ZAGREB, Feb 5 (Hina) - Main Director of the Croatian News Agency, Hina, Branko Salaj, requested the Croatian National Parliament to relieve him of this duty. The text of his letter was presented to Hina on Friday. "I wish the Croatian
National Parliament to relieve me of duty as director of the Croatian News Agency, Hina, for the executive authority at several levels has failed to provide me with the necessary support in my work. As you know, I accepted the post of Hina's director under very precisely defined terms which ensured professionalism and objectivity of reporting. I am pleased to be able to state that Hina has, in the period during which I was director, developed positively and this has been noticed among professionals, on Croatia's political scene and with regards to its image abroad. Unfortunately, Hina has been facing increasing problems imposed by the government, that cannot be explained merely by
ZAGREB, Feb 5 (Hina) - Main Director of the Croatian News Agency,
Hina, Branko Salaj, requested the Croatian National Parliament to
relieve him of this duty.
The text of his letter was presented to Hina on Friday.
"I wish the Croatian National Parliament to relieve me of duty as
director of the Croatian News Agency, Hina, for the executive
authority at several levels has failed to provide me with the
necessary support in my work.
As you know, I accepted the post of Hina's director under very
precisely defined terms which ensured professionalism and
objectivity of reporting. I am pleased to be able to state that Hina
has, in the period during which I was director, developed
positively and this has been noticed among professionals, on
Croatia's political scene and with regards to its image abroad.
Unfortunately, Hina has been facing increasing problems imposed by
the government, that cannot be explained merely by general economic
and political difficulties.
Since my arrival at the agency almost a year and a half ago, I have
been trying to initiate the adoption of a new Law on Hina which would
define the agency as a public institution, which is how it is
currently trying to function, and not as a state service, as had
been stipulated in the present Law.
The new Law would also facilitate the final establishment of an
agency Council, in which various factors in society would obtain
insight in the agency's programme policy and a possibility to
influence it. Such a Council has been envisaged in the present Law
on Hina dated 1990 (in a very impractical 'form' of 23 members), but
was never formed.
Finally, a new bill envisaged the formal strengthening of the
independence of agency officials by being appointed for a
particular number of years. Although the new bill has been
practically completed a long time ago, there is obviously a lack of
political will to place it on the Parliament's desk.
Several big state users of Hina's services as well as users
connected to the state have been deferring the payment of their
subscription fees for such a long time that Hina is for the first
time in its history facing a serious financial crisis.
Most critical problems for the development of the agency have
occurred in relation to the appointment of the new agency's editor-
in-chief. I insisted that the Government appoint to the post a
professional reporter or that the nominated candidate, who besides
undoubtedly having other qualities did not have prior journalism
experience, be given a certain run-in period.
This suggestion was not accepted, and subsequent experience has
shown that the new editor-in-chief is interpreting his powers in a,
to date, most unusual manner, and did not even try to adapt to
certain programmes aimed at increased efficiency of the editorial
board.
The most serious are, certainly, tendencies towards a certain
ideologising of the journalist profession," Salaj said in his
letter to the Croatian National Parliament.
(hina) lml