The HRT Programmes Council today announced that it would discuss the matter at its next session when the HRT leadership is expected to state its position on this case. The Ethics Council declined to comment on the request for the time being.
"The HND maintains that the public has the right to learn the full truth and unbiased information on the controversial event, and asks the HRT Programmes Council and Ethics Commission to investigate the entire case and inform the public of their conclusions," the HND said in a press release.
The HND added that it had been unpleasantly surprised when it saw that Sasa Kosanovic's features had been cut.
Only one feature was aired out of the three planned stories on how Sanader acquired his property in the latest "Latinica", the main topic of which was how public figures had acquired their wealth.
The HND warns that this and similar cases always raises the suspicion that political rather than professional standards are applied when such decisions are made.
The HHO Media Council believes that cutting features without authors' knowledge represents a violation of the Media Law and is contrary to good professional customs.
The HHO Media Council points the finger at the HRT leadership holding it responsible because the show was cut.
HRT Chief Editor Mirko Galic said on Wednesday that cutting journalists' reports was an usual editorial practice in all the media. Commenting on announcements by Denis Latin, the show's editor, that he would leave Croatian Television, Galic said that Latin must continue doing "Latinica" as he was contractually bound.
The HRT said yesterday that the reason for removing two stories from Monday' "Latinica" was not censorship but lack of professionalism on the author's part.
The HRT denied Latin's statement that the show was cut without his knowledge and said that the news programmes chief editor, Vladimir Roncevic, asked him to amend the stories so that they could meet professional requirements, with which Latin allegedly agreed but let their author decide what to do. The latter, however, did not accept changes to his stories, according to the HRT.
Latin told Hina today that with the statement it issued yesterday, the HRT assumed the responsibility for these developments.
Latin said that it was not important what would happen to him but to those who resorted to censorship.
Asked by Hina whether he would leave the show, he did not give a precise answer, saying only that next Monday's show had already been done.
The opposition parliamentary People's Party (HNS) told a news conference today in Zagreb that it did not accept the HRT leadership's explanations why it cut the stories in Latin's show.
The HNS insists that Monday's show be repeated in its entirety and with all stories which were dropped from the contentious broadcast. The HNS said the reason for its insistence on the re-airing of the show was its wish to protect the freedom of media.