HRT ACTING DIRECTOR Josip Popovac, the Council's secretary Jadranka Sasko, the Council's chairman Zvonko Milas and Sinisa Grgic There are few who know that behind the recent failed attempt to choose a new chief director at the Croatian Radio & Television Network (HRT) is a conflict between two informal groups fighting it out to take control of the most important media house in the country. It is no secret that Damir Novinic is backed by a group led by Sinisa Grgic, whose people already hold many of the top posts at the TV network, but a much greater quandary was caused by the news that the relatively unknown Veljko Jancic, one of the editors at the Croatia Live (Hrvatska uzivo) show, was just shy winning the vote.

Lobbying in his favour and almost securing his victory were editors Marija Nemcic and Tena Perisin, but this unexpected situation opened a number of doubts that there is a political option backing Jancic, and there are few who believe without reservation that Marija Nemcic and Tena Perisin lobbied in his favour on their own initiative. When they received the information on the events transpiring at the HRT network and in its program council, some of the leading politicians in the HDZ and SDP, somewhat belatedly, launched consultations and lobbying efforts that aim to end the state of anarchy existing at Croatian Television.

They too are not happy with the foiled attempt to pick a new chief director at HRT, or the unexpected outcome of the vote cast by the program council, which almost chose the little known Veljko Jancic, whom some at HRT suspect took part in malversation with per diems. On the other hand, his chief opponent Damir Novinic has never worked in the media, and is part of the coterie led by Sinisa Grgic, an entrepreneur with close ties to Ivo Sanader. And so the most important Croatian media house - with the help of the incompetent members of the program council - almost wound up in the hands of two people without any major results in their professional CV's. As the post of HRT chief director is numbered among the most important jobs in the country, there is a growing sentiment among politicians that the current status quo must be ended, as it is causing HRT more and more material damage, and is reducing its credibility and public influence.

Which is why an initiative was put forth a few days ago to call a session of Parliament's standing committee on media and information that would discuss the poor state of affairs at HRT, and the situation in the Croatian Radio & Television network's program council.

Two months after Vanja Sutlic tendered his resignation the members of the council were unsuccessful in choosing his successor, leaving the leadership of the most important media house in Croatia in the hands of its current acting director, the until recently entirely unknown Josip Popovac for at least four months. Nacional's source in the top ranks of Croatian Government says that Jadranka Kosor did not get involved in the selection of the chief director, but that the Prime Minister is not at all happy with what is going on.

The reasons are purely pragmatic as elections for Parliament are up at the end of next year and there is a logical need of all relevant political parties to exercise their influence on Croatian Television (HTV). Naturally, they cannot do so openly, but ever since 1990 Government has had a crucial influence on the selection of leading personnel at HTV and it is not realistic to expect that this will not also be the case in the future. Under strong lobbying pressure from Marija Nemcic and Tena Perisin the program council almost picked Veljko Jancic.

Even serious authorities on the situation at HRT are not at all certain about who in fact lobbied in favour of Veljko Jancic, a person without any significant results as a journalist and one who was dismissed from the post of editor of the Croatia Live show over doubts about misconduct with per diems. Jancic was in the news in the mid 1980s when, as a Communist Party cadre, he was appointed to the post of director of Radio 101. Reporters who worked in the first phase of Radio 101 said he did not meddle in editorial policy, avoiding conflicts with those producing what was, for the time, a very liberal program. Hard times befell Jancic with the introduction of multiparty democracy and he was stigmatised as a former Communist Party official. Antun Vrdoljak chucked him out of HTV and he was unemployed for a time, after which he opened a company that was allegedly involved in the import of the kajmak clotted cream dairy product, but which went belly up.

Compromising articles appeared on several Internet portals not long after Veljko Jancic's failed bid to take the job of chief director. They mention his alleged inappropriate political affiliation during the Homeland War of independence, and that he participated in business scandals in which there were violations of the law. In any event, in the 1990s he was forgotten among Zagreb journalists, until Mirko Galic and Veljko Duretic brought him to HTV a few years ago.
Several sources have a similar take on Jancic as a calm and non-conflictual person, but also an editorially uncreative one, under whose leadership there was quite a measure of chaos among the editorial staff of Croatia Live.

His nature is perhaps best seen in the fact that, following a verbal altercation in the editorial office, when Lela Knezevic threw a newspaper in his face, he did not react. When Velimir Duretic was dismissed, Jancic took over the editorial team of Croatia Live, but spent most of his time on trips, which led to a great deal of speculation that he was making money off per diems. Last autumn Hloverka Srzic-Novak appointed him to a lower-ranking editorial post and it was only then that Veljko Jancic began establishing himself as an opposition within HTV. But none of the several well known television journalists and editors who spoke with Nacional expected Jancic to win six votes from the members of the HRT council and almost take the post of chief director.

