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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... read more →

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... read more →

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... read more →

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... read more →

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... read more →

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,... read more →

There is no overall legal framework to specifically promote and develop the cultural and creative industries. The legal provisions that affect cultural industries refer to specific cultural sectors (book production, music, audio-visual products, etc.) and to economic sectors, e.g., micro and small-medium sized enterprises, activities of transnational media corporations in Croatia, etc. Thus, they are administratively identified within the established cultural creativity areas like music, film, audio-visual, etc. and supported through regular public calls and subsidies of the Ministry of Culture and Media at the national level and through similar calls of cities and counties at the local level. However,... read more →

The Law on the Preservation of Cultural Assets (NN 69/99, NN 151/03; NN 157/03, Amend., NN 87/09, NN 88/10, NN 61/11, NN 25/12, NN 136/12, NN 157/13, NN 152/14, NN 44/17, NN 90/18, NN 32/20, NN 62/20) states that every monument must have an owner and that licences will be granted for restoration and conservation work. The change of status application of this Law is continuously monitored and improved. The number of well-presented and well-managed archaeological sites has been growing. The Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Culture and Media is responsible for the upholding... read more →

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.... read more →

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... read more →