PREMIER RACAN: JOURNALISTS ARE SYMBOL OF HUMAN RIGHTS

ZAGREB, May 3 (Hina) - Free, independent and pluralistic journalism is a key precondition for the development of democracy and journalists are the symbol of human rights, Croatian Premier Ivica Racan said in a message on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on Thursday. #L# Racan emphasised the responsibility of authorities for the protection of freedom of the media and journalists' rights. On World Press Freedom Day Croatia remembers journalists who were killed in the Homeland War and whose lives were built in the foundations of free and independent media in today's Croatia, Racan said. The prime minister believes the Croatian Journalists' Trade Union rightfully calls for five minutes of "thundering silence" in protest against the violation of journalists' labour and social rights. The government will continue, using all means of a law- based state, to protect those rights because a journalist whose social and labour rights are not protected is not a free journalist, he said. Racan also warns about cases of violation of the right to privacy, intentional publishing of false and unconfirmed information, slander, inflammatory language and hatred. "Journalists, just like politicians, face great responsibility for freedom of expression, which should be based on truth and tolerance," Racan said, adding a free journalist was primarily a professional, conscientious and responsible journalist. (hina) sb rml