The lands that today comprise Croatia were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the close of World War I. In 1918, the Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes formed a kingdom known after 1929 as Yugoslavia. Following World War II, Yugoslavia became a federal independent Communist state under the strong hand of Marshal Tito. Although Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, it took four years of sporadic, but often bitter, fighting before occupying Serb armies were mostly cleared from Croatian lands. Under UN supervision, the last Serb-held enclave in eastern Slavonia was returned to Croatia in 1998. In April 2009, Croatia joined NATO; it is a candidate for eventual EU accession.

Croatian broadcast media is dominated by the national state-owned public broadcaster, Croatian Radiotelevision, which operates two terrestrial TV networks (HRT TV 1 and HRT TV 2), a satellite channel that rebroadcasts programs for Croatians living abroad, and 6 regional TV centers. Additionally, two private broadcasters operate national terrestrial networks. About 15 privately-owned regional TV stations are also available along with multichannel cable and satellite TV subscription services. The state-owned public broadcaster also operates three national radio networks and a number of regional radio stations. There are two privately-owned national radio networks and a large number of regional, county, city, and community radio stations. Croatia has over one million internet hosts and over two million internet users.

In print media, the market is dominated by the Croatian Europapress Holding and Austrian Styria Media Group companies--which publish their flagship dailies Jutarnji List, Vecernji List, and 24sata. Other widely-read national dailies are Novi List and the government-owned Vjesnik. The two most popular current affairs weeklies are Globus and Nacional. Additionally, there are a number of specialized publications, some of which are published by government-sponsored cultural institutions.