidies. The state, which pays a lip service to free market economy, subsidises Vjesnik and in doing that is cool as a cucumber. The explanation given might be an acceptable – for Vjesnik is a benchmark for serious daily informative and analytical newspapers, yet this arrangement is in contradiction with the system of economic relations as proclaimed in the electoral campaign.

3. 8. 1. Media and Politics

The politicians, regardless of whether they are in power or in opposition, want to exert influence on media, and in doing that they use the old, tried-out methods from the times of socialism. The journalists, on their side, aware of the influence of the politics and desirous of achieving a better position for their media outlets, enter into close relations with the politicians. In such a way, instead of independent media, we get media that are closely affiliated with whatever party, so that the whole situation reflects on the level of information the citizens finally possess. The citizens are still forced to follow several media simultaneously if they want to know what is really happening in their country.

3. 8. 2. Media and Economy

The low payment capacity of the Croatian enterprises is mostly reflected in their inability to support the media by placing the advertisements. The structure of the income of the media is such that the newspapers still generate the major of their income through sales, while the local radio and TV stations tend to rely more on the income obtained from the citizens in exchange for satisfying their music or other wishes, various forms of sponsorship and the subsidies allocated from the budget of local state administration communities, than on the income deriving from the ads. 

 4. ECONOMY OF MEDIA SYSTEM

The economic situation of the Croatian media is one of the fundamental courses of restricted media freedoms, and an obstacle to a more expeditious development of the press and radio and TV broadcasting. The economic conditions, peppered with the legal regulations and interference of the state and parastatal power centres fully explain the restricted media freedoms. There are several causes for the bad economic situation the Croatian media are in, some of them dating back to the time of the socialist self-management society. The analysis of the economic factors will show where the roots are and what are the possible solutions to the crisis.

4. 1. Market Relations

The real market in Croatia has not yet started functioning. The legal arrangements and monopolistic companies put constraints on the market. The state is still a determining factor in the regulation of the media market and the reasons for that are quite obvious. All until the state continues to control the market, it will control the media as well. And who controls the media…

The printed media, the newspapers, seemingly enjoy the greatest freedom. There are practically no restrictions imposed on the possibility to launch any kind of newspapers, including the dailies. Yet, it costs some money to start a newspaper. Numerous economic conditions must be satisfied, investments must be made into the project itself, human resources, and the start-up production. If a publisher wants to sell a newspaper, the papers must be delivered to kiosks on time. And in order to achieve that, there must be a good distribution network available. There lies the catch 22 for the Croatian printed media.

The distribution of the newspapers is concentrated in the company Tisak. This company is in fact the former Sales Department of the giant news, publishing, printing and sales concern Vjesnik. Tisak gained its autonomy after the dissolution of Vjesnik, but it became a state-owned company. Through Tisak, the state controlled the newspapers market. Tisak could either promote or prevent the selling of a particular newspaper. The editors of the newspaper that was not to the taste of the state would not even be given the information on how well their newspaper was being sold, let alone the information that their sales went up. Months would pass before the publishers would get the money from the sales of their newspapers. Under the conditions where money is lacking, when recurring costs have to be duly paid, with the earnings from the sales never arriving and without knowing how high is the income from the sales, it is very difficult to speak of the existence of the market. The monopoly of Tisak became the most efficient instrument of control for the state. As the international community exerted a political pressure on the HDZ authorities, the ownership title of Tisak changed. Miroslav Kutle, the media tycoon in the service of HDZ, became the owner of Tisak. The term “became” was literally correct, because Kutle did not give the money for purchase of Tisak, in the same way as he did not pay for Slobodna Dalmacija and other media houses belonging to his empire. Thereby the pressure upon the newspapers increased. Only “the politically constructive” newspapers managed to survive, while the opposition newspapers paid dearly. The crisis of Tisak culminated in 1999 when this firm, which had a daily income amounting to 3 million Deutsch Marks, became indebted. Kutle attempted to save his empire by siphoning off the money from Tisak for the benefit of other companies. The newspaper paid the final price. A strike was organised, dissatisfaction broke out, and the paper even went bankrupt. Presently, Tisak is in receivership, its situation is getting better, yet its destiny is still uncertain and the question of its ownership likewise. Indeed, the same way as the state has given Kutle the ownership, the same way the state took it away from him. It is still not known who is to be the next owner.

