HINA REPORTERS WRITE TO CROATIAN JOURNALISTS' ASSOCIATION

ZAGREB, June 29 (Hina) - Reporters with the Croatian news agency Hina on Thursday urged the Government and Parliament to replace the old and appoint a new, provisional management which would create conditions for "professionalism and the interest of the public to be objectively and well informed to finally come to the forefront at Hina." The reason for this request, presented in a letter Hina's reporters sent to the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND), was the issuing of a news item headlined "The Hague Conducting Investigations Against Reporters Who Committed Crimes." In the letter to the HND, most of Hina's reporters and editors distance themselves from the news item because they believe it to be unprofessional and tendentious. They also distance themselves from "the editorial policy which made it possible for this item to be released at all," and request the HND Court of Honour to voice its opinion on the news item. The news item, published on June 27, refers to a Radio Free Europe programme on the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was attended by some Croatian reporters who spoke about the role journalists have in spreading hatred. Hina's reporters demand the Government and Parliament to adopt a new law on Hina, which should include the basic principles of editorial policy, such as objectivity, impartiality, non- tendentiousnes, non-publishing of one's own commentaries and the like, as well as that the director and editor-in-chief be elected in a public competition with consent from Hina's reporters. (hina) jn rml