The branch said that even if a reaction was necessary, the HTV news programme's and the HTV's first channel's leaders made the decision at the wrong time, after Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic's statement in which the branch said he "criticised and lectured all media, especially the HTV."

An impression has been created in the public that the national broadcaster's directorate, "scared by the prime minister's reactions, urgently dismissed the editors," the branch said in a statement.

It said that MP Ruza Tomasic's statement in the evening news was inappropriate to the public broadcaster and that the newscaster could have responded better and more clearly to her interlocutor, but added that it was unacceptable that the sanctions against the editors were enforced several days after the event, during which time neither the acting editor of the news programme, Domagoj Novokmet, nor the first channel's editor, Mirjana Rakic, publicly reacted.

The HND branch said the dismissals followed after a statement in which the broadcaster's PR office condemned Milanovic's statement and labelled it as "pressure on the independence of the media."

The branch described Milanovic's "contemptuous and disparaging" criticisms of the media as unworthy of his office.

The branch also called on all HTV reporters and editors to take their responsibility more seriously as journalists of a media service financed by citizens.