The Electronic Media Council (VEM) has imposed a maximum fine of €132,720 on commercial broadcaster RTL Croatia for broadcasting an insufficient proportion of European works on its channel RTL2 in 2023.

At its meeting on 30 October, the VEM also imposed a fine of €13,270 on the person responsible at RTL.

The maximum fine of formerly one million kuna that the Croatian media regulator can impose was imposed after it fined Nova TV and RTL Croatia €100,000 in June for violating the transitional legal provision that required publishers last year to allocate at least 2.5% of their total annual gross revenues to works by Croatian independent producers.

Fines also for the persons responsible

At the time, the VEM also imposed fines of €6,630 on the persons responsible (the CEOs) of Nova TV and RTL for violating this provision and ordered the two broadcasters to make up for the amount they did not invest in 2024.

The transitional provision of the Electronic Media Act obliged television broadcasters to allocate at least 2.5% of their annual gross revenue from the provision of media services to works by Croatian independent producers in 2023. This year, it is at least 5%.

According to the law, publishers that do not ensure the required share of audiovisual works by Croatian independent producers must increase the share of these works each year in accordance with the criteria and methodology set out in the VEM regulations.

Nova TV and RTL Croatia have appealed against the fines. Their cases have been forwarded to the Municipal Misdemeanor Court in Zagreb for review, VEM confirmed to Croatian news agency Hina.