The market does not exist for electronic media as well. By granting concessions for frequencies, the state determines under what conditions a particular radio or TV station will operate and generate income. The coverage determines how high the listener or viewer rating will be, and the rating determines how high the income from the commercials will be. The commercials, on their side, mean the only significant income for private radio and TV stations that enables them to become independent. The state i.e. public HRTV, receives the income from subscription fees, and has the right to broadcast commercials, so that it scoops the cream on the market. The others glean behind, picking the crumbs offered by advertisers, or decide to ride on the coat-tails of the state authorities, like cantonal, city or municipal authorities. Thereby, they lose their autonomy and become the spokesman for the state, losing the status of independent media.

The frequencies are allocated on the basis of the Law on Telecommunications passed in June 1999 and published in the Official Gazette No. 77.  The Law regulates the relationship between the provider and the user of the telecommunications services, as well as the building, maintenance and use of telecommunication facilities and equipment, and radio stations. Fees for the use of the radio frequency are paid in accordance with the Rule Book on the Compensation Fee for Use of Radio Frequencies and the Way of Payment, drawn up by the Minister of the Ministry for Traffic and Communications, upon the advice of the Telecommunications Institute.

The Rule Book on the Amount of Compensation Fee for Performing Telecommunications Services and Other Telecommunications Activities and the Way of Payment regulates the prices of the concessions. The Rule Book was published in the Official Gazette No. 97 on 4 September 1999. The amounts of the annual compensation fees for concessions are defined in detail, and they depend on the amplitude of the frequency and the area covered by the broadcaster.

According to the Article 74 of the Law on Telecommunications, the Council for Radio and Television is the competent body for granting concessions for performance of radio and TV broadcasting activities. The Council is composed of nine members, who are appointed from the ranks of public, education, cultural, professional and religious workers. 

4. 2. Transition of Ownership

The post-socialist countries, including Croatia, did not recognise private ownership over media companies in the previous system. The first private paper that was granted license for publication in 1987 in Zagreb was Oglasnik (Classified Ads). As its title states, it was the paper that published classified ads for free, generating the income through the sales. The paper was politically anodyne because it published only the ads, so it was granted the license even in former Yugoslavia. However, in the newly born Croatian state all media were state-,or better said, socially-owned.

The privatisation of property caused numerous scandals in Croatia, among which the privatisation of Slobodna Dalmacija was the model example of fraudulent handling. The scandalous purchase triggered a series of misappropriations that still continues. Slobodna Dalmacija was bought by Miroslav Kutle under doubtful circumstances, to become today again the property of the state, which still does not know how to cut this Gordian knot. In meantime, a renowned newspaper and a powerful media house was brought to ruin.

The case of privatisation of Večernji list, the best-selling newspaper, is also a scandalous one. After the transition of property, the majority owner of Večernji list became the Retirement Scheme Fund, and the employees held 20% of shares. But, in December 1997, the Retirement Fund announced the sales of its shares and almost overnight, on the eve of Christmas holidays, sold the newspaper to an anonymous and phantom-like Caritas Limited Fund from the Canary Islands. The sale stank to high heavens and it was an open secret that HDZ had used the phony company for purchasing the most influential daily paper. 

Years passed in investigating who was the real owner of Večernji list, until the transcript of Tuđman’s conversation was found which showed that the paper was bought, on behalf of HDZ, by the automotive industry tycoon Pavo Zubak and Montmontaža. The parliamentary commission for investigation of buying and selling transactions was established. Meanwhile, the Austrian firm Styria showed interest to buy the paper, even concluding the agreement. The scandal became international. It was not investigated who had breached the laws during the first selling transaction, and the second sale transaction was also dubious, since the government had not passed a decision that would enable buying and selling transactions.

These two biggest scandals, which are presently being examined by the competent judiciary authorities best illustrate the transition of property. We might add here that the former leading daily Vjesnik is in a difficult situation and is being subsidised by the government, which has not yet decided to sell it, and that the state still holds in its ownership the printing house of Vjesnik, publishing several reviews and magazines through their ministries.

