Leftist Media Claim Croatia Slashed Their Funds

After Croatia's Culture Ministry published a list of media and associations that are to receive state support for magazines, hardcopy and electronic publication, publishers of left-wing media outlets have claimed that Culture Minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic is deliberately cutting funds to them.

They say the list of media and organisations that will receive state funds shows that a lot of leftist media will receive less or no funds from the ministry in future.

Surprisingly, one left-wing media outlet, the Croatian edition of Le Monde Diplomatique, will get more financial support from the state than in the past.

Andrea Milat, publisher of the Le Monde, told BIRN, speaking on own behalf, that the offer of cash to Le Monde "serves as a sort of alibi for Hasanbegovic".

"By giving some money to at least one leftist media outlet, he has tried to prevent accusations of wanting to cut state funding for all leftist media and of giving it to the right-wing media," she said.

She said while they will be getting slightly more support now than under the former centre-left government, other conservative and rightist outlets such as Vijenac [Wreath] and Hrvatsko slovo [Croatian Letter], were given bigger amounts.

Support for Le Monde rose from 37,400 to 40,000 euros a year, while Vijenac will see an improvement from last year's 73,600 euros to 80,000 euros now.

Hrvatsko slovo will get 53,500 euros now, instead of last year's 33,400 euros. Vijenac and Hrvatsko slovo got around 20 per cent of all money given by for magazine and electronic publications, most of it going to the right-wing media and to media close to the Catholic Church.

Milat said claims that...