2. Current cultural affairs
Croatia
Last update: June, 2023
Like in other countries around the globe, the year 2022 proved still be very challenging for the artistic and cultural sector in Croatia and thus for cultural policy making as well. In order to grapple with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, during 2020 and 2021 the government created a number of different types of measures to assist the cultural sector through the Crisis fund that amounted to approximately 6 300 000 EUR. Debates in the cultural sector concentrated around whether these measures were adequate, or were timely, and whether they could have been made in a more sustainable manner.
The difficult circumstances brought about by the coronavirus were exacerbated by two strong earthquakes in 2020 – one in country’s capital Zagreb and other in Sisak-Moslavina county. As a large number of cultural institutions, cultural organisations and companies are located in Zagreb, and especially in Zagreb city centre, the earthquake has taken a toll on the cultural infrastructure. Cultural objects, offices of cultural organisations and ateliers were left severely damaged, while others have been completely destroyed. The assessment of the damage is continuously updated and the Ministry of Culture and is working together with the cities of Zagreb, Sisak and Petrinja, conservation departments, counties involved and other relevant bodies in developing appropriate models for renovation, securing funding for restoration and providing that all conservation measures are under way. The renovation is progressing rather slowly but a number of projects have been finalised and the funding has been secured for additional ones (see chapter 1.3.3).
The year 2020 brought about parliamentary elections that led to another term of the centre-right government coalition led by the Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska demokratska zajednica – HDZ). This resulted in the continuation of the cultural policy priorities of the Ministry of Culture, which changed its name to the Ministry of Culture and Media in order to reflect the existing responsibilities of the Ministry and to highlight increasing focus on the media sector. Thus, there were no major changes in cultural policy priorities in relation to the former mandate that has put focus on enhancing cultural creativity and support of independent artists (see chapter 2.3 and 4.1.3); entrepreneurship in cultural and creative industries (see chapter 3.5); development of the audiovisual sector (see chapter 3.5.3); development of (digitalisation of) the heritage sector (see chapters 2.4 and 3.1); supporting the independent cultural sector (see chapters 6.4 and 2.3); and supporting audience development and participation in culture (see chapter 6), while also working on updating the cultural legislation (see chapter 4.2). The debates related to the drafts of the new law on independent artists, electronic media, authors’ rights and the critique of the continuous lowering of funding for independent media and lowering of the working standards of journalists (see chapter 2.5.3). These priorities have continued to be relevant in 2022, in the year that was still marked by struggling with the consequences of the pandemic and the 2020 earthquakes. The year has been marked by the lively discussions on: the key legislative changes in the financing of public needs in culture and cultural councils; the discussions on the draft of the new theatre law and the need for the amendments of the coefficients related to the retirement funds of freelance artists. Comments and critique from the cultural community were related to lack of participatory process in the drafting of the laws, and that some of the policy instruments introduced are oriented towards more centralisation. In addition, in 2022 major changes have been announced with opening of the public discussion on the future National Plan of Culture and Media (2022-2027), which should be adopted in the following year. The Ministry also announced a number of calls for projects that will be opened in 2023 and funded through the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience (2021-2026), which will be dedicated to cultural and creative sectors, overall cultural infrastructure, digitalisation of cultural heritage and fact checking in media.
Last update: June, 2023
Cultural rights are enshrined in the Constitution (see chapter 4.1.1) and are implicitly constituent to the national cultural policy framework (1.1). This is evident from the sector-specific policies related to the right to artistic work (see chapter 2.3); freedom of expression (see chapter 2.5.3); the right to cultural heritage (see chapter 3.1); protection of intellectual and material benefits accruing from cultural production (see chapter 4.1.6); the right to equally accessible and available cultural, library, information and leisure services (see chapters 3.2. and 3.5); the right to choose one’s own culture as well as to respect culture, its autonomy and identity (see chapters 2.5.4 and 2.6). Discussions around culture-related rights issues in general are scarce and this topic as an explicit policy issue has not been widely debated.
Issues related to cultural rights are mainly viewed focusing on the cultural rights of national minorities. There are 22 officially organised minorities in Croatia: Albanians, Austrians, Bosnians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Italians, Jews, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Poles, Roma, Romanians, Russians, Ruthenians, Slovaks, Slovenians, Serbs, Turks, Ukrainians, and Vlachs. All minorities receive state support through the Government Office for Human Rights and National Minorities. The total population of Croatia in 2021 was 3 871 833 million, which is a significant drop since the last census executed in 2011. Compared to the 2011 Census, the number of inhabitants decreased by 413 056 persons or 9.64%. According to the 2021 census, the share of Croats in the national structure of the population is 91.63%, Serbs 3.20%, Bosniaks 0.62%, Roma 0.46%, Italians 0.36% and Albanians 0.36%, while the share of other members of national minorities is individually less than 0.30%. The share of people who declared regionally is 0.33%, and the number of people who did not want to declare is 0.58%. The political and legal framework defining the position of national minorities is derived from the Constitution (1990, rev. 2001, 2010, 2014) and the Constitutional Law on Rights of National Minorities (2002, rev. 2010, 2011). Minorities have elected their representatives in the Parliament through a special electoral unit, and currently there are 8 representatives elected according to the rules of relative majority.
Minority cultural activities are predominantly traditional, e.g., preserving language, nurturing folk traditions, music and art, organising exhibitions, acting and reciting groups. The cultural activities of the Jewish and Italian minorities are widely spread and their participation in the cultural life of Croatia is more general. The Serb minority’s cultural activities are visible and observed as specific, while cultural visibility of other minorities is limited.
