ZAGREB, 8 April, 2021 - Zagreb's Mirogoj cemetery complex is one of the seven European most endangered monument localities in 2021, Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek said at a news conference on Thursday.

The Culture and Media Ministry, in cooperation with the City of Zagreb, the City Institute for the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Heritage and the Zagreb Holding multi-utility conglomerate nominated the cemetery for the European Seven Most Endangered Programme, taking into account its specificity and value as the most important multiconfessional cemetery in Croatia and an exceptionally valuable cemetery at the European level, as well as the huge damage caused to it by the March 2020 earthquake, the minister said.

She recalled that the programme, implemented since 2013 by Europa Nostra in cooperation with the European Investment Bank Institute, each year puts emphasis on seven European localities.

That way experts and funds are mobilised so that together we can renovate the European cultural heritage, said Obuljen Koržinek.

She noted that a number of European experts, notably earthquake reconstruction experts, had offered various forms of help over the past year and that they would all be involved, notably in complex reconstruction projects.

"The preliminary work on the Mirogoj complex alone, to be financed from the European Solidarity Fund, has been estimated at HRK 97 million," she said, adding that this includes emergency repairs acceptable for financing under the European Solidarity Fund.

Those funds have been approved, documents are being collected and work will start relatively soon, she said, noting that it was clear to everyone that the renovation of Mirogoj would be a long-standing project requiring great professional engagement considering that the cemetery had not been renovated since its construction.

She said that at today's Europa Nostra presentation it was said that everyone would mobilise to help Croatia collect the necessary funding.

The other six most endangered monuments and localities of cultural heritage in Europe in 2021 are the Achensee Cog Railway (Tyrol, Austria), Five Southern Aegean Islands (Greece), Giusti Garden in Verona (Italy), Dečani Monastery (Kosovo), the Central Post Office in Skopje (North Macedonia) and the San Juan de Socueva Chapel and Hermitage (Cantabria, Spain).

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ZAGREB, 19 March, 2021 - Damage done to listed buildings and monuments in the quake-hit Sisak-Moslavina County has been estimated at €400 million, while the total damage done to cultural heritage in all the quake-hit areas of Croatia is put at €640 million.

These figures were presented on Friday after Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek met the task force for dealing with quake aftermath in Sisak-Moslavina County for the talks on registering the damage to cultural heritage.

Obuljen Koržinek informed the task force of the next steps to be taken including urgent measures for the protection and preparation of documentation for the reconstruction of individual listed buildings and monuments.

Reconstruction will be such that it will preserve all the features of the area, however, (listed) buildings will also be renovated to be quake-resistant and energy efficient, the minister said.

Yesterday, we estimated the damage to cultural heritage at €640 million, with just over €400 million in Sisak-Moslavina County and just over €200 million in the nine other affected counties. As far as listed buildings in Petrinja alone are concerned, the damage done to them is estimated at more than €100 million, said Minister Obuljen Koržinek.

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ZAGREB, 17 March, 2021 - Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek said on Wednesday the Electronic Media Act would be liberalised and that one of the options was allowing the vertical concentration of the media in Croatia.

"We will liberalise that law in the part concerning the regulation of concentration. However, in that case we are considering certain other instruments which generate or ensure media pluralism. I mean the 'must offer' or 'must carry' concepts, but an agreement is yet to be reached on this," she told the press.

The news and programming director of the N1 commercial TV, Tihomir Ladišić, yesterday accused the government of leading to a market monopoly of the two telecoms, A1 and HT, by failing to amend the Electronic Media Act.

His comment came after news that A1 decided to remove N1 from its offer and that it was certain that HT would follow suit.

Asked if the government would allow vertical media concentration, enabling a media publisher to also be a media content operator, which is banned under the current Electronic Media Act, the minister said that was one of the options, adding that the law explicitly banned an operator from also being a media content publisher.

Other media pluralism mechanisms will be introduced

"We are one of the last EU states to have that explicit ban. If we go towards lifting the ban, then some other mechanisms ensuring media pluralism will be introduced," she said.

These mechanisms will enable a company that is both publisher and operator to offer the channel for which it obtained a concession to itself as an operator and to someone else under the same terms.

The minister said such vertical concentration was "what the public can rightfully be afraid of."

She reiterated that A1's decision to remove United Media Group's channels, including N1, from its offer, was strictly a business matter between the two companies, not a matter of legislative regulation.

The minister has a number of times dismissed the argument that the Electronic Media Act did not allow N1 to broadcast on its own platform, saying the law regulates only publishers which have a concession and are established in Croatia.

"N1 is a pay channel which is not established in Croatia and does not have a concession," the minister said.

She would not say what it meant for media democracy in Croatia that N1 was being phased out because two operators decided to remove it from their offers.

"Two days ago I said I believe it's in the public interest that all channels which interest the Croatian public should be available on all operators and I stand by that."

Following news that A1 was cancelling its contract with N1, MPs today called for regulating the telecommunications and media market and resolving contentious issues as soon and as precisely as possible with a new electronic media law.

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ZAGREB, July 2 (Hina) - The Croatian and Polish ministries of culture signed a cooperation programme for 2020-2023 in Krakow on Wednesday, the Croatian ministry said in a statement.

The programme promotes cultural exchanges and cooperation between artists and cultural and artistic institutions and organisations as well as forms of direct cooperation between cultural institutions of mutual interest, the statement said.

It also promotes direct cooperation between galleries, museums, and other professional institutions in the field of museology, cooperation in performing arts, cultural heritage, literature and publishing, and the existing high-level cooperation between the two countries' audiovisual communities.

The signing ceremony was accompanied by the presentation of the book "Croatia - History, Culture, Ideas" by Professor Maciej Czerwinski of the Jagiellonian University.

As part of the cooperation between the two countries, an exhibition of works by Croatian painter and graphic designer Boris Bucan will open at the International Cultural Centre in Krakow on July 2.