After some other medial outlets had expressed support for N1 television on Thursday, a group of teachers from Facebook group 45minuta ("45minutes") also sent us a letter of support on Friday. These messages are coming in reaction to the cable provider A1's announcement that they would stop carrying N1 television on March 29.

In a post shared on Facebook, teachers said they too have experienced what it feels like to be blocked in the media. They added that N1 television had given teachers an opportunity to talk publicly many times before, and that N1 brings “freshness, change, timely and accurate information but mainly unbiased and professional reporting” to public discourse.

The following is their full message.

In support of independent journalism and N1 television

We, the teachers, have first-hand experience in what it feels to be shunned by the media, especially during the (October 2019) strike. N1 television had invited teachers to appear in its programming countless times, allowing them to voice our opinions and add them to the public discourse.

We are shocked by the decision of a cable television provider who wants to remove N1 from its channel package.

N1 is a channel which had brought freshness, change, timely and accurate information but mainly unbiased and professional reporting into Croatia’s media landscape – after the longtime systematic erosion of journalism as a profession.

So, on behalf of the teachers’ group 45minutes, we hereby express our support to the dedicated and courageous reporters, journalists, editors, and all other employees of N1 television, and we strongly condemn any form of suppression of the citizens’ right to freely access information.”

Earlier this week, cable television provider A1 announced that they would stop carrying channels produced by United Media – N1 television and Sport Klub – on March 29, after negotiations to extend the existing contract had failed.

“The offer to carry a channel which is of national interest such as N1 had been forwarded by United Media to A1 on February 25, and they showed no interest to reach an agreement. They thanked us for our offer and refused to continue our cooperation.

We are very surprised by the decision made by A1 not to extend our contract on channel distribution, especially having in mind that they had been offered absolutely the same conditions that were in place until now. We had cooperated with them for many years, and we regret that we will not continue to do so – in spite of the best efforts on our part to make it happen.

United Media believes that the promises made by the Croatian government, who had announced new legislation which would harmonize the rules with EU laws, would happen within the promised timeframe, in order to liberalize the market, allow healthy competition, and in the end, is in the interest of Croatia’s citizens,” United Media said.