The Ministry of Culture and Media supports various programmes through the distribution of grants in art and cultural fields. All national minorities have designated reference libraries that are distributed over the country: Beli Manastir City Library (Hungarian); Daruvar Public Library (Czech); "Ivan Goran Kovačić" Karlovac City Library (Slovenian); Pula City Library (Italian); Našice Public Library (Slovak); "Bogdan Ogrizović" Library, Zagreb (Albanian); Libraries of the City of Zagreb (Rutheninan and Ukranian); City and University Library Osijek (Austrian), "Prosvjeta" Serbian Cultural Association (Serbian) and "Vlado Gotovac" Public Library Sisak (Bosniak). The Ministry also provides support for the establishment of the "Prosvjeta" Serbian Cultural Association and the Jewish communities in Zagreb. In 2020 the ‘Kali Sara’ Central Library of Roma was opened in Zagreb, which is the only such type of library in Europe. In 2011 the Slovakian Cultural Centre was established in Našice (the focal city of the Slovakian minority in Croatia), according to the reciprocity principle similar to the cultural centre of the Croatian minority which is already established in Slovakia.
Last update: June, 2023
The main measure related to supporting artistic production is defined through providing the social security measures for freelance artists. In comparison with other workers they have the right to retirement and disability insurance and to health insurance according to relevant legislation (see chapter 4.1.3). The status of independent artist entitled to support from the budget remains one of the burning issues in Croatia where an overall reform of the system is needed. This has continued to be a hot issue of discussion and the changes in the legislation were announced several times in the last couple of years but are still not agreed between the professional community and the legislator. During 2022, as a result of discussions on the retirement coefficients in the Parliament, the issue of the (need of the increase) coefficient for retirement benefits of freelance artists has been put to the focus of the debate by the professional community. The Ministry noted that this problem needs to be dealt with within the overall legislative package, such as the new Law on the Artistic Activities that was debated in 2019 and that, according to the Ministry, will be put into public discussion again during 2023.
Research data shows that the position of artists as well as other cultural workers is still rather precarious in Croatia, whether we are talking about those working in cultural industries or those working in civil society organisations in arts and culture (Primorac et al 2020). The situation differs from subsector to subsector, but the fragility of the professional life of artists and cultural workers due to the project-to-project type of work has proven to be a crucial problem (Primorac, 2021a). The Ministry of Culture and Media has tried to bridge this problem in the last couple of years by introducing additional measures in the form of special calls oriented to supporting the work of writers, translators, visual artists and dancers (see chapter 7.2.2). In addition, within the Programme for Cultural Entrepreneurship (now: Programme for Cultural and Creative Industries) it provides support for stimulating employment in this sector (see chapter 3.5). The Kultura nova Foundation, dedicated to civil society organisations in culture and arts, provides support for organisations and their workers and also has special measures that support artistic research. The Foundation has also executed research on the position of workers in its sector in 2016 that showed the precarious working conditions, which was the stimulus for some of their, above mentioned, policy measures (Barada et al, 2016). Further research has shown that their precarious situation has been excabarated by the pandemic (Primorac, 2021b), although the whole cultural sector has showed rather resilient to the crisis (Vidović (ed), 2021).
The union of workers employed in the cultural sector (HSDK) covers workers in cultural institutions and the Ministry of Culture and Media, while including freelance artists as well. However, there is a division between them and workers in cultural industries and civil society organisations in arts and culture that do not have unionised representation. Selected sector-specific professional associations cover some labour- rights related issues but this is still not enough to create an adequate framework for enhancing a better social situation for artists and cultural professionals. New actors and initiatives have emerged in the last couple of years that explicitly advocate around the issues of social and economic rights of artists and cultural workers (see chapter 4.1.5), but there is still a lot work to be done.
The mobility of artists and cultural professionals around the world is encouraged through the financing of international cultural cooperation throughout the years (see chapter 1.4). During the last decade through different private initiatives and international projects a number of residencies have been developed within the country for foreign and domestic artists and cultural workers as well.
Last update: June, 2023
The changes in the field of digitalisation are swift and the number of users of new technologies is growing rapidly, but these developments are not followed by equally swift responses in cultural policies. Croatia does not have an official strategic document for the development of digital transformation of the cultural and creative sectors and the official initiatives related to strategies and programmes for digitalisation were mainly focused on its technical aspects. However, digitalisation issues are regularly included in the strategic plans of the Ministry of Culture and Media, but in a fragmented manner focusing on specific cases in a particular period. For example, in the Strategic Plan for the period 2018-2020 (Ministry of Culture, 2017a), focus was placed on completing a national project for the digitalisation of independent cinemas (arthouse, small and regional cinemas) so as to enable easier and wider distribution of audio-visual content. This project has been finalised in cooperation with the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), an arm’s length body dedicated for support and promotion of Croatian audio-visual sector. The Ministry of Culture co-financed 60% of the equipment cost in larger cities and 70% of the cost in smaller ones. The cinema owners and the local and city self-governments covered the remaining costs. This proved to be a good practice example on a European scale, with more than 100 cinema theatres that were digitised in Croatia by 2020. Within the book sector the National Reading Support Strategy 2017 – 2022 (Ministry of Culture, 2017b) was elaborated but e-books are only marginally mentioned. Legislative changes have been made with the updated laws on museums, libraries and archives that were adopted in 2018 and 2019. For the first time they mention the new digital context that affects the work of heritage institutions. Harmonisation of national legislation with EU Directives regarding copyright, as well as the audiovisual media services that have an impact on digital culture, has been made through the new Law on Electronic Media (NN 111/21) and Law on Copyright and related Rights (NN 111/21) both adopted in 2021.
