The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) expressed regret on that Nova TV was forced to cancel a scheduled presidential candidate debate following a warning from the Electronic Media Agency and a position from the State Electoral Commission
The law on the election of the Croatian president adopted in 1992 stipulates that all candidates are entitled to present and explain their platforms under equal conditions, but that law does not say how TV stations should organise the presentation of those platforms, the HND said in a press release, adding that every medium wanted to make the presentation of candidates as interesting as possible. The HND maintains that the Electronic Media Agency has interfered in Nova TV's editorial policy by issuing a warning after the TV station divided the presidential candidates into two groups, a division which the HND said was made for understandable professional and journalistic reasons. The HND underlined that the position of commercial TV stations in relation to national broadcaster HRT, as a public service, was significantly different than 10 or 17 years ago, but that electoral legislation did not reflect those changes. Therefore, the HND urged parliament to amend legislation on the media coverage of election campaigns after the upcoming election, in agreement with media companies and the HND.