The first successful case of privatisation was the privatisation of the weekly Arena, conducted already in the time of former Yugoslavia, in accordance with the so-called Marković’s law[20][20]. Arena performed well for some time as a private newspaper, later to be bought by Ninoslav Pavić, the most successful owner of newspapers up to now.

The most successful privatisation of all was performed with the Rijeka Novi List, also under the Marković’s law. The employees became small shareholders, thus laying the foundations for the only independent daily in Croatia in the time of Tuđman. The process of privatisation itself went quite well, mostly due to the fact that at that time Novi List was a daily with a low printing run, covering only Rijeka and its coastal area, so that the power mongers were not too much interested. Besides, the opposition parties, led by SDP, were in power in Rijeka, so that everything was much easier to do.

The transition of property was therefore slashed at the very root. The most influential media outlet, the Croatian Radio and Television, was firmly in the hands of the state, although officially it was a public TV house. Even as late as middle of the year 2000, the new law on HRTV, which would truly transform this important media house into a public media outlet, was not adopted. 

The majority of other socially-owned media houses either went to ruin (hundreds of factory and municipal media outlets) or were privatised only in part, as the case was with the weekly Globus, the nucleus of future media empire of Ninoslav Pavić.

4. 3. Ownership Relations

The transition of property in the media sphere was sloppy and scandalous, producing nothing good, excepting the case of Novi List. However, the new age proved propitious for the new entrepreneurs. The media were attractive and it seemed also that they would be lucrative. Some were short-lived like dragon-flies, while the others started modestly to become quite respectable later on. In the beginning, the ownership over media was quite befitting the war years. The memories of how Branimir Glavaš[21][21] took over the Glas Slavonije with kalasnikovs or how formerly respectable papers went down the drain just because of unsettled ownership relations are still vivid. 

The data that show that there were more than 300 various papers, given in the media overview, best illustrates how turbulent the media market is in Croatia. The situation with electronic media is similar, save that the number of outlets and their fluctuation was lower, due to the constraints caused by state regulatory mechanisms and the issuing of licences.  

Feral Tribune was the first private media project which gained the international renown, but which also provoked the open animosity of the Tuđman’s regime. Albeit all the success and high sales, Feral could not survive without international support.  Feral felt the monopoly of Tisak on its skin in the worst possible of ways. Feral serves as an example of how a private paper can keep its independence under the extremely difficult conditions. However, Feral is not a good example of a commercially successful media company.

Commercially speaking, the most successful media tycoon is Ninoslav Pavić, one of the three owners of Globus, which was the first newspaper to extract itself from its former parent house of Vjesnik. Globus started as a successful private weekly to become a nucleus of the biggest private media company in Croatia, of respectable magnitude even for the whole region. Today, the enterprise Europapress Holding, along with the original Globus, publishes also Jutarnji list daily, Gloria and Arena weeklies, and a whole series of other magazines, including Playboy and Cosmopolitan. Europapress holding is an example of the first really big foreign investment: the German concern WAZ bought 50% of its shares. Pavić owns the remaining 50% plus one share, which gives him the possibility of having the final say.

Jura Hrvačić also proved himself a successful entrepreneur, who transformed a small local radio station Velika Gorica into a widely listened-to radio. He used his know-how to gain ownership over the radio stations with the highest listener rating: Narodna (People’s) and Obiteljska (Family) radio station, finally to buy Radio Velika Gorica also.

The TV domain did not produce a real tycoon. Vinko Grubišić, the owner of OTV, exerted influence on the media scene on the merits of his very respectable position he had in the ranks of the HDZ party, but still could not substantially change the media landscape. OTV was the first TV station, the majority owner of which was Vinko Grubišić, one of the creators of the HDZ’s doctrine of media control. In that capacity OTV actually served the role of an impediment to the development of independent TV stations. 

About ten private TV stations appeared in bigger regional centres, but none of them ever gained enough financial power to be able to play a stronger role. All the attempts at merger ended just as weak attempts, even after the international institutions assisted the local stations in networking in order that they might compete with their newscasts with the all- powerful HTV.

