ZAGREB, November 28, 2018 - European Union culture ministers on Tuesday discussed progress in the drafting of the Creative Europe programme for the 2021-27 period which includes support for culture, audiovisual sectors and media and for which the European Commission has proposed a 1.46 billion euro budget.

Creative Europe programme covers culture and media, putting greater emphasis on the spreading of media literacy and quality journalism.

Speaking to reporters, Croatian Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek said disinformation in media and media literacy raised questions in the member states of how to act through legislation, how to encourage quality media and quality journalism, and how to develop citizens' competencies for recognising inappropriate behaviour.

She said it was too early to say how much money would be allocated in the next multiannual framework.

Speaking of fake news and disinformation, she said solving this issue was "very important for creating and preserving trust in democratic institutions. "Many states are openly saying that fake news from outside the EU are being released on their territory. Baltic countries and Poland mentioned very clearly today the involvement of their eastern neighbour in the release of fake news."

She said Croatia's new electronic media law would oblige electronic publications to state their sources much more clearly.

She said Croatia and other EU member states were making efforts to create a regulatory framework for equitable compensation for artists, journalists and everyone creating content. She called claims that this would mean the death of free Internet as "typical disinformation," saying such regulations would primarily apply to big platforms such as Google and Facebook.

For more on the journalism in Croatia, click here.

The CompariTech website analyzed price differences and the offer of films, TV series and documentaries on Netflix in September and found great disparities which prompted them to conduct a wider survey, which added 54 new countries, giving a total of 78 countries. The survey showed that Netflix in Croatia offers substantially less to subscribers than in some other countries, reports Večernji List November 27, 2018.

During the research, they took several factors into account. First, they looked at the figures related to the number of episodes and films available in 78 countries. This gave them the total number of titles available which they then divided with the monthly subscription price to get to the price of a single title. They then estimated the standard cost per month in each country and the results showed interesting differences.

American subscribers have the largest selection of titles available but do not get the best value for money. CompariTech's research has shown great inconsistencies when it comes to the potential rental price of a single title. Netflix is the most affordable in Canada if you look at the price and number of titles available. Subscribers in the United States and the United Kingdom pay 10 to 13 percent more than Canadian subscribers.

According to the research, the difference between the least cost-effective and the most cost-effective country is almost 100 percent.

As mentioned, Netflix is the most cost-effective in Canada, with nearly 5,500 titles available, each title being around 10 percent cheaper than in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Other countries are in a much worse situation. For example, Denmark has available only half the number of titles available in Canada. This means that Danish subscribers pay 100 percent more per title than Canadian subscribers.

The average price of a title is 0.00222 dollars, which means that the average customer in the world pays 57 percent more per title than the Canadian customer.

Canada is followed by Colombia, India, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, USA, Australia, the United Kingdom and Pakistan. Netflix is the least cost-effective in Denmark, Iran, Egypt, Norway, Taiwan, Qatar, Lebanon, Sweden, Tunisia and Iraq.

Croatia is located somewhere around the middle of the global rankings. At the time when the survey was conducted, Croatian subscribers had available 1,183 TV shows, 2,617 films, for a total of 3,800 titles. The monthly price for Netflix in Croatia was 9.01 dollars, which gives the average price of 0.00237 dollars, or 53% more than for the US subscribers.

CompariTech noted that European countries generally pay more than the rest of the world and assumes that might be due to higher taxes.

For more on the media in Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, November 26, 2018 - The Electronic Media Council on Monday decided to temporarily suspend broadcasting licenses for television stations that aired the Bujica political talk show on November 5 in which anti-migrant hate speech could be heard.

The broadcasting licences will be suspended on December 3.

Z1, the Slavonia-Baranja TV station and the Osijek TV station will lose their broadcasting rights for 24 hours, while SRCE TV, Adriatic TV and TV Jadran will be off air for 4 hours.

After analysing the content of the talk show, which dealt with the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the Electronic Media Council decided that claims made in the show, hosted by Velimir Bujanec, constituted hate speech because they described migrants as terrorists and criminals and as people who intentionally spread infectious diseases.

The show's guests were Frano Ćirko, who was introduced as the leader of an organisation called Generacija Obnove, and Zoran Grgić, introduced as an independent analyst.

"The show host did not distance himself from such hate-mongering rhetoric, except for describing it as 'a bit radical', which cannot be considered an appropriate warning that such rhetoric is not allowed... the host himself set the tone of the discussion and incited hate-mongering, discriminatory and humiliating rhetoric against migrants," the Council said.

Its chair Josip Popovac stressed that the Council's decision in no way violated the freedom of speech, noting that there were no forbidden topics but that they should be dealt with professionally, which was not the case with the show in question.

Speaking of the accountability of the guests on the said show, Popovac said that he agreed with the proposal to report the case to the Chief State Prosecutor, noting that "such abuse of public media is unacceptable".

