{"id":24527,"date":"2026-09-24T15:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/?p=24527"},"modified":"2026-09-29T15:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:24:09","slug":"roundtable-on-media-freedom-and-expectations-for-the-new-media-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/roundtable-on-media-freedom-and-expectations-for-the-new-media-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Roundtable on \u201cMedia Freedom and Expectations for the New Media Act\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ombudswoman Tena \u0160imonovi\u0107 Einwalter took part in a roundtable on \u201cMedia Freedom and Expectations for the New Media Act\u201d on 24 September 2026. The event was organised by the Croatian Journalists\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n<p>The roundtable was held ahead of announced amendments to media legislation, primarily the Media Act and the Croatian Radio and Television Act, which are <a href=\"https:\/\/zakonodavstvo.gov.hr\/UserDocsImages\/dokumenti\/PZA%202026\/PZA%202026..pdf?vel=5516249\">scheduled<\/a> for adoption by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>The Ombudswoman highlighted the role of the media and journalists in protecting democracy, the rule of law and human rights. Their working conditions must therefore safeguard freedom of expression and the public\u2019s right to receive information. This includes freedom from political influence and access to transparent information about media ownership.<\/p>\n<p>Discussing the appointment of the leadership and members of the media regulatory body, she noted that the EU\u2019s European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) does not prescribe the appointment procedure; this is a matter for Member States. Although it is not a legal obligation under the EMFA, the procedure should meet the highest standards of independence, as applied to other independent institutions. Key considerations include who nominates candidates, how transparent the procedure is, the majority required for election by the Croatian Parliament, and the conditions for dismissal.<\/p>\n<p>The Ombudswoman also placed particular emphasis on the need to introduce a digital tax, noting that several countries have already done so: Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Hungary, Poland and Portugal. This issue is especially relevant as artificial intelligence tools increasingly use content produced by the media without compensation.<\/p>\n<p>Other participants included Agnieszka W\u00f3jcik and Jo\u017ee \u0160trus from the European Commission; Bojana Bo\u017eani\u0107 from the Association of Newspaper Publishers within the Croatian Employers\u2019 Association; Andrea Hitner-Jan\u010di\u0107 from the Ministry of Culture and Media; Ivan Novosel from Human Rights House Zagreb; Silvana Uzini\u0107 from the Croatian Journalists\u2019 Association; Milan \u017divkovi\u0107, a former media policy adviser at the Ministry of Culture and Media; Josip Popovac from the Media Council; Maja Sever from the Trade Union of Croatian Journalists; and Goran Peni\u0107 from the Society for the Protection of Journalists\u2019 Copyright.<\/p>\n<p>The event was <a href=\"https:\/\/hnd.hr\/hnd-ov-okrugli-stol-o-ocekivanjima-od-zakona-o-medijima-cetvrtak-u-10-h\/\">organised<\/a> as part of the project Civil Society\u2019s Voice for the Rule of Law: A Platform for Promoting and Protecting the EU\u2019s Fundamental Values.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ombudswoman Tena \u0160imonovi\u0107 Einwalter took part in a roundtable on \u201cMedia Freedom and Expectations for the New Media Act\u201d on 24 September 2026. The event was organised by the Croatian Journalists\u2019 Association. The roundtable was held ahead of announced amendments to media legislation, primarily the Media Act and the Croatian Radio and Television Act, which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":24500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/HND-rasprava-o-medijskom-zakonodavstvu-rujan-2026.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24528,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24527\/revisions\/24528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ombudsman.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}