Sipus resolutely objected to the proposal put forward by a commission set up to analyse the business operations of state agencies, institutes and foundations, claiming that the proposal was unfounded.
He warned that merging the public media institutions would not result in any savings, insisting that HINA should remain independent.
The proposal put forward by the said commission suggests that the merger would lead to a saving of HRK 17 million, however this was refuted by the culture minster's chief adviser for the media, Milan F. Zivkovic who underscored that it was in the public interest to preserve the independence of the national news agency.
According to Zivkovic, Hina is a "factory of journalism," with a daily production of around 320 news items, photographs, audio and video recordings and that it has a large impact on Croatian media.
He pointed out that he hoped that due to austerity policies, which are being abandoned by its advocates even, the merger should not happen as that would mean the "capitulation of public media."
HINA Director Valentic claimed that the proposal to integrate the news agency into HRT was wrong, adding that she had sent her objections to all the relevant state institutions.
She underscored that HINA had successfully completed the first phase of restructuring and that the number of employees had been reduced from 156 to 124.
Hina services have been enhanced which has led to a growing number of users of the agency's services and after eight years, HINA ended in the green in 2014, she said.
She recalled that the agency was financed from its own income based on subscription fees and that it was not directly financed from the state budget.
Valentic assessed that the commission's proposal was superficial in the least and was based on incorrect facts, one of which assumed that the agency was exempt of paying VAT and that more than a third of its employees were "management staff."
She recalled that unlike private media outlets exempt from paying VAT of 25 percent, HINA does pay VAT of 25%. As for the structure of employees, she explained that the only management in the agency were the director and one adviser and that the commission may have mistaken editors for executives and that the majority of those employed in the agency are journalists - around one hundred of the 124 on the payroll.
HRT Director Goran Radman said that the proposal to merge HINA and HRT was a consequence of incorrect thinking and miscomprehension of the function of the two public media services and that HRT cooperated well with an independent HINA and can continue to cooperate in efforts to jointly achieve the objectives of public interest.
Secretary-General of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), Erik Nylen, expressed the alliance's support to maintaining HINA's independence which is of exceptional significance for credible and unbiased reporting in democratic societies and that his recommendation to the Croatian authorities is that they back down from abolishing HINA's independence.