TV Moslavina, a small private station from Kutina, did the impossible. For three years already they have been operating with a margin of profit, not a large one though, yet it is a profit and not a loss. They have also managed to survive all the attacks of the former power-wielders, as well as the competitive efforts of other private TV stations, like for example OTV, the task of which was more to obstruct the development of independent TV than to foster the development of media.   

4. 4. Impact of Economic Situation on Editorial Policy

All the negative aspects of the economic situation the media are in reflect directly upon the editorial policies of the media. Those that are under the patronage of the state, living on subsidies one way or another, are trying to adapt their editorial policies to the wishes and demands of those in power. Their independence is reduced to minimum, and this is in fact the kind of journalism that we know but too well from the times of socialism or tuđmanism.

The independents, which put their destiny at the mercy of the free market, adapt their editorial policies to the demands of the consumers. But the consumers are, as we have seen in the previous chapters, impoverished and are not enough well-off to be able to buy the newspapers. Therefore, they must be attracted by something strong, sensational and attractive enough to make them pull out of their pockets 5 or 12 Kunas for a daily or a weekly. Just a brief glance at the kiosk can tell us what is the effect of such a market: enormous headlines, scandals, disclosure of secret documents, sensations…

A serious and analytical journalism simply cannot find enough buyers. The fluorescent yellow colouring of the Croatian press is the result of this harsh market reality. It is not the yellow colouring of the western press type, which detects extraterrestrials among the MPs, but rather the stories adapted to the needs and levels of the Croatian buyers.

The distorted market takes its toll from the audio scene as well. The radio stations now have a high listener rating, but what predominates is a “breezy radio”: plenty of local low-quality music, “slime” and populist “rural pop”, short one-minute newscasts downloaded from Internet and chatshows with witty hosts and audience-friendly topics. The news and information programmes are expensive, not much listened-to and adorned with nothing else but the serious tone of the programme, which hardly recommends it to the prospective buyers.  It is paradigmatic that during the debate on the restructuring of   the Croatian Radio most interventions concerned the abolition of the Programme Three, which has a long-standing, fruitful and enviable renown of a cultural and scientific programme, with mostly classical music on the agenda.

The private TV stations compete with each other in broadcasting hundreds of episodes of Mexican and other soap operas. The attempt at creating alternative newscasts proved a gruelling and not too successful one. Even this embryonic form of independent TV journalism would not have been made possible, had it not been sponsored by IREXProMedia programme.  

The consequence of such a situation is that it is very difficult for independent journalism to develop. In the previous epochs, the journalism either served the needs of the political power-wielders or stood openly against those in power. Today the time has come when independent journalism should be put into practice, yet it is difficult to achieve if the media are in an unenviable economic situation. The improvements in the overall economic conditions will lay the foundations for development of independent journalism. Until then, everything will remain on the isolated attempts of some independent editorial boards or media houses that will be in advance doomed to failure because of economic difficulties.

5. CONCLUSION

Just a cursory glance at the Croatian newspapers can already reveal what the media scene looks like. We’ll leaf through the Croatian newspapers from 18 September 2000. The date was chosen at random, and we have used the Press Cut Agency service for our purpose. Out of 49 press-cuttings that refer to media, as much as 26 of them speak about the bad situation journalism and journalists are in. These are the typical headings:

Five entrepreneurs taking over the Split weekly Nedjeljna Dalmacija; Libel case trial continues: Branka Šeparović versus Fran Pašalić; Frequency 96,9 MHz – in bankruptcy?!; Ireful newspaper (privatisation of Slobodna Dalmacija); Silvio Storelli for third time already issued a death-threat to Mario Jurković, journalist of Dubrovački list; Radio Metković on strike because of 17 unpaid salaries; City Council of Ivanec dissatisfied with the situation in Radio Ivanec; Administrative Court quashed the decision to grant the concession for Cantonal TV to  Studio 44 from Sisak; Journalists ought to be killed (say the damaged savings accounts holders); Robert Zuber under police escort (after issuing an armed threat, the journalist of Obiteljski radio /Family Radio/ went into hiding somewhere in Zagreb); Former journalist determined to prove failure to follow the due process of law; Croatian Society of Journalists protests over the increasing frequency of incidents; It is shocking when arms are used in response to a word of a journalist; Approval given to agreement with Caritas Fund (resale of Večernji list); Financial police inspecting the books of Radio Mrežnica; Outcome of the Travaš-Kišić case still uncertain (scandal in Radio Rijeka); Glavaš-Faluder trial continued; Came out of naïvete, left in the name of solidarity  (female students of journalism employed to serve as strike-breakers in OTV)...