"I must confess that this is a complete mystery to me, because he was a person incapable of running an editorial team, and yet was just shy of taking over the entire TV network. Nobody knows who is backing him, and yet, to have won six votes he had to have had his lobbyists," said one HTV editor. One theory has Marija Nemcic lobbying in favour of Jancic, in agreement with Zeljka Antunovic, who was responsible for the media for a time in the Ivica Racan administration.

On Monday morning Zeljka Antunovic spoke to Nacional and explicitly denied the part of the story that mentions her name, adding that she had not spoken with Marija Nemcic in over a year. She too, however, feels that the situation at Croatian Television is confusing and that it will not turn out well if something is not changed soon. The SDP's official line was also absent from the recent vote on a new chief director. Zoran Milanovic had intermittent contacts with council members Damir Grubisa and Sanja Modric, but top officials at the leading opposition party say that they in no way tried to influence members of the program council in the recent vote.

Based on that logic is would appear that the majority in the council voted in favour of Veljko Jancic just to thwart the election of Damir Novinic, whose nomination is backed by Sinisa Grgic and Mislav Stipic. Over the past year the team led by Grgic, Stipic and Novinic has de facto taken over most of the top jobs at the TV network and will run the show at least until the election of a new chief director. Novinic never stood a real chance, but now Josip Popovac, the acting chief director, has also announced he will run for the full-time post. Popovac is also a Grgic ally and his election would come as a confirmation of the victory of the establishment that has taken over at Croatian Television since Sutlic stepped down.

Stipic and Novinic have been members of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) for a number of years (although they recently froze their membership in the party) and while HSLS leader Darinko Kosor denies having any influence on HTV, it is significant that several high-ranking members of the TV network's leadership held quite important posts in the HSLS.

Sinisa Grgic has had close ties to Ivo Sanader for years and he was, besides, appointed to the council in 2007 on the HDZ slate. In these circumstances the issue of the competence of the members of the program council has once again been broached. The legal framework that stipulates that council members are selected from the ranks of non-political organisations is not a bad one in principle, but everything that has been going on at HTV these past years confirms the idea that most of the members of the council are incompetent.

It suffices to review the current membership, chaired by Zvonko Milas, appointed to the council as a war veteran and a member of a veterans' association, who has no media experience in his career. Sinisa Grgic is, for his part, an entrepreneur whose failed Kolocep - Island of Knowledge scheme is now under investigation by the authorities.

Dragan Crnogorac is a technical skills teacher from Stari Jankovci, and was appointed as the nominee of the Joint Municipalities Council that gathers local governments from municipalities in which the ethnic Serb minority forms the majority.

Ilija Rkman was once an army officer who is now active in consumer rights protection (and joined the council instead of his wife Jadranka Kolarevic), Anja Sovagovic-Despot is an actress, and Zelimir Mesaric teaches acting. Hasim Bahtijari owns a small publishing firm, Marina Skrabalo is involved in organising training for civil activists, Damir Grubisa is a professor at the University of Zagreb's Faculty of Political Science and Sanja Modric is a professional reporter. Vera Robic-Skarica was to have been appointed to an empty seat on the council, as the nominee of the film workers' association, but this was thwarted by the HDZ, which is trying to appoint yet another war vet to the seat.

All in all, of the people deciding on the chief director only three or four have some links to the media sector or enjoy a measure of public credibility because of their professional success prior to their appointment to the program council. So it is what it is, and now both the party in power and the opposition understand that a situation has emerged that suits no one. At the level of journalism and editorial policy there is a state of chaos at HTV, the financial picture is very poor and a further drop in income looms ahead, and the Croatian Radio & Television network is led by people brought in and appointed in a quite dubious manner. It is becoming clear that even the option of political control, and perhaps even influence on the appointment of the chief director, is better than the current anarchy.

This outcome would not be news - Ivica Racan had a crucial influence on the selection of Mirko Galic, while Vanja Sutlic won thanks to the support of President Stipe Mesic. Galic was a solid director - Sutlic a much poorer one, but neither would have been elected without political backing. Political backing will clearly be necessary in order to end the anarchy in the HRT council, and it is very important that a competent person be elected to the post, one with experience in the media sector and in leading large systems. Lobbying for that kind of person is the common interest of the ruling party and the opposition, although it is hard to believe that Zoran Milanovic and Jadranka Kosor could agree on anything.