In the area of cultural heritage, the first digitisation initiative that the (then) Ministry of Culture initiated was the Croatian Cultural Heritage Project (2007-2012). This was a national programme for digitisation of archival, library and museum materials which also contributed to the creation of a central platform for cultural heritage that was developed in 2008 (www.kultura.hr) and closed in 2011. The national aggregator for cultural heritage was launched only in 2014 with an aim to allow heritage institutions to send digital content to the Europeana platform. The Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media plays the role of coordinator for the national aggregator which presents an obstacle to the equal participation of Croatia in EU projects related to aggregation and withdrawal of EU funds. This results in a small number of institutions that have been using the national aggregator as shown by the analysis of the current state of digitisation of cultural heritage in the Republic of Croatia (Ernst & Young, 2018). This report was the basis for the preparation of the project ‘e-Culture – Digitalisation of cultural heritage' that started in 2020. The project is an activity envisaged as a part of the draft National Plan for the Digitisation of Cultural Heritage 2020-2025, prepared in 2019 by the Ministry of Culture and Media. The funds for the implementation of the e-Culture project have been secured from both the European Fund for Regional Development (85%) and from the state budget (15%), in the total amount of 41 994 473 HRK (approx. 5 599 263 EUR). Partner organisations in the project are the Croatian State Archives, the National and University Library, the Museum for Arts and Crafts and Croatian Radio Television. The project is coordinated by the Council of the project ‘Croatian Cultural Heritage’ presided by the Minister of Culture and Media herself. Since the beginning of the project, the partners have worked on the establishment of a central system for storage, access, aggregation and search of cultural heritage materials as well as on the development of e-services; work is also being done on the development of standards and models for the management and functioning of the central system (for example, Guidelines for the digitization of materials have been developed); procurement of equipment and services has been executed; and work on the strengthening of the capacities of the Ministry, project partners and institutions from the heritage community have been done (e.g. workshops, lectures and study visits).
However, support for the digitalisation in cultural institutions is not adequate and is hindering further development. In the 2022 Call for support for the digitalisation of museum, library and archival programmes, 85 programmes were submitted, programmes were approved in the total amount of 565 295 HRK (75 027 EUR). Priority was given to programmes that are oriented on the availability, protection, presentation and promotion of materials, as well as on the development of new services and products. A number of institutions are working in parallel on different digitalisation projects; in order to bridge these problems. Since 2010, the National and University Library in Zagreb organises yearly 'The Festival of Digitalisation Projects'. It gathers experts in the field of development and management of digital collections, building up the systems of digital libraries, digitalisation of different types of data and usage and promotion of digital cultural and scientific heritage. The Kultura nova Foundation also offers support for the digitalisation of the archives of civil society organisations in contemporary arts and culture in order to preserve the records of the work of these active but fragile organisations. The Croatian Audiovisual Centre also offers support for digitalisation of selected audiovisual works through its public call for complimentary activities. However, the burning issue of a decaying audiovisual heritage and the lack of an adequate strategy for its digitalisation, which is connected to the yet unresolved position of Croatian Cinemateque and the status of authors’ rights for films produced in the Yugoslav period, remains an open but urgent problem for the audiovisual community.
As of 2022 the Council for Interdisciplinary and New Artistic and Cultural Practices at the Ministry of Culture and Media assesses the applications for public needs in culture in the area connected to digital culture. In 2020, as a result of the needs of the sector due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Culture and Media also opened a call for digital adaptation of the existing cultural programmes and the creation of new cultural and educational content for the digital sphere. The call was repeated in 2021 as well.
ICT companies are giving support to cultural activities through sponsorships and donations that are mainly in-kind. However, neither side is doing this according to any government programme, but according to available regulations concerning taxes on sponsorship and donations and on a case-by-case basis (see also 7.3).
Last update: June, 2023
Promotion of intercultural dialogue is present within the agenda of cultural, media, educational and social policies. However, there are no explicitly formulated policies for the promotion of intercultural dialogue nor is there a special fund or support scheme. It is important to note that due to recent Croatian history and the consequences of the Homeland war, the issue of integration and re-integration of minorities, coexistence, as well as resettlement of refugees and displaced persons have been continuously high on the list of political priorities, but still remain an open issue. Until 2022 Croatia was not a country receiving any substantial number of immigrants other than those from neighbouring countries. This is why the issue of intercultural dialogue within the country remained largely an issue of social integration and creating equal opportunities for all minorities. The recent migrant crisis opened up issues of the changing of the asylum and migration policies but no specific measures especially relating to intercultural dialogue have been made. However, with the new Law on Foreigners from 2020 and the changes in regulation on foreign workers from the quota system to the market test system, the number of foreign workers in Croatia has doubled from 2021 to 2022.This opened dialogue on the questions of new minorities, integration and co-existence and thus on the new perspectives on the issues of intercultural dialogue.
There are a number of NGOs and initiatives, both on national and regional levels, focusing on issues of intercultural dialogue. Examples of good practice that continue each year include:
- BEJAHAD – Jewish cultural scene – a project that has been taking place for more than ten years. The programme consists of a week-long series of cultural programmes, activities and debates where, every year, the Jewish community invites one of the other minority groups from the region as well as a Jewish community from one of the European countries to cooperate in the organisation of this programme.