These were thus randomly picked headings speaking of scandals in Croatian media on one single day. Death threats, physical assaults, court trials, privatisation scandals, tricking the employees, financial police audits – is it a normal environment for independent journalism?

The worst of it is that there is no visible state strategy aimed at creating the conditions for work and activities of independent media. The legislator falls behind schedule with changes, the Government passes partial decisions, the power centres take over some editorial boards, the journalists are brutally prevented from working

The Croatian journalists have clearly stated their claims already by the end of 1999 in "Nova medijska agenda" (New Media Agenda), reiterating them during the thunderous five-minute silent protest in tribute of the Day of Media Freedoms in May 2000.  No responses are coming, and the situation is deteriorating. One might therefore expect that the autumn will be a stormy one on the Croatian media scene, and that many of the data given in this analysis will change. We can only hope that it will work out to the benefit of independent media in Croatia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Adair, S., (ed.): Press and Broadcast Media, Bowker Saur, UK, 1999.

• Alaburić, V., Havkić, E., Marijan R., (ed.): Zakon o javnom priopćavanju (Law on Public Information)

• Baloban, S., (ur.): Krščanin u javnom životu (Christians in Public Life), Centar za promicanje socijalnog nauka crkve, Glas Koncila, Zagreb, 1999.

• Hiebert, E. Ray & Gibbons, J. Sheila: Exploring Mass Media for a Changing World, LEA, London, 2000.

• Kasapović, M.: Demokratska tranzicija i političke stranke (Democratic Transition and political Parties), Biblioteka Politička misao, Fakultet političkih znanosti, Zagreb, 1996.

• Malović, S., Novine (Newspapers), vl. iz. (own ed.), Zagreb, 1995.

• Malović, S., Ricchiardi S., Vilović, G.: Etika novinarstva (Ethics of Journalism), Izvori, Zagreb, 1998.

• Malović. S., & Vilović G.: Znanja za bolje novinarstvo (Expertise for Better Journalism), Izvori, Zagreb, 1999.

• Medijska istraživanja (Media Research), znanstveno-stručni časopis za novinstvo i medije (scientific magazine on journalism and media), Fakultet političkih znanosti, Zagreb

• Peruško Čulek, Zrinjka: Demokracija i mediji (Democracy and Media), Barbat, Zagreb, 1999.

• Politička misao (Political Thought), znanstveni časopis (scientific journal), Fakultet političkih znanosti, Zagreb

• Novinar (Journalist), glasilo Hrvatskog novinarskog društva (publication of Crotian Journalists’ Society), Zagreb

SOURCES

• State Statistics Bureau, Ilica 3, 10000 Zagreb

• Croatian Union of Catholic Journalists, Zagreb

• Croatian Society of Journalists, Perkovčeva 2, 10 000 Zagreb

• New Media Agenda, Media Researches No. 2, 1999, Zagreb

• Presscut, Primorska 11, 10 000 Zagreb

• Croatian Journalists’ Trade Union, Perkovčeva 2, 10 000 Zagreb

• Tisak d.d. u stečaju, (Press, Joint Stock Company in receivership), Sektor plasmana tiska (Sales Dpt.), Slavonska avenija 2, 10 000 Zagreb

• Udruga nezavisnih radio postaja (Association of Independent Radio Stations), Perkovčeva 2, 10 000 Zagreb

• Vijeće časti Hrvatskog novinarskog društva (Court of Honour of the Croatian Journalists’ Society), Perkovčeva 2, 10000 Zagreb

• Vijeće za radio i televiziju (Council for Radio and Television), Zagreb

• www.nn.hr  Narodne novine Republike Hrvatske (Official Gazette of the Republic of Croatia)

• www.hnd.hr Hrvatsko novinarsko društvo (Croatian Journalists’ Society)

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