Croatia’s Electronic Media Act will be liberalised and one of the options includes allowing the vertical integration of the media in Croatia, Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the news and programming director of privately owned N1 TV, Tihomir Ladišić, accused the government of allowing two telecoms, A1 and HT, to create a market duopoly by failing to amend the Electronic Media Act.
His comment came after A1 decided to remove N1 from its broadcasting offer, with a possibility that HT would follow suit. This has left the N1 news channel, known for its objective reporting, off the air just before the local elections.
Asked if the government would allow vertical media integration – enabling a media publisher to also be a media content operator and vice versa – which is banned under the current Electronic Media Act, the minister said this was one of the envisaged options.
Obuljen Koržinek, for her part, said that Croatia is “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”.
The minister also 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.
However, Koržinek dismissed the argument that the Electronic Media Act did not allow N1 to broadcast on its platform, saying the law regulates only publishers that 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. (Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr)