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Media Pluralism Monitor 2016 - Croatia

Croatia is a country of approximately 4.3 million inhabitants situated between Central Europe, the Mediterranean and Southeast Europe. The main spoken language is Croatian. Croatia is an ethnically homogenous country with Croats making up more than 90% of the population. The main ethnic minority is Serbian with 4.4% , followed by Bosnian (0.73%), Italian (0.42%), Albanian (0.41%), Roma (0.40%), and Hungarian (0.33%). In 2015 there were first signs of an economic recovery from a six year recession. The country still remains troubled by projections of low GDP growth rates, high public debt, unemployment, and weak public administration. Traditionally, the majority of Croatian citizens predominantly vote for the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, or for the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP). Recent years have seen fragmentation in the political spectrum with a rise of new parties promoting centrist approaches or radical and populist policies. The government led by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Bridge of Independent Lists (MOST) established a parliamentary majority in January 2016. They installed a non-partisan Croatian-Canadian businessman as the prime minister and two deputy prime ministers, one from each of the major parties. The government was marked by continued tensions between the main parties in power and the rise of right-wing and conservative rhetoric by the HDZ. They culminated in the preparations for the vote of no confidence in the HDZ deputy prime minister. After the Committee on the Conflict of Interest found the deputy prime minister to be in breach, he resigned. The collapse of the government led to new parliamentary elections in September 2016. In preparation for the elections, HDZ elected a new party president and took on a reformed centre-right and pro-European position. The majority of votes went to the HDZ which again formed the parliamentary majority with MOST. Regarding media consumption, in 2014 television was the medium of choice used by 83% of the population watching it on a TV set, followed by the internet (52%), radio (50%) and print (29%) (Eurobarometer, 2014). 20% of the population chooses to watch television online. Level of internet access in households rose from 41.5% in 2007 to 77% in 2016 but still remains below the EU-28 average (Eurostat, 2016). The percentage of population covered by broadband is 97.6% (87.2% of the rural population). The percentage of broadband subscription is 62% (Eurostat, 2014). There have been no major legal changes in the media sector during the short tenure of the government in place between January and September 2016. However, there were social and political pressures towards the media regulator and an unfavourable policy towards the community, minority and non-profit media. The Council for Electronic Media found its annual report dismissed by the government. The newly appointed Minister of Culture disbanded the non-profit media committee and cut down all funds and public subsidies that were supporting the non-profit media sector. Most non-profit, and some minority media, found themselves in financial difficulties and on the edge of existence.

Media pluralism, media freedom, media independence, media policy

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