PASALIC DENIES BEING SIGNATORY TO MEDIA PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT

ZAGREB, Dec 4 (Hina) - Ivic Pasalic denied being a signatory to a partnership agreement with Ninoslav Pavic, Vinko Grubisic, and Miroslav Kutle under which, according to the daily Republika, they wanted to gain full control over the Croatian media. "I declare that I am neither a signatory nor a contracting party of either public or confidential agreements which would give me any ownership rights in the... media," Pasalic, one of the top officials in the formerly ruling Croatian Democratic Union party, said in Monday's statement. In its first issue, Republika today published a copy of a confidential partnership agreement, alleging that Pavic, Grubisic, Kutle, and Pasalic control the media via ownership in high circulation press publisher Europa Press Holding, weekly Imperijal, television stations OTV and Nova TV, radio stations Narodni radio and Obiteljski radio, and a dozen other among the biggest local television and radio stations. In his statement, Pasalic says that Republika's editor Ivo Pukanic and his tabloid team are fabricating lies, using his name for their interests, i.e. money, flats, and expensive cars, as they did in the past, by publishing espionage and partnership forgeries on which his name was added. He will respond with lawsuits. The justice and interior ministries earlier today confirmed an investigation was underway into the partnership agreement case. (hina) ha