- Literary seminar "The Days of Vladan Desnica" named after a famous Croatian writer of Serbian nationality. The seminar promotes intercultural dialogue through debates about literature and broader topics.
- Since 2006, "Days of Serbian Culture" organised by the Serbian Cultural Association "Prosvjeta" present contemporary Serbian culture during a week-long festival in Zagreb.
- Days of Italian Culture and Language in Rijeka.
- World Day of the Romani language.
Other examples of good practice that dealt with the issues of intercultural dialogue in the last decade:
- Croatia actively contributed in the process of writing the White Book of Intercultural Dialogue of the Council of Europe;
- The National Foundation for Civil Society Development is the coordinator of the Anna Lindh Foundation - ALF (projects promoting dialogue between cultures of the Euro-Mediterranean region) through the Croatian Network for Cooperation in the Mediterranean.
- Intercultural dialogue is widely promoted through a number of EU supported cultural and educational projects, mainly carried out by NGOs. Such projects are multinational and directly devoted to intercultural dialogue, communication and related multicultural competencies. Their aim is to support cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue through different activities (theatre, music events, exhibitions, festivals, etc.).
- Research projects dealing with cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue are executed through the regular work of institutions in higher education and research system (e.g.Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies);
- For the last 27 years ‘Matica iseljenika’ organizes yearly event entitled ‘Forum of Croatian Minorities’ that opens dialogue of all the representatives of national minority organisations, researchers and policy stakeholders;
- Support is also given for cross-border co-operation projects, both by the Ministry of Culture and Media and the Ministry of Science and Education. Initiatives are usually carried out by NGOs which apply for government funding. Co-operation programmes include joint education programmes, co-operation in promoting common heritage, student camps etc.
- Selected NGOs have created programmes that relate to integration of migrants and welcoming refugees (e.g. Taste of Home/Okusidoma; Are you Syrious?).
The question of religious communities in Croatia is regulated through the Law on the Legal Position of Religious Communities (NN 83/02, 73/13), and the Ministry of Administration holds the Registry of the Religious Communities. According to the online Registry in 2022 there are 53 registered religious communities in Croatia.
The government of the Republic of Croatia takes steps to support all activities that promote dialogue between different faith groups. Eight agreements have been signed that regulate issues of joint interest with 19 religious communities. The international agreement with the Holy See regulates issues with the Catholic Church in Croatia, while other agreements were signed with: the Serbian Orthodox Church in Croatia; the Islamic religious community in Croatia; the Evangelic Church in Croatia; the Reformed Christian (Calvinist) Church in Croatia; the Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Croatia, which additionally represents the Christ Pentecostal Church in Croatia and The Union of Christ Pentecostal Churches in Croatia; the Adventist Church in Croatia, which represents the Reformed movement of the Seventh-day Adventists; the Union of Baptist Churches in Croatia, which represent the Church of Christ; the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Croatia; the Croatian Old Catholic Church; the Macedonian Orthodox Church in Croatia; Coordination of Jewish Communities in Croatia; Bet Israel Jewish Faith Community; the Union of Churches ‘Word of Life’; the Church of the Full Gospel (CCE); and Protestant Reformed Christian Church.
Croatia has a large Diaspora around the world from North and South America, Australia and New Zealand to Western European countries particularly Germany, Switzerland and Austria. An independent organisation / institution the "Croatian Heritage Foundation" (Matica iseljenika) established by the government in 1990 by a special Law on the Croatian Heritage Foundation (HMI), and funded through the Ministry of Culture and Media, supports and coordinates cultural programmes for Croatians abroad. The Ministry of Culture and Media also supports special radio programmes aimed at the Croatian Diaspora, as well as satellite programmes on Croatian Radio Television. The importance of the Croatian diaspora in policy orientation can be seen from the data that from 2016 till 2022 the budget of the Central State Office for Croats Abroad has been quadrupled in the said period.
Last update: June, 2023
Diversity education is implicitly part of general school curricula in Croatia and is mainly administered by the educational policy making bodies at the national level. Intercultural education is taken as an important element of school curricula in those areas which were occupied during the Homeland war and where there is a special need to build an inclusive education system. However, there are still divisions in these territories and the implementation of the minority educational programmes result in divided classrooms and pupils of Croatian and Serbian nationalities in cities such as Vukovar. Although this is an implementation of the national minority rights regulations (see chapter 2.5.4), everyday life presents obstacles for developing diversity education programmes. Initiatives that put focus on building multicultural and intercultural educational models have not had much success. One example is the experimental Intercultural School that was built with the support of the Kingdom of Norway and which was supposed to start with its programme in the city of Vukovar in the school year 2018/2019, but has not open its doors to pupils not even in 2021 when it became the COVID infirmary. The government of Croatia had to return the money invested by the partners from Norway.
NGOs play an important part in developing programmes related to intercultural education, building awareness on the importance of diversity education and tolerance whether in the format of workshops, seminars, festivals of different types of educational programmes. One can mention organisations such as the Centre for Peace Studies and the GOOD initiative that have been raising these issues and especially advocating for the development of the civic education curricula that includes implementation of diversity education.
