Croatian Radio Television – what we want VS what we have
The  Croatian Journalists’ Association and the Trade Union of  Croatian Journalists of Croatia initiated a series of open discussions about the future of Croatian Radio and Television to strengthen the independence and improve the work of the public media service....
https://www.snh.hr/wp-content/themes/snh/img/logosnh.ico
Sindikat novinara Hrvatske
The Croatian Journalists’ Association and the Trade Union of Croatian Journalists of Croatia initiated a series of open discussions about the future of Croatian Radio and Television to strengthen the independence and improve the work of the public media service. After each forum, we will send the conclusions to the competent institutions. The first panel, “HRT – WHAT WE WANT VS WHAT WE HAVE”, was held on Tuesday, 20 June, in the Journalist’s House.

We draw several conclusions from the discussion:

• HRT, as a public media service, must be at the service of the public; an HrV has the conditions to be the best television in Croatia if it changes that part program and people who uncritically link it to the Government and the ruling party. In the program and work plan, HRT lacks the basic idea of a public media service – universality, diversity and innovation.

• The critical challenges in preserving the significance and importance of HRT are financial independence from the state, restoring public trust and digital transformation of HRT.

• It is necessary, in cooperation with the broader cultural industry, to jump-start the existing creative capital of HRT in the public interest.

• To change the paradigm of operation and cooperation of HRT, which has been complete for years blocked by the debate on the political independence of programs and management structures, to change the mentality of the trapped structure and the journalistic and management staff and focus on strengthening the skills and professionalization of journalists.

• The contract with the Government indicates a complete lack of awareness of the management structures of HRT on the necessity of change. The last contract that HRT signed with the Government mainly copied from the one from five years ago, and that one was copied from that one five years ago. While public broadcasting in a digital environment changes almost daily, HRT does not have such a document imposed.

• Change the overall system and form of program contents stuck in outdated templates without innovation and do not follow development and digitization media.

• HRT is “caponized”, commercialized, and destroyed by low-quality content professional criteria; there is no market strategy or cooperation on a broader cultural level. It is necessary to strengthen guild organizations and cooperation. We would create a robust advocacy platform for a public media service that serves and responds to all citizens and the development of a democratic society.

We will continue the discussions about the future of the public media service in September.