Croatia

[HR] New law on audiovisual activities

IRIS 2018-9:1/23

Nives Zvonarić

Ministry of Culture, Zagreb, Croatia

The Croatian Parliament has recently adopted the new Law on Audiovisual Activities (Zakon o audiovizualnim djelatnostima). This Law concerns the promotion of the production of audiovisual works. The Law, published in the Official Gazette No. 61 of 11 July 2017, amends the definitions of audiovisual activities and audiovisual works so that they include video games, thus creating the legal framework for the further development of one of the most fast-moving segments of the audiovisual industry. Specifically, the Law:

- introduces mechanisms of self-regulation and co-regulation to address certain issues by agreement of interested parties for the purpose of harmonising their application in practice;

- defines the deadlines and procedure for adopting the National Programme for the Promotion of Audiovisual Creativity, adopted as a four-year strategic document of national significance by the Government of the Republic of Croatia following a proposal made by the Ministry of Culture (and drafted by the Croatian Audiovisual Council), as well as addressing the adoption procedure and ensuring the compliance of the Annual Implementation Plan of the National Programme with the Financial Plan of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre;

- specifies the method of issuance and the compliance of any public call made by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre with the annual implementation plan of the National Programme for the Promotion of Audiovisual Creativity, as well as the criteria for the evaluation of projects;

- increases financial incentives for the production of audiovisual works from 20% to 25% of the total budget cost (for the production of audiovisual works in municipalities and regions, the financial incentives are increased to 30%);

- introduces a new structure for the Croatian Audiovisual Centre’s Managing Board -one economic/financial expert, one legal expert, and two experts on audiovisual activities are to be appointed, together with one employees’ representative;

- introduces a new structure for the Croatian Audiovisual Council (which is responsible for the Centre’s programme activities) - namely, it stipulates that a representative of the Ministry of Culture is to be appointed and defines the requirements and professional qualifications for appointing members, as well as introducing a deputy member for each Council member (to avoid a situation in which a quorum is not reached in cases of the absence of members and/or a potential conflict of interest on the part of any member); it defines the procedure for the confirmation of appointed members and deputy members by the minister responsible for culture (the minister is obliged to confirm the appointment of every member and deputy member who fulfills the requirements defined by Law - namely, a university degree and five years’ experience in the audiovisual field); and it shortens the mandate of the members from four to two years;

- defines and regulates in more detail issues concerning conflicts of interests on the part of the Centre bodies and artistic advisors.