Croatian Television (HTV) anchorwoman Dijana Culjak, whose former husband Vladimir Selebaj Sellier is in investigative custody on suspicion of fraud, on Wednesday stated that she and the Croatian national broadcaster HRT had reached an agreement on the termination of her employment at the HRT.
Businessman Selebaj and other suspects in the scandal dubbed "Core Media case" are believed to have used fictitious contracts and invoices to siphon off HRK 6 million through the firms Core Media and Media Spot, thus defrauding the state budget of more than HRK 3 million through tax embezzlement.
Four years ago, some media companies, and some employees at the HRT began warning that Culjak was in conflict of interest claiming that she was a co-owner of the "Core Media", a private production company that made business deals with the HRT and commercial broadcasters, the HRT's competition, in contravention of the HRT code of ethics.
The news about the consensual termination of Culjak's employment was announced by the HRT public relations office today after some media reported that the prosecutorial authorities had questioned or would question five HRT reporters as part of the investigation of Selebaj regarding Culjak's possible conflict of interest.
