Changes in media contents that include entertainment explosion, low level of text literacy, image domination and huge distribution of "hits only" are defended by Croatian experts whose "argument" is that they just give people what people want. What is not being mentioned are the main reasons, like that it is a successful profit-making strategy: by producing cheap content and maximizing the audience the profit continues to be generated by media corporations that still control the economy.
At the beginning of November, the Journalists' Union of Croatia sent an open letter to the Ombudsman Lora Vidović, warning of drastic examples of discrimination of union commissioners in Croatian media houses. “We can say that the institutions are working to ensure that trade unionists stay unprotected“ says Paulo Gregorović, union comissioner in Glas Istre, who was fired this year.
The “Games without borders” of the Ministry of Culture about the adoption of the media strategy last from its first mention in 2012 and represent one of the strongest continuities of SDP / HNS and HDZ's cultural policy. H-Alter's publisher, the Association for Independent Media Culture, received a refusal of the Ministry upon request, sent less than a month ago, to submit the working text of the “new” HDZ media strategy.
A non-critical eye might think we are in the era of a new Renaissance of the human being: an active, mobile, “prosperous” media user. From the other hand it should be observed that in contemporary times the material conditions of life stands in contradiction with the discursive structure of the individual of the 21st century. Interactive technologies have the potential to create autonomous production, but the revolution in communication technology is shaped by organizations and institutions that have the primary purpose to generate profits.
The commissioner for the access to public information Anamarija Musa cancelled the provisions by which the former Minister of Culture Zlattko Hasanbegovic had prevented Croatian public from being aware of the work of his ministry, in particular as regard non-profit media.
Even in Croatia preparations are underway for the adoption of a law on protection of whistleblowers. The action plan for the implementation of the anti-corruption strategy 2015-2020 foresees that a law on whistleblowing is being adopted in the third quarter of 2018. The government is creating a working group to elaborate the project, but according to H -Alter Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic will find a way to “mitigate the impact” of a provision on this matter.
The head of newly formed media sector of the Ministry of Culture was presented as a “media legislation expert”, but while she was working at the Agency for Electronic Media, he misapplied some law regulations. As an information officer, Zvoranić has shown far more consideration for interests of media corporation than for the right of journalists and the general public to access information about their public commitments which regard quality of program for which broadcasting they had been granted a concession.
Today’s information is largely focused on news that has no impact on the quality of people lives: advertising combined with black story are spreading a mix of distrust and fear. The problem of the intent of the information is arising in Croatia.
Ivana Perić gives a look to the right side: the lectures, the books, the woman's vision, the rhetoric about immigration. Which country emerges from the right-wing media?
In the last few days the campaign “Let’s shutdown Novosti” has reached a peak. Željka Markić wrote once again to the Prime Minister Plenković about cutting finances to “these anti-Croatian elements” and her campaign gained more and more supporters - among them Dražen Keleminec, who burned a copy of “Novosti”. Government leaders have been going on to consider all recent events as irrelevant, and they missed opportunity to condemn pressure on journalists and editors even on a symbolic level.
