Croatia - Media



In 2000, there were 1,721,139 main line telephones and about 1,300,000 mobile cellular phones. Government controlled Croatian Radio-Television (Hrvatska Radiotelevizija) has charge of all broadcasting. In 1999, Croatian Radio ran 16 AM and 98 FM stations with 5 shortwave options. In 1995, there were 36 television stations. In a 2001 report, it was estimated that over 80% of the population relies on the government-sponsored television news program, Dnevnik , for national news. Independent local stations can only cover about 65% of the country's territory. In 1997, there were 1.5 million radios and 1.2 million television sets. In 1996, there were over 94,000 personal computers in use. In 2000, there were nine Internet service providers serving about 200,000 users.

In 1995, there were nine daily newspapers with a combined circulation of over 400 million, and 563 non-dailies (including over 60 weeklies); there were about 400 periodicals. As of 2002, the major dailies included Vecernji List (circulation 200,000), published in Zagreb, and Novi List (60,000), published in Rijeka, as well as the sports daily Sportske Novosti (55,000), published in Zagreb. In 1994, there were some 2,600 book titles published.

In October 1996, a comprehensive Law on Public Information was passed in Parliament with general support from all parties to regulate the media. In general, government influence on media through state ownership of most print and electronic media outlets restricts constitutionally-provided freedoms of speech and press.

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