On Sunday, 1 December 2013, the Civil initiative „In the Name of the Family“ organises a watch party for its volunteers and supporters, and all other people who contributed in different ways to the organisation of the first citizens-initiated, constitution-making referendum, in the 23 years of existence of the Republic of Croatia.

Many Croatian and international media applied for accreditation for the tomorrow’s gathering of the volunteers and supporters. The Civil Initiative „In the Name of the Family“ decided, and not without a heavy heart, to deny the coverage and reporting from the Initiative’s volunteers’ party to the only domestic national TV broadcaster – HRT.

As a public TV broadcaster, HRT is financed from the national budget and the monthly subscription fee of HRK 80.00 paid by all Croatian citizens in possession of a TV set or a radio receiver. In addition to the obligation to operate as a public broadcaster, HRT has legal and professional responsibility to adhere to the Rules of Conduct during the Referendum of 19.4.2013. Under the Rules, from the moment when the citizens start to declare their view on the referendum question until the end of such declaration process, HRT should adhere to the following provisions:

–          Equal representation of views on the referendum question;

–          No interested party in the referendum process may enjoy a priviledged position;

–          Principles of balanced reporting, integrity and impartiality;

–          Equal representation of all interested parties in the special shows on the HRT programme etc.

However, throughout the referendum period, with a notable exception of a few professional reports – HRT failed to adhere to the principles of professionalism, impartiality and independence, rendering the citizens’ task to make an informed decision on the referendum question that much harder. Falsification of information, partiality of anchors, tendentious choice of guests, failure to cover important events and topics, reached their peak yesterday in the most recent case of falsification of a statement given by a representative of the Civil Initiative in the HRT show Hrvatska uživo anchored by Mr Domagoj Novokmet.

Turning itself into an extended arm of the incumbent government, HRT neglected its obligation to produce „high-quality, credible and diverse news programme to try to help people, inform them and educate them, so that they can understand the social events that have an impact on their life, foster and develop general social values, particularly democracy, tolerance and national identity.“

We are aware of the bias in the coverage produced by other national broadcasters; however, as commercial televisions, they answer to their shareholders and are not financed by the mandatory subscription fee. Croatian Radio and Television, on the other hand, as a public media outlet financed by the citizens themselves, and one which does not compete in the market, is in an entirely different position.

At the insistence of many volunteers, the Civil Initiative denied accreditation for the referendum watch party also to the portals Index.hr, Net.hr, T-portal and all the publications of EPH Group, as well as Novi List, due to their extremely unprofessional coverage of the referendum, systematic abuse of all citizens who wish to vote FOR marriage as a union of man and woman, falsification of information about the Civil Initiative, production and dissemination of hate speech, and the fact that, by falsifying the reality, and intimidating the citizens, they acted as servants of the current powers-that-be and restricted the area of civil freedom and democracy.