Zagreb - Members of the Croatian Parliament on Monday had no objections to the government's proposal to reappoint Majda Tafra-Vlahović a member of the Hina Steering Council, while some opposition lawmakers raised objections to the work of the national news agency.
Karolina Vidović Krišto (Determination and Justice) criticised Hina for withholding from the public the news that Croatia ended up on a list of countries protecting money laundering, such as Vietnam and Cameroon. She said that "if Hina complied with the law" it would verify information and publish facts.
"Hina operates as a guardian of the regime and not as a professional news agency," the MP said, adding that she personally experienced Hina's censorship on an ongoing basis.
Krešimir Partl, State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture and Media, has a different view on Hina's work. He said that in 2021 alone Hina had distributed nearly 224,000 articles, photographs and audio and video recordings to its clients, including 85,000 news items in Croatian and English.
The criteria relating to media pluralism and objectivity are definitely satisfied in Hina's reporting, and all topics are treated equally, Partl said, adding that the report on the work of the Steering Council for 2021 also confirms independence in the agency's work and the comprehensiveness of its reporting.
Josip Borić of the ruling HDZ party agreed with the state secretary's evaluation and supported the proposal to reappoint Tafra-Vlahović, a communication expert with over 20 years' experience in journalism.