HND, SABOR COMMITTEE URGE SUBMISSION OF CONTRACTS BETWEEN REPORTERS, HEALTH MINISTRY

ZAGREB, March 5 (Hina) - Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) president Dragutin Lucic and the chairwoman of the parliament's Committee on Information, Computerisation and Media, Zeljka Antunovic, on Friday requested the Health and Social Welfare Ministry to send them the 11 contracts which the ministry signed with some reporters during the term of the former government.#L# Lucic told Hina that he still had not received any documents about the case from the government although he and the HND's Council of Honour had called on Health and Social Welfare Minister Andrija Hebrang to submit the documents for inspection. He said that if he did not receive the documents, he would call on the HND's Executive Council on Monday to urge the government to state its position and the parliament to possibly open a discussion on the case. Hebrang yesterday told Hina he would send the HND the contract which the former ministry had signed with reporter Zeljko Kruselj, who publicly confirmed his having signed the contract. The minister also said he would submit the contracts of other reporters if they agreed with it. The minister explained that he consulted lawyers and was told that a contract was not a public document and could be made public only with the consent of the party which had signed it. Lucic said there was no reason why the HND should not be given the documents because they referred to the participation of reporters in some ministry commissions, whose work was public and dedicated to public health campaigns. The chairwoman of the Committee on Information, Computerisation and Media, Zeljka Antunovic, asked today the Health Ministry to submit to the Committee all contracts signed between reporters and the previous health ministry or the Croatian Health Insurance Agency, as well as information on the circumstances in which the contracts were signed. (Hina) rml sb