For more on the media in Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, November 19, 2018 - Speaker of Parliament Gordan Jandroković on Monday gave a statement for the media on independent MP Željko Glasnović's speech in the parliament earlier in the day in which he called journalists moral typhoid and AIDS sufferers, saying that every member of parliament was responsible for their statements and that it was up to the media to comment on them appropriately.

"I recently heard an MP calling you useful idiots. I think it would be good if you treated such MPs appropriately," Jandroković told reporters.

Commenting on a reporter's remark that he neither warned Glasnović nor stopped his speech, Jandroković said that he lets people speak what they want and warns MPs only if they refer to someone by name. "As for general debates, the best judgement is the one made by citizens and the media. You should simply treat such MPs the way they deserve," he said.

"All kinds of things can be heard in the parliament. Any speech that is unacceptable is not welcome in the parliament," Jadroković said, adding that there were excellent parliamentary debates and MPs who prepared for debates, as well as MPs who tried to attract attention the way Glasnović did. "Try to find a way not to give them publicity, rather give it to those who prepare well and make useful contributions to the debate," he said.

Jandroković disagreed with MOST party leader Božo Petrov that situations like today's would be easy to deal with had the code of ethics he had proposed been adopted, saying that "a code of ethics cannot put under control MPs who want to attract attention by insulting and making cheap comments."

"What do you expect?" he told a reporter who remarked that parliamentary sessions were televised live.

"I would have to ban ten MPs a day from speaking for insulting the media alone. You feel offended now but just look at how MPs speak about one another, how they treat the session chair. I would have to be issuing warnings the whole time. I don't do it because the judgment of the public, not my warnings, is decisive," Jadroković said, adding that he did issue warnings in cases when he considered it necessary.

For more news on Croatian politics, click here.

ZAGREB, November 6, 2018 - The presidents of the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) and the Croatian Journalists' Union (SNH), Hrvoje Zovko and Anton Filić respectively, sharply condemned on Monday the latest pressures on HND and reporters, stressing that the main problem was the state's silence about the increasingly frequent threats and pressures on reporters as well as about the increasing devastation of the media scene.

"The main problem is the silence of the state, which is allowing all this to occur because, since entering the European Union, the state has not shown any interest in the status of reporters and their profession. Silence to the many threats, and we have recorded about fifty threats and attacks on journalists, makes the state complicit in the entire story," Zovko underscored.

He added that in many cases reporters are being persecuted "because attackers and those threatening reporters are not being punished," and that the HND would alarm its international partners and the international public of the situation.

Zovko commented on a recent court decision in an almost 25-year-long dispute under which the HND is obliged to pay about 350,000 euro to cover the debts of a defunct company. "This is about, to put it mildly, an unusual suit by an unusual creditor and the inefficiency of Croatia's judiciary, with the HND at the receiving end. We will use all legal means available to come out of this situation because HND's collapse in a situation in which our profession is devastated would be a disastrous message," Zovko said and underscored that this enforcement notice is a form of pressure on HND and the media scene.

He assessed the situation in the media to be disastrous, underscoring that the HRT public broadcaster is not fulfilling its function and its programme is deteriorating, along with threats of dismissing reporters and "all those who think differently." He added that the situation in private media companies isn't much better, noting that some print media "use the services of PR agencies to promote political groups and neglect public interest."

Filić said that it was worrying that attacks and threats against journalists were going unpunished, which shows that attackers have "protection by some mob, the judiciary or some politicians." He underscored that material pressure is also being exerted through non-existing collective agreements, deteriorating material rights for journalists and pressure on shop stewards.

HND secretary-general Ema Tarabochia said the "systematic problem is that prosecutors and the police do not conduct sufficiently thorough investigations and cases lie at the bottom of someone's drawer for years."

Vojislav Mazzoco, who writes for the Index portal, spoke about the threats he received and reported to the authorities, including from War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved, who recently apologised via his attorney. "Tomo Medved isn't the problem but the hyenas who, after his threats, declared open season on me," he said, referring to "various obscure papers, media and portals."

As a positive example, he mentioned a recent sentence pending appeal against a person who had threatened him and was given six months in prison, with two years' probation. "Maybe that's because we are making a racket and the judiciary has decided to react a little better," Mazzoco concluded.

To read more about the position of journalists in Croatia, click here.

The controversial act was recently featured in a popular TV talent show.

ZAGREB, October 2, 2018 - The programming council of the Croatian national broadcaster on Monday convened an emergency session to discuss the situation on Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) following the latest developments, including the dismissal of journalist Hrvoje Zovko, and concluded by a majority vote that the situation on HRT was concerning due to disrespect of journalistic standards and ethical norms as well as the state of media freedoms.

ZAGREB, September 26, 2018 - The House of Human Rights Zagreb and the GONG nongovernmental organisation warned on Wednesday that media freedoms at the HRT public broadcaster were being eroded by continued politicisation of programmes and exertion of pressure on HRT reporters and editors.

David Skoko will join some of the world’s most famous chefs.

This will be the 11th edition of the popular event.