Last update: June, 2023
There has been much debate about media legislation, media pluralism and diversity in Croatia during the past twenty years that reflects the transformation of media and media policies. As a consequence, media laws have been changed and amended several times in this period while the new amendments are also in preparation (see chapter 2.4 and 4.2.6). The current government announced within their previous mandate that a new media strategy will be created and that the new media laws will be changed accordingly, but although selected changes have occurred in the legislation field, the critique from professional associations continues. The announced National Plan for the Development of Culture and Media should tackle these issues, and the overall report on the state of the media sector has been produced
In the last couple of years, the number of media organisations and their ownership structure stabilised. According to the Registry data available on the website of the Agency for Electronic Media (AEM), in 2022 there were 31 TV channels (eleven with national concessions, four of them publicly owned), 154 radio stations, twenty-one media-on-demand service providers, 211 satellite/Internet audio-visual providers and 512 non-profit audio-visual and/or radio programme providers. The high increase of electronic publications can be attributed to the implementation of the registration of the electronic publications and its necessity for further funding provisions. According to the web data of the Croatian Post and Electronic Communications Agency (HAKOM), there were 91 providers of access to Internet services in fixed network and 14 in mobile network operating in Croatia in 2022.
Diversity and plurality of the media are particularly promoted by the Fund for the Promotion of Pluralism and Diversity of Electronic Media, established by the Law of Electronic Media provisions that included the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS Directive) solutions. The fund is administered by the Council for Electronic Media (VEM), and financed by 3% of Croatian Radio Television licence fees. It supports production and broadcasting of public interest programmes in local and regional radio and television channels, which serve local communities and sometimes use local dialects in broadcasting (e.g. in the Istria region). This support goes to the promotion of the production and broadcasting of electronic media content of public interest on local and regional levels, which is important for the right of citizens to public information, the rights of national minorities, promotion of cultural creativity, and development of education, science and the arts. Support from the Fund is used to promote the production and release of audio-visual and radio programmes of public interest of television broadcasters and/or radio broadcasters at local and regional level, of non-profit television, radio broadcasters and non-profit electronic publications (digital news/internet portals), as well as employment of highly qualified professionals of those broadcasters.
Although Croatian legislation includes regulations on quotas and responsibility of broadcasters and media owners with regard to the diversity of contents, systematic monitoring is restricted and therefore it is difficult to assess the extent to which the provisions of different laws are respected. The Council for Electronic Media ensures monitoring in relation to programme obligations through direct and indirect measures. According to latest available report by AEM and VEM, in 2021, it issued 24 measures to TV, radio and electronic publications in the form of warnings, penalties, and revocations of concessions.
Media production in the arts, humanities, cultural history and identity is mostly broadcast on the PBS Croatian Television First and Third Channel and Croatian Radio Third Channel (the latter completely devoted to culture). The HT1 channel has also complemented its news broadcasting by devoting 3-5 minutes to cultural information. While the daily press covers social / political events extensively, the amount of published information on cultural life has been continually diminishing. The number of specialised bi-monthly magazines that write extensively about art and culture has reduced, and reporting on cultural life has shifted mainly to selected cultural portals dedicated to different cultural fields. However, with the cuts to funding in the non-profit media, the cultural media portals are also in a precarious situation. In 2020, in order to tackle the issue of supporting the quality journalistic work in general, the Agency for Electronic Media (AEM) has opened the public call for journalistic works in electronic publications, among which cultural media portals can apply. Regarding cultural journals, according to data from March 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Media supported the publication of 66 programmes of local, regional or national (printed and online) cultural journals with 3 133 000 HRK (415 848 EUR) which is a continuous decrease as in 2019 it amounted to 3 722 000 HRK (496 266 EUR) while in 2016 it was 4 988 000 HRK (approx. 665 066 EUR) (Primorac and Obuljen Koržinek 2017).
In order to tackle the issue of disinformation and fake news, the Agency of Electronic Media together with the Ministry of Culture and Media has prepared a public call during 2022 on the establishment of a system for verifying the accuracy of information as part of the measure "Establishment of the verification of media facts and the system of public publication of data". The call is developed and funded through the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience with the available funding of 5 972 526 EUR. The study for the preparation of the Call has been made in 2022, and Call will be executed at the beginning of 2023.
The debates in the last few years included discussions on the new Law on Electronic Media that was adopted in 2021, the issue of working conditions of journalists (in print, TV and electronic media), the quality of broadcast content in public and commercial media, and the issue of lowering of financing for non-profit (electronic) media. Especially problematic issue is the rise in SLAPP (Strategic lawsuits against public participation) lawsuits against journalists in the last couple of years: according to data by Croatian Journalists’ Association in April 2021 there were 924 active SLAPP cases (HND, 2021). After pressures from the professional community, the Ministry was prompted to establish a working group on this issue in 2022. This issue is reflected in the results from the data collection of the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM), which are comparable to the 2020 edition of the MPM. In relation to the assessment of the risks to media pluralism, Croatia scores a medium risk for all the categories: Basic Protection (43 percent), Market Plurality (65 percent), Political Independence (63 percent), and Social Inclusiveness (62 percent) (Bilić et al., 2022). The authors conclude how the main risks to media pluralism in Croatia have been consistent over the years and have not been dealt with by strategic thinking, or new legislation and that such an approach further deteriorates media pluralism. The authors also note that the new Law on Electronic Media (NN 111/21) brought many technical changes, but none targeting detected systemic deficiencies. “Tackling all issues detected by the MPM requires coordinated and sustained communication of the Ministry of Culture and Media with all involved actors (i.e. main regulator(s), journalists’ association and trade union, industry associations, non-profit media, academic and policy experts, the general public, etc.)” Bilić et al. (2022: 24) conclude.
