The Croatian government on Thursday sent to parliament a bill on electronic media, with Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek saying the government expected an informed and dynamic debate and was open to proposals to improve the bill.

“We remain open to improvement proposals considering the large number of those interested in having the matters the law refers to regulated precisely. We will continue improving the text until the second reading,” said the minister.

The bill has been harmonised with the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

“The most important elements refer to new definitions of audiovisual media services, new ways of defining mechanisms of determining jurisdiction over providers of media services,” the minister said.

The bill has more transparent provisions on making public data on media ownership and financing. It also introduces the obligation to award funds for the financing of media at the national and local levels via public tenders.

Also amended have been provisions on media pluralism, that is, fair competition. The bill regulates electronic publications more precisely.

As for the responsibility of publishers for user-generated content on electronic publications, that is, comments under articles, Obuljen Korzinek said on Wednesday that the responsibility for that content had existed previously, but it was now regulated in a more precise way, adding that fines had not changed.