CONCESSION GRANTED TO RADIO 101

AIM Zagreb, 29 January, 1997

Radio 101 was granted a concession for broadcasting on the territory of Zagreb. "We have won a battle, but we have not won the war yet", commented journalists of the popular Radio 101, tired of years of haggling with different authorities about their right to work. That the war is won will formally be symbolized by signing of the agreement on the concession which pursuant Croatian laws legalizes the granted right to broadcast program. The Committee for Telecommunications set the deadline for the Radio to do that by October 31 this year.

Granting of the concession to Radio 101 is a great victory of the democratic public in Croatia. The HDZ authorities tried in different ways to put this radio station under control, which had a different approach to radio program even at the time of the single-party system. Although threatened by the destiny of other independent media in post-communist Croatia "conquered" by the HDZ - Danas, Slobodna Dalmacija, Glas Slavonije, Croatian Television and Radio, etc. - circumstances took a turn favourable for Radio

1. Strong support of listeners, citizens of Zagreb who gathered by tens thousand in the centre of the city forced the authorities to withdraw and grant a concession to it which will replace the regime of temporary permits.

Back in 1990, immediately after coming to power, the HDZ installed a management board with majority of its members. The new management board immediately stifled journalistic heterogeneousness which this radio station like other good media developed in the end of the eighties. Then, after the first soliciting for concessions in spring 1995, Stjepan Tudjman, son of the President of the Republic, Dinko Cutura, official of the city HDZ and Miroslav Blazevic junior, son of Ciro Blazevic, selector of the football national team who was at the time Tudjman's favourite, were listed as owners of this radio station. Nevertheless, the control was not complete - getting hold of Radio 101 by means of ownership was prevented by surprising results of the elections in the city of Zagreb: in October 1995, the City Assembly in which the HDZ had won a great majority a few times, this time passed into the hands of the opposition coalition.

Since the city was the formal owner of the radio station, it was entitled to transfer its property to the employees. The City Assembly voted in favour of a new ownership structure in which just 25 per cent of shares became the property of the city administration and 75 per cent is owned by the journalists and radio technicians. The financial aspect of the deal was also conceived so as to be convenient for the journalists - about twenty of them from the first round of privatization had to pay only about fifty German marks for their share. The old, many times depreciated radio equipment was not worth much, and these journalists deserved credit for the reputation and the image of this radio station.

The whole operation surprised the observers - it seems, even the HDZ - since the custom in this part of the world seems to be the effort of the authorities to keep as powerful control over media as possible. The majority in the City Assembly which did not belong to the HDZ acted differently and won support of this radio station in a much healthier way.

Absence of ownership control reflected on the program of Radio 101 - new programs were introduced, some old and tested ones were revived and put back on the program. Radio 101 started getting its popularity back, its significance and influence grew once again. Its audience reached a stable 30 per cent, which is an excellent result in view of ten odd other stations heard in Zagreb, and later on, at the time of the tumultous developments which accompanied the struggle for the concession, it leapt up to even fifty per cent.

But, the latest session of the Committee for Telecommunications showed that the story about Radio 101 was not finished. Majority of members of the Committee who are from the HDZ had to raise their hands in favour of the concession for Radio 101. They also indicated the tactics which will be applied in the future. For instance, they demanded from the Radio to "solve the problems with ownership" by the time of signing the concession contract. Without saying precisely what problems they had in mind, they will obviously try to create an impression in public that the employees have got hold of something that they are not entitled to and that the noise about freedom of the media was raised solely in order to get hands on the profit of the radio station "which annually makes a turnover of four million marks", as one of the members of the Committee for Telecommunications said in exaggeration.

Journalists of Radio 101 who were not paid for a few months could do nothing but laugh bitterly. Nevertheless, it is a fact that apart from the political influence, a radio concession can bring a big profit, due to which strong men from the authorities are trying to win them. However, a much better situation of the economy is necessary for anything of the kind, as well as a commercially conceived program, a good marketing service, etc. And now, just for using concessions for the territory of the city of Zagreb should pay to the state about 80 thousand German marks a year.

At the same session, the Committee for Telecomminications granted a concession to another new city radio. This radio station is called Zagreb Radio Plavi 9 and it is believed that its founders are close to the ruling party. Plavi 9 is not broadcasting any program yet and it was granted the concession based on a program feasibility study. Therefore, Radio 101 will have yet another radio station which will be its competition and which the HDZ is influential in and by which it may be treated friendly in the forthcoming election campaign.

The HDZ might exert pressure on undesirable institutions by other methods as well. In his recent speech at a party gathering, Tudjman classified the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) among the most prominent opponents and not long after that, the financial police paid them a suddent visit and started close inspection of their accounts and books. Even if this action does not end by closing down the Institute, presence of financial inspectors makes work of the employees difficult. And Radio 101 was mentioned in a similar context as the Open Society Institute in Tudjman's speech.

IGOR VUKIC