The Croatian Journalists Association and the Croatian Journalists Union have expressed concern about a decision to award the radio frequency used until recently by the Zagreb-based Radio 101 to Top Radio d.o.o., calling for an investigation as they suspect the broadcaster is hiding its real owner.

The two professional organisations said the decision, made by the Electronic Media Council on 28 July, posed a serious threat to media freedoms, notably the radio sector, where, they said, pluralism and diversity of media content and serious journalism had been disappearing.

“The Electronic Media Council assessed the bid by the Top Radio d.o.o. company as the best of eight bids submitted even though the public and most certainly Council members are well aware of the fact that the bidder comes from a media cartel that has exercised a covert monopoly over radio stations in Croatia for decades, which is illegal and fatal for the development of media freedom and pluralism,” the two organisations said.

According to the Media Daily portal, in terms of ownership Top Radio is connected with the radio stations Antena Zagreb, Narodni radio, Extra FM, Gold FM, Enter Zagreb, Ultra FM and Radio Dalmacija.

Regardless of the fact that Top Radio’s nominal owner Ivan Juric-Kacunic’s ownership concentration over the radio stations is not illegal, data in the Commercial Court register show that Kacunic is connected with a number of radio stations, with Media Daily saying that he owns the brands of the said radio stations.

The Nacional weekly has reported on several occasions about ownership over those radio stations, and in one of its recent issues, fugitive Croatian businessman Miroslav Kutle admitted that his radio kingdom, consisting of the said radio stations, was recently taken over by the “Pripuz clan”, the Croatian Journalists Association and the Croatian Journalists’ Union said, calling for an investigation by the competent authorities into the allegations and for punishing those responsible if the allegations proved to be true.

Under the decision by the Electronic Media Council, Top Radio was awarded a broadcasting licence for a period of 15 years.