SALAJ SPEAKS TO PRESS ABOUT HIS RESIGNATION TO HINA DIRECTOR OFFICE

ZAGREB, Feb 8 (Hina) - Hina director Branko Salaj told reporters on Monday he believed "the advisor to the Croatian President for internal affairs, Ivic Pasalic, is behind" the latest events surrounding Croatia's news agency which prompted Salaj to tender his resignation. Salaj last Friday requested parliament to relieve him of duty as director of Hina. On Monday he confirmed his resignation was irrevocable. Salaj said his decision had been prompted by the non-passing of a new law on Hina, the agency's financial difficulties caused by unsettled payments on the part of media close to the state, and problems which surfaced with the arrival of a new editor-in-chief. Responding to a reporter, Salaj said the debtors were the "Vjesnik" and "Slobodna Dalmacija" daily papers, and Croatian Radio- Television, with the biggest being the Croatian Foreign Ministry. "There has been no political pressure on my work," Salaj said, but added Hina had been exposed to economic pressure. The problems, he said, peaked with the arrival of new editor-in- chief Benjamin Tolic. When that post became vacant, Salaj wanted Vladimir Pavlinic, an experienced journalist, to step in. He said he had been assured upon taking the director's post in the autumn of 1997 that decisions on personnel issues, including those regarding leading positions, would be exclusively in his hands. Tolic, Salaj said, "immediately started behaving as if he had taken to leading the entire agency. This resulted in conflicts and incidents." The "last straw that broke the camel's back" was a disagreement regarding a reorganisation of the editorial board, he said. The question arose as to who was the head of the agency, Salaj said, adding that "those who make decisions" agreed Tolic should stay at Hina. After that, "my decision was logical," Salaj said. Hina's director is appointed by parliament, while the editor-in- chief is appointed by the government. Salaj however said, "in practice, the decision lies with the Office of the President of the Republic." He added it was from the President's Office he learned that Tolic would stay at Hina, while adding that he had not been able to be received by the President. All this, Salaj believes, "has in considerable measure been Mr Pasalic's decision." Salaj said he did not interfere with editorial issues at the agency, but claimed that Tolic's arrival was followed by criticism that until then Hina had "avoided to project a nation-building profile." "I am not less nation-building-oriented than Mr Tolic or anyone else," Salaj told the press, emphasising that for him, authenticity as a rule of profession represented Hina's most important argument. Responding to journalists, Salaj said he had no information that he had been appointed to the duty of Hina's director by former head of the President's Office, Hrvoje Sarinic, as had been reported in the media. He also denied allegations that he had been given a flat. A former political emigrant, information minister at the Croatian government, and Croatian ambassador to several European countries, Salaj will remain Hina's director until parliament has discussed his resignation. (hina) ha jn