The new minister of Culture of Croatia, Zlatko Hasanbegović declared that in the last three years the Ministry of Culture employed 30 people through unidentified and unclear criteria. Hasanbegović did not clarify why the criteria adopted for the selection would be unclear, nor did he specify whether or not he intends to get rid of recently employed people considered “unfit”. He did not even provide explanation for the declaration according to which “media is a burden for the Ministry of culture”. Does that mean that there is no room for the elaboration of media policy by the Ministry of culture? Or rather that the media sector needs to be reformed?
Brankica Petković is the Head of the Center for Media Policy at the Peace Institute in Ljubljana and Editor-in-Chief of the Media Watch book series and Media Watch journal. In this interview, Petković talks about the issues of media ownership and capitalism in relation to media, and points out the differences and similarities between the media systems in different countries of the Balkans.
The president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Tomislav Karamarko did not appear at the preliminary hearing that was held at the Municipal Civil Court in Zagreb. A hearing was held for the case in which Karamarko seeks 200.000,01 kn from the publisher of the weekly magazine Nacional - for publishing an authorized interview with Joseph Manolić. The president of Croatian Journalists' Association Saša Leković argues this is Karamarko's attempt to intimidate the Croatian media.
The Facebook status of Tajana Sisgoreo, a Croatian volunteer in a refugee camp of Opatovac, helped media to sell many copies last week. More precisely, it boost the selling of those media which are normally involved in the mediaticexploitation of the refugee crisis. None of the media involved ever asked for permission to use her status, nor her name and profile picture. H-Alter examines this practice, concluding that irresponsible appropriation of social media contents represent an infringement of journalistic standards and a slippery road towards journalistic dilettantism.
Erik Valenčič, Slovenian investigative journalist, author of few awarded documentary films and former journalist of RTV Slovenia speaks about the situation on Slovenian public television and the reasons why his contract was terminated. He also talks about the purge of critical journalists on public television and he explains what should be primary function of public television.
Although the privatization process is not finished yet, consequences are visible. Tatjana Tagirov, journalist of weekly magazine Vreme, and Antonela Riha, former journalist and editor of weekly magazine NiN, talk about privatization from the journalistic point of view. For both of them the problem are new media owners, close to political structures, especially the Serbian Progressive Party. They also emphasise that privatization is taking place in the worst moment of press freedom in Serbia, with constant political pressure on journalists.
Rade Veljanovski and Snježana Milivojević, both professors at Belgrade's Faculty of political science, share their views and doubts about the ongoing media privatisation in Serbia. There is a big fear that the new media ownership will consist of businessmen who have close ties with politicians. Privatisation is taking place at a time the state of press freedom in Serbia ih<s never been worse, with constant political pressure on journalists. It seems like the process of privatisation will not be a process of reformation, but rather a degrading one.
Viktorija Car, media analyst, talks about her recent research on media discourse in Croatia and in the Balkans. In the interview, she discusses about the education of journalists and she questions which are the topics avoided by media, such as the Croatian businessman Ivica Todorić.
Saša Leković, President of the Croatian Association of Journalists, talks about the Association, media freedom and journalism in Croatia and in the Balkans, the changes in journalist's profession and the need for a change.
Curiosity is inherent to every human being, but newspapers encouraged it to the point that it turns into an insatiable impulse. This consideration, which may seem banal at first, explains the current all-mighty power of the media. One thing is to satisfy curiosity as a "human, all too human" characteristic, another one is to exploit and manipulate it for the purpose of profit or control.
