The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) branch in the Croatian Television (HTV) on Tuesday evening condemned in the strongest terms the "unlawful and non-transparent" replacement of editors of the HTV primetime news programme, Zoran Sprajc and Stipe Alfier and other disciplinary measures taken against Sprajc over his response to a public request by the the national broadcaster's Programming Council regarding a report on the circumstances of the fall of Vukovar into the hands of the former Yugoslav People's Army and Serb paramilitaries in 1991.
The Board chair of Croatian Radio and Television (HRT), Josip Popovac, has given a formal warning to the editor and host of Sunday's central news broadcast, Zoran Sprajc, for breaching his editorial duties, and the acting editor-in-chief of the news desk, Drazen Miocic, has decided that Sprajc will not be hosting and editing the prime-time news programme until further notice.
The HND branch said in a statement that it was checking the allegations from the decision made by the HTV management.
The branch said that neither Sprajc nor Alfier had been invited to relevant services, including the ethnics commission, to present their position on the matter.
The branch also claims that two and a half hours before last Sunday's prime time news programme HTV editor-in-chief Bruno Kovacevic had given the green light to Sprajc's comment.
Later on Tuesday, Kovacevic said that he had not approved the text of Sprajc's comment on the HRT Council. Kovacevic said that he had been acquainted with a draft version of Sprajc's comment but that he had not okayed the final version as he had not been provided with it on time.
The HND branch said in its statement that none of prime time news programmes' editors should use the public broadcaster's programme to settle accounts with anybody, including the Programming Council members. However, it did not justify the "unlawfulness and haste of the decision" made by the HTV management.
