Discussing a report on the work of Hina's Steering Council in the period between August 2003 and September 2004, MPs said that the national news agency had successfully completed its transformation from a state into public institution in line with the Law on Hina and that it was developing successfully in conditions of a limited media market and competition.
"Along with Croatian Radio, Hina is a public medium which is characterised by independent, objective and professional reporting," said Pero Kovacevic of the Party of Rights (HSP).
"If the source of news is Hina, then the news is entirely correct," said Nenad Stazic of the Social Democratic Party, who added that the 160 Hina employees produced more than 400 news items per day.
Stazic said that the agency's future development depended on its financial stability, which he said was not guaranteed by the 16 million kuna of budgetary funds which Hina had been receiving annually and which had not increased since 2000.
Stazic and his party colleague Antun Vujic proposed that Hina, like Croatian Radio and Television, be exempt from VAT on information services and that the agency reach agreement with the Foreign Ministry to provide information to all Croatian embassies and consulates abroad.
Ante Markov of the Peasant Party (HSS) proposed that Hina should turn more to local events and media.
Katarina Fucek of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said that Hina should seek new sources of income by introducing new technologies and improving its marketing service.
Thanking MPs on what he called the first more substantial debate on Hina during his term in office, agency director Mirko Bolfek said that Hina was on the right track, but that its funds were running scarce, especially with regard to its efforts to accomplish by 2007 its goal of securing 50 percent of its funds from the budget and the other 50 percent from its income.
He said that he would ask the government to financially assist the opening of a news agency service called EU-Info which will provide news on Croatia's EU entry negotiations.