According to the committee's conclusions, the reason why POA agents interviewed Puljiz was not suspicion that she had threatened national security, but she was interviewed as a person "for whom it was known that she had information on the matter".
The committee has concluded that the POA did not apply to Puljiz measures of secret collection of data and that its agents did not try to blackmail the reporter or persuade her to collaborate during the interrogation.
The committee has also established that the POA did not try to collect data about the activities of the Office of the President of the Republic or President Mesic.
The committee has, however, established, that POA agents in the case did make some mistakes, but those mistakes did not affect the lawfulness of the entire treatment of Helena Puljiz.
The committee has bound the POA head to correct the mistakes, and concluded that it is beyond any doubt that there are no reasons for relieving Josko Podbevsek of duty as POA head.
The committee has expressed regret at the failure of President Mesic to use the legal possibility to ask the committee for an opinion on his proposal to dismiss Podbevsek.
The last conclusion reads that the committee is sad to see that Puljiz "considered the interview as an unpleasant experience".
Asked by reporters to explain which mistakes had been committed by the POA employees, the committee's chairman, Ivan Jarnjak, said that he could not speak of the matter as the report submitted by the Office of the National Security Council was classified. However, he added that the mistakes did not refer to the failure to abide by rules of conduct but stemmed from the methods used.
Asked whether the committee had any knowledge of some other cases of reporters being interrogated by POA agents, Jarnjak said the case of Helena Puljiz was the only file received by the committee so far.
The report by the Office of the National Security Council was drawn up after the parliamentary committee on 16 November asked that body to examine the case.
At the November 16 session the parliamentary committee also considered a report drawn up by the Council for the Civil Control of Security Services. The report reads that the Council could not establish with certainty whether the POA agents violated Puljiz's rights while interviewing her. Therefore, the third institution -- the Office of the National Security Council -- was asked to consider the case.
The National Security Council is a body consisting of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the ministers of defence, internal affairs and justice, the government official in charge of national security, and the armed forces' chief-of-staff, while the Office is the Council's operational body.
The head of the said Office is Ladislav Pivcevic, who drew up the report which was discussed by the parliamentary committee today.
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader repeated earlier on Monday that it was not clear to him why President Mesic refused to convene with him a session of the Council for National Security, although in the four earlier cases they had cooperated in cases of two appointments and two dismissals, and together asked the parliamentary committee for an opinion.
Sanader said he would propose that the document of the Office of the National Security Council be declassified.
On 25 November Mesic signed a decision on relieving the POA head of duty, as he was dissatisfied with POA agents' conduct in collecting data from Puljiz. PM Sanader has so far refused to countersign the document, saying that the entire case has to be addressed by the National Security Council.