Last update: June, 2023
The official language is Croatian. Laws passed in May 2000 regulate the status of minority languages and alphabets and their official use on the local level (Law on the Use of Language and Script of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia, NN 51/00). The laws also offer the possibility of education programmes (primary and secondary school level) in minority languages (Law on Education in the Language and Script of National Minorities, NN 51/00, NN 56/00). Such programmes have been established for Czech, Hungarian, German, Serbian and Italian minorities. The first preregistered primary schools in the Serbian language were opened in 2002. The laws are implemented in areas where language groups are concentrated, e.g. the use of the Serbian language and Cyrillic alphabet in East Slavonia, of the Italian language in Istria, etc. These laws were received favourably by the ethnic minority groups. However, in 2013 the implementation of the double-script (Latin-Cyrillic) plaques on the official buildings in Vukovar and some other cities caused protests by the Croatian representatives of war veteran communities, and they are still in dispute. In addition, the implementation of education in minority languages in the same area that implies separated classrooms for Serbian and Croatian children is also put into question (see chapter 2.5.2) especially taking into account that Serbian and Croatian are mutually understandable. The discussions on the implementation of different models of education are in a process that would follow the rights acquired by law but also take into account the local situation.
In line with the Law on Croatian Radio-Television and the Law on Electronic Media, Croatian Radio-Television has special and regular news programmes in several minority languages. Local radio stations also have special programmes in minority languages.
The school curricula include supplements in minority languages (language, literature, history, art and music); there are optional programmes for mother tongue learning at various summer schools.
Apart from these supplementary minority language classes in schools, language pluralism is not widely debated due to the low numbers of linguistic minorities in Croatia, and the fact that Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian are mutually understandable.
A lot of attention has been paid to promotion of the Croatian language and culture abroad; teaching of the Croatian language and literature for Croatians in the Diaspora is supported through programmes of financing by the Ministry of Science and Education in 20 countries around the world. In some countries the classes are organised as a part of regular educational curricula, while in some countries it is organised as extracurricular activity in the auspices of Croatian Diaspora community activities. The Ministry of Science and Education also organises and finances the network of 34 Readers in the Croatian Language and Literature exchange positions in different higher education institutions in 25 countries around the world, as well as co-finances three centres for Croatian Studies in Australia, United Kingdom and Canada. The Ministry also partially supports around 40 independent reader positions that are outside its’ jurisdiction. Foreign students of Croatian gain scholarships at ‘Croaticum’ study programmes at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, as well as through a yearly Croatian Seminar for Foreign Slavic Studies Students or the ‘Zagreb School of Slavic Studies’ at the Inter University Centre (IUC) in Dubrovnik, which celebrated its’ 50th anniversary in 2022.
Last update: June, 2023
Gender issues are systematically monitored and adequate policies are designed by the government and parliament bodies for the promotion of gender equality: the Governmental Office for Gender Equality, the Committee for Gender Equality of the Croatian Parliament, and the State Ombudsperson for Gender Equality. However, the programmes and initiatives in this field in the cultural and creative sectors are rare and are not part of an overall policy in this field.
One of the first such initial initiatives was a round table on gender inequality in the audiovisual sector organised by the Governmental Office for Gender Equality in July 2008 entitled ‘Visibility of women in Croatian cinematography’ that resulted in policy recommendations for the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC). It can be said that some of these recommendations later on contributed to changes in decision making and also to a publication of a booklet promoting women workers in the industry entitled ‘Cinderellas, Queens and Godmothers of Croatian Film 2012/2013’ prepared by HAVC (2013) and financed by the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWA), and a brochure ‘Women in Croatian Film 2015/2016’ (HAVC 2016). The cooperation with EWA continued and in 2016 resulted in the study "Where are the women directors in European films? Gender equality report on female directors (2006-2013) with best practice and policy recommendations", that was executed in Croatia and other six European countries and showed further gender inequalities in the film industry. In 2019, the Croatian Film Directors Guild international conference, entitled ‘Women in Film Industry’, was organised in Zagreb. As a continuation of actions in this field, the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC) has commissioned a study on this topic that was still in preparation at the time of the writing of this report.
The project ‘Women in Media’ by the Agency for Electronic Media (AEM) started as part of the activities of the working group ‘Women and Gender’ by MNRA, of which AEM is a member. The aim of the project is to build awareness on the position of women in Croatian society, achieve better understanding of both the media and the general public on the representation of women in media as well to provide better visibility of women in media and contribute to diminishing stereotypes. As part of this project AEM published ‘The Recommendations on better news coverage of women’s sport in electronic media’, ‘The Media Codex-Recommendations on News Coverage on femicide and violence against women’ and other relevant research publications. An important part of the project is the web portal ‘Žene i mediji’ (Women and Media) that was established in 2019, which publishes news on the events and research as well as different inputs from the partner organisations.
Selected initiatives are emerging also from professional associations and non-governmental organisations and portals. For example Prostor plus, an NGO from Rijeka, published results of research on the position of women artists in the city of Rijeka and its surroundings in 2018 that illustrated their precarious position. The independent portal ‘Vox feminae’ should also be mentioned for their coverage of (issues related to) women artists and cultural workers.
In February 2020, The Art Pavilion in Zagreb opened its season with the exhibition ‘Zagreb, the City of Female Artists / Works of Croatian female artists from the late 19th to the 21st Century’. This was the first exhibition since the independence of the Republic of Croatia devoted solely to the work of women artists that encompasses such a long period and that includes works in all media forms– from classic painting and sculpture to contemporary forms of artistic expression. Due to severe earthquake damage the Art Pavilion in Zagreb has been closed since 22nd of March 2020.
