[h=1]Croatia TV Axes Satirical Show for 'Intolerance'[/h]Croatia's public broadcaster has pulled the sartirical show ‘Montirani proces’, claiming it uses 'incites religious, national and other intolerance' - but the show's producers see other motives.
Croatian Radio-Television, HRT, on Wednesday axed the satirical show "Montirani proces" ["Framed Process") from the schedule.
The program management of HRT said in a press release that “part of the script mentions content that is inappropriate for broadcasting” and collides with HRT’s “mission, values and principles.
“[HRT] considers that the topic of the satirical show is misused to incite religious, national and other intolerance. Program management… is convinced that every public broadcaster in the world would have rated such content unsuitable and offensive and rejected it,” it added.
The broadcaster informed the media of its decision without first contacting the team's co-producers and authors of the show, the team from the satirical website News Bar.
News Bar is known for its humorous stories, false news and satirical texts and videos, making fun of social, political and cultural issues in Croatia and the world.
After the first show was broadcast on the private station RTL TV, News Bar got the show onto HRT on Sunday at prime time.
A total of six episodes were shown from New Year onwards. They combined comic reports and sketches in the field, as well as false news items and political talk shows on which popular politicians, economic analysts and journalist would guest.
Borna Sor, one of the editors of the show and host of "Montirani proces" confirmed that HRT did not contact them before it contacted the media about the closure.
Maintaining that HRT’s claims “don’t hold water”, he said the seventh episode had been due to go on air next Sunday.
“There are various jokes in the whole [non-broadcast] episode but none of them incited, as they say, ‘religious intolerance’. This is all a big excuse; they were looking for anything to get rid of us,” he said.
“If HRT’s goal was anything else but banning the show, the terms [of the broadcast] could be moved and the script revised”, as the contract between News Bar and HRT states, he continued.
He noted that according to the terms of the contract, HRT has to approve the complete script for every episode and can seek revisions.
With material that is filmed, HRT receives the complete filmed episode two days before the broadcast and can reject the whole material.
“It’s all a fabrication. They wanted to pull us because we’re not conservative. People say that it’s a left-right-wing thing but it’s not… in the team we’re all progressive, liberal people,” he said.
Sor said the new move formed part of an attempt of the new HRT leadership and government to “create some kind of cultural conservative hegemony”.
Besides canning “Montirani proces”, in just ten days at the head of HRT, acting head Sinisa Kovacic has removed 21 editors and hosts, prompting claims of a political purge.
Croatian Radio-Television, HRT, on Wednesday axed the satirical show "Montirani proces" ["Framed Process") from the schedule.
The program management of HRT said in a press release that “part of the script mentions content that is inappropriate for broadcasting” and collides with HRT’s “mission, values and principles.
“[HRT] considers that the topic of the satirical show is misused to incite religious, national and other intolerance. Program management… is convinced that every public broadcaster in the world would have rated such content unsuitable and offensive and rejected it,” it added.
The broadcaster informed the media of its decision without first contacting the team's co-producers and authors of the show, the team from the satirical website News Bar.
News Bar is known for its humorous stories, false news and satirical texts and videos, making fun of social, political and cultural issues in Croatia and the world.
After the first show was broadcast on the private station RTL TV, News Bar got the show onto HRT on Sunday at prime time.
A total of six episodes were shown from New Year onwards. They combined comic reports and sketches in the field, as well as false news items and political talk shows on which popular politicians, economic analysts and journalist would guest.
Borna Sor, one of the editors of the show and host of "Montirani proces" confirmed that HRT did not contact them before it contacted the media about the closure.
Maintaining that HRT’s claims “don’t hold water”, he said the seventh episode had been due to go on air next Sunday.
“There are various jokes in the whole [non-broadcast] episode but none of them incited, as they say, ‘religious intolerance’. This is all a big excuse; they were looking for anything to get rid of us,” he said.
“If HRT’s goal was anything else but banning the show, the terms [of the broadcast] could be moved and the script revised”, as the contract between News Bar and HRT states, he continued.
He noted that according to the terms of the contract, HRT has to approve the complete script for every episode and can seek revisions.
With material that is filmed, HRT receives the complete filmed episode two days before the broadcast and can reject the whole material.
“It’s all a fabrication. They wanted to pull us because we’re not conservative. People say that it’s a left-right-wing thing but it’s not… in the team we’re all progressive, liberal people,” he said.
Sor said the new move formed part of an attempt of the new HRT leadership and government to “create some kind of cultural conservative hegemony”.
Besides canning “Montirani proces”, in just ten days at the head of HRT, acting head Sinisa Kovacic has removed 21 editors and hosts, prompting claims of a political purge.
