ZAGREB, March 3 (Hina) - Deputy Prime Minister and Health and Social Welfare Minister Andrija Hebrang said on Wednesday the former Health Ministry had signed 11 contracts with journalists, each worth several thousand kuna, including
one amounting to 144,000, but that he had prohibited the continuation of that practice.
ZAGREB, March 3 (Hina) - Deputy Prime Minister and Health and Social
Welfare Minister Andrija Hebrang said on Wednesday the former Health
Ministry had signed 11 contracts with journalists, each worth several
thousand kuna, including one amounting to 144,000, but that he had
prohibited the continuation of that practice.#L#
The Croatian Health Insurance Agency (HZZO) too has been instructed to
refrain from influencing the work of journalists in any way, Hebrang
said in connection with press articles alleging that a member on the
HZZO Administrative Council had recently offered journalists prizes
for the promotion of the HZZO or the health system.
Hebrang said he had resolutely condemned such an attempt, adding that
the HZZO leaders had known about the 11 contracts signed with
journalists but not about his ban on such practice.
Hebrang said he had found at the Health Ministry 11 contracts signed
with journalists engaged in working groups and promoting some health
projects. Given that there were 11 contracts, Hebrang said he had
assumed they had been common practice for the former government.
Despite insistence from the media, he refused to reveal the names of
the signatories saying he first had to examine the legal consequences
of such a disclosure.
"I won't reveal names because I believe that this case has to be
closed," Hebrang said, adding that although the contracts were legal,
their ethical aspect was a matter for the Croatian Journalists'
Association and of the journalistic code.
(Hina) ha sb