The reflection of the #metoo movement in the ex-Yu region through #nisamtrazila (I didn’t ask for it) in 2021 had its’ repercussions in the art world in Croatia as well; the Academy of Dramatic Arts at the University of Zagreb has established its’ first working group on sexual harassment charges. The issue was debated at other higher education institutions, and the dialogue has been opened between the University bodies, the State Ombudsperson for Gender Equality and the State Attorney on further steps in the process.
During 2022, selected actions by ad hoc platforms and professional associations have been made to remedy the situation, e.g.the Croatian Writers’ Association has started with a series of round tables that tackled position of women in book and media sector as well as in other sectors more broadly.
Last update: June, 2023
The last available report that paid special emphasis to cultural life of persons with disabilities was created in 2014. As stressed in the report of the Ombudsperson for Persons with Disabilities in 2014, despite a number of examples of rich and diverse cultural expression of many children and persons with disabilities, their artistic endeavours are not sufficiently supported in general nor are their activities sufficiently present in the media. Specific strategies to support people with disabilities as professionals in the cultural labour market are lacking as well as general policies related to this sector. Although the state finances and supports the cultural programmes and projects run by the DPO (Disabled People's Organisation) and some institutions, the funding is still insufficient. DPO made significant efforts in making cultural activities from local to national level more accessible to persons with disabilities. However, participation of persons with disabilities in cultural events is still severely restricted due to inaccessibility of premises and lack of support in the way of accessible transport and assistance. Accessibility is just one example in a series of problems that persons with disabilities face if they decide to take part in a cultural or sports event or in accessing or creating media content (lack of adaptation of (cultural or audiovisual) materials for particular disabilities etc.). Compiling information in this field is complicated as data from a survey by the Disability Ombudswoman executed in 2014 shows. Of 148 art organisations and theatres surveyed to investigate accessibility of cultural activities they offer to persons with physical and sensory impairment, responses were received from only 24 theatres and 24 art organisations: only 7 of them noted they were accessible, while 10 reported partial accessibility (Ombudsperson for Persons with Disabilities, 2014: 56).
In order to tackle some of the issues related to the Ombudsperson’s assessment, in 2020 the Ministry of Culture and Media, in cooperation with the Ombudsperson for Persons with Disabilities, published a pilot Call for programmes that enable access and availability of cultural content for persons with disabilities and children and youth with developmental difficulties. Within this pilot programme, 26 programmes were supported with a total amount of 1 564 438 HRK (208 591 EUR) as the data from the Ministry shows. The aim of the legislator was to assess the implementation of this pilot programme in order to adjust it to the needs of the sector so as to make it a part of regular Calls by the Ministry of Culture and Media. The programme continued in 2021 and 2022 as well; in 2021 it supported 25 projects for financing in the total amount of 1 743 300 HRK (231 381 EUR), while in 2022 the number of programmes and funding increased: 33 projects were supported in the amount of 1 993 600 HRK (264 596 EUR). The proposed projects are programs covering wide areas of culture and art with grants from 20 000 to 150 000 HRK. The projects proposed for financing are inclusive for persons with disabilities, i.e. oriented towards participation in cultural and artistic activities, with an emphasis on children and youth with developmental disabilities, who often have limited access to culture and art.
The 2021 Report of the Ombudsperson for Persons with Disabilities stresses further inaccessibility of the current cultural infrastructure for the persons with disabilities, which is especially evident for cultural heritage buildings. The lack of access to and adaptation of cultural content for persons with disabilities is also still evident (OPD, 2021). Thus, the 2021 Report by Ombudsperson recommends that local and regional self-government units plan to make cultural facilities in their areas (especially those they founded and manage) accessible by applying the principles of universal design in the physical, communication and information sense so that such spaces (and events that are organized in them) are more accessible to people with disabilities as well as to all other possible visitors ((OPD, 2021: 288). It is to be seen how the funding from the National Programme of Recovery and Resilience (2021-2026) allocated for adaptation of cultural heritage buildings to persons with disabilities will be implemented in the near future.
As an example of a theatre company led by people with disabilities one can mention the theatre ‘Novi život/New Life’ as one of the oldest theatres of who are blind in the world. It is led by the association of people who are blind and visually impaired, New Life, in Zagreb.
Last update: June, 2023
Social inclusion is recognised as an important issue within the strategic plans of the Ministry of Culture and Media and the Ministry was appointed as an Intermediate Body Level 1 within the Croatian European Structural and Investment Funds Management and Control System for the 2014-2020 programming period for the Operational Programme Efficient Human Resources (OPEHR) 2014-2020. Within this Programme, the Ministry of Culture and Media was responsible for two specific objectives under two priority axes. Priority axis 2 deals with Social inclusion with its Investment priority 9.i - Active inclusion, with a view to promoting equal opportunities and active participation, and improving employability, and Specific objective 9.i.1 - Combating poverty and social exclusion by promoting labour market and social integration of vulnerable groups, and combating any form of discrimination. Since culture and media create a high quality platform for the social integration of various marginalised groups, such as youth and the elderly, as well as for the expansion of intercultural programmes that target different minorities, the activities include support to community media, organisation of workshops, seminars, training, plays, various interactive events, production of media content etc., aimed at improving accessibility to arts and culture, promoting participation of vulnerable groups in the media and increasing their visibility, developing creativity, enabling active and healthy aging, encouraging active involvement in the community and strengthening the participation of artists, cultural workers and other relevant experts in their work with vulnerable groups.
