The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) on Tuesday condemned pressure by MP Marija Selak-Raspudic on a Hina reporter covering parliament sessions, saying that MPs do not have the right to enter the reporters' room or criticize reporters because they are not news editors.

“Selak-Raspudic stormed into the reporters’ room in Parliament on Friday where she criticised a Hina reporter, saying that the national news agency was constantly harassing and censoring her and not following the chronology of parliamentary debates, noting that her statements should be at the start of an article if she was the first to speak in the Sabor,” the HND said in a press release on Tuesday.

“It is not a politician’s job to be a news editor. Any similar attack by a politician on one of our colleagues in the workplace will be justifiably considered to constitute political pressure,” the HND said in the press release.

Selak-Raspudic, the HND recalled, admitted that she had entered the reporters’ room and spoke with the reporter, however, she claims that she did not exert any pressure so the reporter would write more favourably about her.

“It is not MP Selak-Raspudic’s or her colleagues’ place to be in that room, a reporters’ workplace, nor is it up to them to instruct our colleagues how to do their job,” the HND added.

Hina’s reporter told Selak-Raspudic that her job is not about taking minutes or writing down what MPs say in the order they do it because that is not what reporters do.

“It is our colleagues’ right, not just in the Sabor, but in other institutions as well and in the field, to assess on their own what is important to report about from events they cover,” the HND underlined.