The organisation has released its report on the Media Sustainability Index 2005, saying that "Russia, Uzbekistan and Belarus headline backsliding in Eurasia while Croatia leads steady progress in Southeast Europe".
The Media Sustainability Index (MSI) 2005 provides a "comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analysis of media development in twenty countries across Europe and Eurasia".
The MSI index covers analyses of freedom of speech, plurality of media available to citizens, professional journalism standards, business sustainability of media, and the efficacy of institutions that support independent media.
Croatia has got the grade somewhat above 3 with 4 being the highest mark.
The mark between 3 and 4 means that Croatia has media "that are considered generally professional, free and sustainable".
Panelists, who have been engaged by IREX in a debate on Croatia's media scene, have agreed that "journalism in Croatia is more professional and sophisticated compared with all countries in the region, including Slovenia, Hungary and the other new EU members".
The report notes that with the arrival of foreign investment in the media and locally owned outlets now dependant on the market, the trivialisation of the media could lead to a drop in quality of the overall media market.
"Commercial media are interested first and foremost in profit and are seizing an ever bigger market share", according to the report on Croatia.
Consequently, most of the 'serious' and more professional media are facing financial difficulties, which is why some of them may offer more trivial and pure commercial content, which lowers their professional level.
Panelists also conclude that politically motivated censorship in the Croatian media is "extremely rare, existing only marginally in some local media".
As regards HINA, the report reads that "there are three news agencies operating in Croatia (HINA, STINA and IKA), but only HINA provides a general news service for print and broadcast media."
It goes on to say that "in the 1990s, HINA had been been a government mouthpiece, but in the past five years it has developed into a respectable and professional news agency."