"This is evidently a case of drastic and urgent punishment of the HRT leadership for its firm rejection of attempts at usurping its programming autonomy," the HHO Media Council said in a statement.
The statement said that the payment order was "legally doubtful" and that it directly threatened functions of the public television network which members of Parliament claim to strongly support, such as culture and education programmes, and the preservation of the national cultural heritage.
"The order also contains an unveiled message to the employees: the disobedience of the present leadership is a threat to your pay," the HHO said.
The HHO warned that most of the conclusions on HRT programmes, adopted by Parliament at the proposal of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, were against the law.