After the open Call "Arts and Culture for Youth", in 2017 the Ministry of Culture and Media supported six projects with a sum of 2 968 221 HRK (395 762 EUR) while through the second Call in 2018 provided support for 11 projects with a total funding of 7.5 million HRK (1 million EUR). The description of the projects funded through the programme is available here. The main aim of the programme was overcoming the limitations of youth access to cultural and artistic content and activities and encouraging young people to actively participate in the cultural life of their communities. The general objective of the Call was to improve the social inclusion of young people in the Republic of Croatia, especially disadvantaged young people, through their greater participation in cultural and artistic activities and content.
Another axis of social inclusion instruments within this programme is a Call focusing on social inclusion and improving the quality of life of people over the age of 54 through improving their access to cultural and artistic activities. On 23rd May 2017, the Ministry of Culture and Media published an open (temporary) call for project proposals for the programme "Arts and Culture 54+". The Call was closed on 24th July 2017 and 40 projects were selected with a total funding of 20 million HRK (2 666 666 EUR).
In addition, the ESF funding is also programmed for the development of social inclusion through the community media: on 15th of April 2019 the initial Call for project proposals for the programme "Media for the community - supporting social inclusion through media" was published and on 31st of July 2019 the results were presented to the public: 13 projects were supported with a total funding of 15 000 000 HRK (2 000 000 EUR).
The new opportunities in this field are opened by the new EU programmes such as Competitiveness and Cohesion and Efficient Human Resources (2021-2027), whose priorities also include social inclusion as an important aspect, while an important mechanism is also the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience through which a number of different Calls for projects will be opened in 2023.
Social inclusion is also relevant to the programmes related to the cultural projects of national minorities. The Ministry of Culture and Media supports programmes proposed by national minorities based on their artistic or cultural excellence. These follow the usual procedure and criteria applied to the selection of all proposals. However, there is a special fund for supporting activities and projects by national minorities, administered by the Government's Council for National Minorities, which includes also cultural projects in the fields of arts and heritage, media, events and festivals as well as various projects promoting education, social cohesion and intercultural dialogue. Special provisions referring to education and cultural activities of the Roma people have been adopted through the National Programme for the Support of Roma and programmes such as the National Plan for Roma Inclusion 2021-2027 that connects to the previous National Strategy for Roma Inclusion 2013-2020. Several bilateral agreements on cooperation in the field of culture and education include references to the cultural needs of national minorities and the activities of their respective associations and institutions.
Last update: June, 2023
The issue of social cohesion is primarily dealt with in the context of ensuring that all social groups, including all minorities, have equal access to public services such as education, social security, health protection, media, culture etc. As they develop, NGOs and other civil society organisations invest increasing efforts in the promotion of social cohesion, by supporting or organising festivals, exhibitions, cultural events etc. mostly at the local level. The National Foundation for the Promotion of Civil Society supported a number of NGOs and their programmes targeted at the promotion of social cohesion. The existing network of community cultural centres (pučka otvorena učilišta, domovi kulture, centri za kulturu) assists in bringing cultural programmes and projects closer to vulnerable communities and helps to balance the often unequal cultural offer which is mostly concentrated in larger urban centres. During the last ten years, different initiatives have served to further improve existing cultural centres and develop new models oriented to opening of new types of socio-cultural centres based on participatory governance. From one-off projects such as a two-year project “Approaches to Participatory Governance of Cultural Institutions” (2016 - 2018) implemented by the Kultura Nova Foundation with the support of the UNESCO International Fund for Cultural Diversity.
to the open calls such as ‘Culture in the Centre – Support to the civil-public partnership development in culture’ initiated by the Ministry of Culture and Media within the framework of Efficient Human Resources Operational Programme and supported by the European Social Fund. The Kultura Nova Foundation was actively involved in the programming stage of the project and participated in the Working group – advisory body of experts formed by the Ministry of Culture involved in co-creating the Open Call. The Call was closed in 2018 and 34 projects were selected and supported with a total funding of 50 million HRK (6 666 666 EUR) (see more under chapter 1.2.4).
Last update: June, 2023
The "Strategy of Cultural Development – Croatia in the 21st Century", drawn up in co-operation between the Ministry of Culture and a team of independent experts and accepted in the Croatian Parliament in early 2002, gave a detailed presentation of these goals and the necessary instruments to achieve them. One of the key goals of the Cultural Development Strategy has been the democratisation of culture, intended to increase active participation in culture and to popularise art and culture in schools and through the media. However, since then no action plans were made in order to implement the adopted strategy. The Cultural Development Strategy (Cvjetičanin and Katunarić (eds) 2001) defines culture as follows: "All forms of intellectual and artistic expression of symbolic social identity, belonging, behaviour and customs, and such industrial products, including the media, produced for spending leisure and shaping people's attitudes".
A new national cultural development plan is currently in preparation by the Ministry of Culture and Media that needs to be in line with the overall National Development Strategy 2030, which was presented by the government in 2020. The draft of the plan was put into public discussion before the presentation of the analysis of the cultural sector entitled 'Review of the Cultural Development and Cultural Policies in the Republic of Croatia' that has been in preparation since 2019 (Matanovac-Vučković et al (eds), 2022). It addresses the issue of cultural sustainability as a core concept in the elaboration of development of Croatian cultural policy in the global context. The report on the media sector and the report on the cultural and creative industries before and after COVID-19 have also been also prepared and presented by the Ministry as the background documents for the future National Plan. It is to be seen how the final version of the Plan that is planned for 2023 will address the issue of cultural sustainability.