CMFE Member: H-Alter Magazine (Croatia)

H-Alter (www.h-alter.org) Magazine from Croatia joined CMFE as a new member in 2017: The publisher of H-Alter Magazine is Association for Independent Media Culture – non-governmental, non-profit organization. It was founded in 2005 by journalists and other employees in electronic publishing, for the purpose of developing independence and professionalism of journalistic profession, and to secure the right of the public to education and information on issues of civil society, culture, social sciences, environment, media freedoms and international relations. H-Alter’s journalistic team includes a group of journalists with long working experience; some of them were investigative journalists of newsweek Feral Tribune, awarded in 1990s with several international journalistic awards. Also, journalistic team includes a group of young journalists who established on the portal, teachers from Universities from Croatia and abroad, associates of scientific institutes, students and civil society activists.
H-Alter also functions as a platform for information exchange between civil society actors. Apart from recognizable civil society topics, portal areas are: culture, politics (criticism of policy- especially), economic and social processes, social theory (sociological, philosophical, economic reflection …), media trends, transition problems (economic, cultural etc.), spirituality, the relationship between religious communities and the state, and their position in society, as well as other topics that we consider important. Some articles can be read in English as well: http://www.h-alter.org/rubrika/in-english

H-Alter is particularly open to the movements and thoughts that aim to improve the field of human rights and freedom and humanization of society, but also for finding the theoretical and practical ways forward specizam, dominant in the man relationship toward nature. H-Alter Magazine is the most awarded non-profit portal in Croatia, it received multiple awards: Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) awarded us twice with the National Journalism Award, while one of our journalists has been awarded with the National Award for Environmental Journalism (Velebitska Degenija) and also with the National Travel Writing Award. H-Alter has also been nominated three times as one of 10 best internet media in Croatia by VIDI.hr. In three public calls by Ministry of Culture for financing non-profit media (2013, 2014 and 2015) an independent commission has twice ranked H-Alter as the best non-profit media in Croatia, and once as the second-best.

H-Alter (www.h-alter.org) Magazine writes about topics relevant not only for Croatia but broader. H-Alter was the first media in Croatia who wrote about the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), we also wrote about CETA etc.
The decisions and procedures of the Croatian government (ruling from January 2016) are systematically undermining freedom of expression and thus deteriorating the country’s democracy and human rights situation. The lack of financial stability for non-profit media in Croatia results in the following – there is less journalists employed and in the end the media produces less information about issues relevant for the general public. At the same time we are facing a rise of right-wing populism all over Europe, there are more and more attacks on what is seen as “different” and “other”, on women’s rights (e.g. abortion), on minorities’ rights, refugee and migrant rights and on media freedom. That is why it is important, probably even more than before, to keep on informing the public about the values of a citizen state, and raising critical awareness. Main challenge in the last year was to remain informative despite our financial problems. In line with that our most important success in this year was that we all continue to work regardless lack of salaries and H-Alter continues to publish relevant articles.