JOURNALISTS DEMAND PUBLIC APOLOGY FROM HEALTH MINISTER

ZAGREB, March 4 (Hina) - The Croatian Journalists' Association's corps of journalists covering health and medicine demands that Health and Social Welfare Minister Andrija Hebrang publicly apologise "for the false information that there are 11 contracts between the Health Ministry and journalists".#L# The corps issued a statement on Thursday saying that "as the minister himself confirmed, there is only one contract with a journalist who is not a member of the corps and does not cover health in his newspaper". The other 10 were among the many journalists who, alongside doctors, were appointed to commissions of the former four health ministries. Journalists are appointed to Health Ministry commissions in line with the law, which stipulates that media representatives must be made part of public health campaigns of national interest, read the statement signed by the president of the corps, Mario Harapin. "We voice public concern at attempts to publicly discredit journalists who contributed to campaigns for the common good, such as campaigns against smoking, improper eating, AIDS, and others, by accusing them of corruption and pointing the finger at them as though they were criminals," read the statement. The corps believes that Hebrang's attack on journalists reporting on health was prompted by "the fact that they pointed to an attempted act of corruption and criticised (Hebrang's) numerous unpopular moves". That must not divert attention from the responsibility of the health minister and the Croatian Health Insurance Agency's management, the statement said. The corps also condemns the open letter Croatian Physicians Corps president Dubravko Orlic sent Hebrang yesterday asking that he disclose the names of the journalists "who were on the former Health Ministry's payroll". (Hina) ha sb