Croatia and Europe in the media

When it comes to the media in Croatia, one can certainly say that EU is very much present in reports, shows and analyses. But when it comes to the content of this coverage, most of it has to do with Croatia itself.

Being a candidate member of the EU, Croatia is very much interested in EU developments, as these might effect its own date of accession to the EU which still has not been fixed. Therefore, almost every day you can find one article in the newspaper with a statement from some prominent EU official on Croatian perspective for joining the EU. Even the important EU developments, such as the future of the Lisbon Treaty, are looked through the perspective of how these affect Croatian membership. The last few days, for example, you would hear or read about how the Irish “no” to the Lisbon Treaty does not have to worry the Croatians as it will not affect the Croatian accession process.

Although some years ago there was some negative media coverage on the EU, since EU accession was proclaimed a national interest and all the major political parties agreed on the national consensus about working together on bringing the necessary changes and reform in order for Croatia to fulfil the EU criteria, any really negatively emphasized article or report can hardly be found. Again, these always have to do with the EU messages to Croatia: when those messages are very critical and demanding more effort from Croatia, it is likely that there will be some articles or reports pointing to some of the EU flaws as well.

Apart from the EU coverage in daily news, there are also some shows and sections of newspapers dedicated to informing Croatian citizens about the EU and bringing them closer to it. These are mostly developed in cooperation with Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration and in line with the Governments’ Communication Strategy Aimed at Informing the Croatian Public about the European Union and Preparations for EU Membership. For instance: a TV show on national television called “Euro magazine”, a radio show on several local radio stations called “Alphabet of European Integrations” and the monthly supplement “Europe” in one of the daily newspapers. All of these serve a more informative role and, although they would in general work to contribute to the positive attitude among citizens about the EU, their approach is pretty much neutral and just provides the information about the EU, countries and cultures, the accession process etc.

The conclusion is that EU coverage in Croatia, apart from the news directly or indirectly involving Croatia, is rarely provided on daily basis in the media, but rather depends on the importance of the story itself in the world scale of events. EU is still looked at as any other country in the world and it is to be expected that more coverage on the actual EU developments on daily basis will take place only after the Croatia becomes member itself.
Sandra Pernar, GONG, Croatia