Communication expert Marko Rakar commented in N1 television's program Newsroom on Friday evening the situation with media freedoms, national broadcast licenses in Croatia, as well as the case of N1 television which was dropped last month from cable television provider A1's programming package.
“The media and journalists are the ones who care about the interests of citizens and question the government and power in all its forms. Losing any media is not good for any country. It may be that the government is feeling smug because N1 has found itself in this situation, but in the long run, this freedom is important for prosperity and should be defended at all costs, “said Marko Rakar.
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N1 television has expressed interest in a terrestrial broadcasting license to make it available to everyone. The director of Adria News, Tihomir Ladisic, had sent an expression of interest to the Electronic Media Agency earlier on Friday for announcing a tender for the allocation of free terrestrial (FTA) frequencies.
National concessions do exist, but they have not been announced, and the procedure is unclear, which gives the impression that the state is not ready enough to ensure maximum standards of media freedom.
“As far as I know, the transition from analog to digital broadcasting freed up the spectrum of frequencies, and I think that Croatia now has five available national frequencies that could be allocated to broadcasters. The question is why we have not used this opportunity to have a tender for licenses yet. Regarding this situation, yesterday I was in a mini panel with Culture Minister, Nina Obuljen, and she repeatedly mentioned and talked about how ‘when the conditions are created, when and if it is decided to announce a concession, only then N1 could apply,’ but my the impression is that a lot of effort has been put into answering these questions vaguely, so it is not surprising that the procedure seems subjective and fluid, and is open to interpretation,” Rakar said.
‘Wider access to information allows more pluralism’
“The situation is very clear. Other concessionaires who have owned licenses for years also know that there is room for more concessions. When they acquired the concession, no one guaranteed that the situation would be maintained for a certain number of years. It makes sense to respect the previous winners of the concession tenders, but also a market competition should be created. In a free society that we claim to be living in, having a new competitor should not frighten anyone. With the arrival of a new national television, we would raise the quality of reporting on all televisions. Not only would we get a new source of information, but we would also force others to be better in their work, and we should strive for that.”
Not everyone is satisfied with the approach of N1 television, since it is a big difference to broadcast, for example, a conference in its entirety and publish only a minute of the clip in a television report.
“Our policy in the last few years has turned into urbi et orbi statements that have been measured and calculated, it is known in advance what will be said. Answering questions is embarrassing. After all the scandals and topics that N1 opened and kept alive, on the basis of which it gained today’s reputation, the ruling party, of course, is not very comfortable considering considering expanding your stage. I can understand their logic. But in a free society it is necessary to have access to critical views. Any government that has its long-term interest in mind, should enable a critical voice to be heard,” Rakar said.
He also commented on the vertical integration in the law.
“This provision and the law that we have, the only ones in Europe, prohibit those who produce the program from distributing it. This limits the way a platform can work. While I can understand these provisions 10 or 20 years ago when there were no alternative ways, today when all the signal is distributed over the Internet, no matter how you consume it, these provisions are outdated and inappropriate for our time, and that’s something European countries have recognized. That provision can be removed from the law as soon as possible, with a proposal to amend the law, a positive opinion from the government and a quick reaction from parliament.”
The fact is that cable penetration on the Croatian market is below 50 percent, compared to the EU where it is at 100 percent.
“One of the effects of the telecommunications law, which has been in force for a long time, is that we have two telecoms that dominate and control the whole market,” Rakar said. “At a time when the market was open, there were several small telecoms which eventually ended up absorbed into major ones, so the market share of niche telecoms is now very small. In other countries, they have managed to avoid this kind of duopoly. A responsible government should work to create real market competition.”
“We know from personal examples that it is not pleasant to listen to criticism, especially if it is well-founded. I can understand the fear of politicians when at 8 am they have to turn on the TV and watch the news on N1 television. People in a position of power and who wish the country well, they will understand the need for such a medium, an institution that reviews every decision, to exist. I think that the value of N1 in this case is extremely high and it would be a huge loss to lose the opportunity to hear that voice “, concluded Marko Rakar.
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