The Croatian law provides the disclosure of information that are sufficient to establish who formally holds shares in the media organisations operating in Croatia.
[9] The names of the real owners of these media was hidden behind secret contracts and informal agreements involving politicians, police and other high-profile individuals.
[12] In general terms, the Croatian legal framework requires media to reveal enough information to make possible the identification of their owners, be it an individual or a company.
Upon request, the Croatian Chamber of Economy, which is responsible for collecting ownership data, must guarantee public access to the information submitted to it.
For instance, in practice, media companies in Croatia do not always comply with their obligation to publish information on indirect ownership and the law doesn't foresee a mechanism for monitoring, checking compliance and apply sanctions.
Indeed, the Media act does not provide for effective mechanism enabling the Croatian Chamber of Economy to check that the information received are updated and correct.
Given the scarcity of resources assigned to it, the Chamber has to rely on the assistance of other authorities such as the Croatian Competition Agency and the Company Register.
[22] In October 2014, the European Commission organised a consultative conference on transparency of media ownership and Croatia was mentioned as "a good practice" in this context.