Speaking to N1, Lawyer Vanja Juric said Sunday restricting access to N1 television in Croatia would be an irreparable loss for the entire media space and the entire Croatian public.

“What I can say from the point of view of a citizen and a lawyer is restricting access to N1 television would be an irreparable loss at this moment for the entire media space and the entire public. You really are a television that essentially fulfils all the roles of the media that television should have, in the best possible sense. Having said that, I think it is terribly important that N1 continues to do its job and that N1 TV is allowed to continue to do its job as before,” she said.

In her opinion, all the actors involved, who like to brag about socially responsible business, should take into account the exceptional public interest that exists for access to N1 television and show them that they are practically implementing everything they speak of.

She also touched upon the Croatian Electronic Media Act:

“It’s important to say that the Law on Electronic Media has a provision that protects the so-called vertical reintegration. When it was introduced, it made sense to incorporate it, but now we can talk about the liberalization and that is the direction in which the EU has moved. On the one hand, we have this provision that tries to protect the media space, the public and society from the creation of a dominant position of media that would harm market competition and pluralism.

However, what we have in practice is that on the other hand, we have something we can really call a duopoly, where two operators are in fact in a position that one whole medium, which is extremely important for society, can exclude or drastically limit citizens’ access. Obviously, we have failed to achieve what the regulations want to achieve. I think it is time to think in detail what we will do and how to proceed, to recognize the disparity on both sides and to approach a solution that would be justified for all who are involved in it,” Juric concluded.