Hundreds protest against sackings and cancellations at Croatian broadcaster

Last night hundreds of people, including several prominent journalists, gathered to protest the string of recent sackings and cancellations of shows at Croatian public broadcaster HRT.

Titled “Freedom to the Thirds”, referring to HRT’s third channel, the protest took place on Zagreb’s Square of the Victims of Fascism. There the protest organisers broadcast a live public radio show, leading discussions on the media and political landscape.

The initiative came about after acting head of the HRT 3 radio channel Nevenka Dujmović cancelled three shows earlier this month. In addition, within the first two months of the country’s centre-right government coming into power in January 2016, around 70 journalists, editors, directors, managers and other staff were removed from their positions at national broadcaster HRT, causing accusations of political purges.

“The media, culture, freedom of expression and creation should not depend on the results of any election. It must be a value that no elections or referendums can put into question,” said journalist for weekly newspaper Novosti Ivica Đikić at the protest.

Source: Balkan Insight