Vienna, 21/07/2017
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is concerned about the recent developments within the public broadcaster Croatian Radio Television (HRT).
The Croatian Journalist Association (Hrvatsko novinarsko drustvo – HND) called on the Parliament Committee through a pubic letter to not go through with the planned vote to remove HRT Supervisory Board members. Despite this public plea, the vote was carried out the following day (14 July), and four out of the five existing members were removed. The fifth member is a representative of HRT employees, so they cannot be appointed or removed by the Parliament.
This action is worrisome because the Supervisory Board members were removed from their positions without completing even a half of their entire 4 year term.
“The situation within the Croatian public broadcaster has been problematic for quite a while now, and we will be monitoring further developments closely” Oliver Vujovic, SEEMO Secretary General stated.
SEEMO is a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South, East and Central Europe and its press freedom work is supported by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) project, as part of a grant by the European Commission.