\u201cEverything comes back around eventually. I see that Yutel has also fallen. I don\u2019t wish to prejudice anything, but this is evidently a chain. This of course takes place after the election so that DORH (State Attorney\u2019s Office) and USKOK (Anti-Corruption Office) wouldn\u2019t be doing their job before the election. I\u2019m not saying that the individuals who were taken into custody are guilty, this will have to be proven. However, they are people who were part of late mayor Bandi\u0107\u2019s circle who was given brotherly help by the HDZ party and their gang\u201d, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanovi\u0107 said about the arrest of employees of the Zagreb city administration and Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In answering reporters\u2019 questions after attending the formal session of the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK), the President gave his view on how public television HRT should operate after the arrest of its director: \u201cThe news and political programme should be cancelled. Daily, party politics as a form of service is not needed. Today, there are independent media, good ones and bad ones, there are printed media that are a fiscal racket, a debt collecting society, there are all kinds. In this sense there is no need for a public service, for Yutel, what this TV is. I\u2019m not advocating cancelling the TV subscription for HRT because there is work that no one else will do except them, no one will do educational and heritage programmes. But I feel that the HRT as a public, actually a HDZ party service, when the issue is politics, should be relieved from this burden.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, the President warns that \u201caccording to what we see here we have people who are a business and financial cartel. Second, they are all so much connected by family and business ties that it\u2019s not possible to watch\u201d. Asked about further arrests, President Milanovi\u0107 said: \u201cI\u2019m not getting into this, I hope that HRT\u2019s other business aspects are in compliance with the law. What is not in accordance with public morals is the relation of a public service to daily politics. Partiality is evident. It doesn\u2019t have to be shut down, it\u2019s an institution that has a history and legacy, technical equipment, knowledge and potential. But get the politics out of it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When a reporter commented that no public television has taken politics out of its programme, President Milanovi\u0107 replied: \u201cWrong, let\u2019s be the first ones. When you\u2019re paid by the Government, you\u2019re dependent and people can\u2019t resist\u201d. Talking about private media, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s not all the same who the owners are, but you work independently when you do a good job and when you do a bad job. That\u2019s very important, journalism has to be independent, there must be media independence. When the state \u2013 the Prime Minister and the ruling party \u2013 are the owner \u2013 you\u2019re not independent\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reporters asked whether there would be any arrests if Bandi\u0107 were alive. \u201cWould Bandi\u0107 have been invited to lay a wreath at the Brezovica forest on behalf of the city of Zagreb? He would. Was Toma\u0161evi\u0107 invited? He wasn\u2019t\u201d, the President of the Republic replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reporters were interested in hearing President Milanovi\u0107\u2019s view on Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban\u2019s advertising in the Croatian media inviting the EU to accept Serbia as a member. \u201cSerbia has to meet conditions, they have to decide if they\u2019re for the EU or Moscow. We\u2019re not against Moscow, but you have to decide between Brussels or Moscow, and the current authorities in Serbia have a hard time accepting this and will have to be clear on this matter\u201d, President Milanovi\u0107 said, adding that it\u2019s \u201cvery bizarre that the Prime Minister of a small state publishes such a manifesto.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cEverything comes back around eventually. I see that Yutel has also fallen. I don\u2019t wish to prejudice anything, but this is evidently a chain. This of course takes place after the election so that DORH (State Attorney\u2019s Office) and USKOK (Anti-Corruption Office) wouldn\u2019t be doing their job before the election. I\u2019m not saying that the individuals who were taken into custody are guilty, this will have to be proven. However, they are people who were part of late mayor Bandi\u0107\u2019s circle who was given brotherly help by the HDZ party and their gang\u201d, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanovi\u0107 said about the arrest of employees of the Zagreb city administration and Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10935,"template":"","news-cat":[12],"class_list":["post-10957","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-cat-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n