Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) director Mirko Galic, President Stjepan Mesic, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks spoke about the history and current role of Croatian Radio and Croatian Television.
Galic said that the national radio and television networks had shared all the challenges of the times in which they had operated and the burden of political and historical changes.
Equipped with digital technology, the HRT today has all preconditions for a modern future and for meeting the tasks of a public medium, Galic said.
President Mesic said in his speech that the HRT must establish and raise relevant criteria considering its responsibility towards society in general and that it must not be governed only by rating figures.
He added that in the present times which guaranteed freedom, HRT employees should not forget the times when the HRT "repressed the truth for the sake of lies" because of political reasons and "was left without those who should have ensured its continuity".
PM Sanader praised the HRT as one of the leading public broadcasters in Europe and urged it to continue on that path, adding that professionalism and objectivity had no alternative.
He recalled the importance of public broadcasters on the road to the EU, stating that the HRT was one of the institutions which the public trusted the most.
Parliament Speaker Seks called for protecting democracy and achieved media freedoms.
The secretary-general of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Jean Reveleillon, said that the HRT was close to the public, that it protected the traditional values of respect for human dignity, social harmony and all forms of culture and contributed to the development of democracy.
Earlier in the day, the busts of the founder of Croatian Radio, Ivo Stern (1889-1961), and the first director of Radio-Television Zagreb, Ivan Sibl (1917-1989), were unveiled at the HRT headquarters.
Tribute was paid to all HRT employees killed in the Homeland War.
A new news desk and studio were opened in the final stage of digitalisation of the news programme and today's prime time news programme was broadcast digitally for the first time.