HINA

The Croatian News Agency (Hrvatska izvještajna novinska agencija, HINA) is Croatia’s national news agency, a public institution whose founder is the Republic of Croatia. The Sabor established it by law on 26 July 1990 as a republic organisation, and it published its first news item on 17 August 1990. HINA describes itself as a public institution operating with guaranteed editorial, business and financial autonomy, in which around a hundred journalists, editors and photographers produce between 200 and 230 news items a day for about 280 subscribers, including 95 media outlets and 140 institutions.

Media assets

News agency: HINA, with a 24-hour news service in Croatian and English; general, international, economic, financial, English-language, photo, video and press release distribution (OTS) services; and its own foreign correspondents in Brussels, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Digital: hina.hr, the thematic portals eu.hina.hr, zelenahrvatska.hina.hr and zdravlje.hina.hr, and the EVA archive of over five million news items and photos, with news dating from 17 August 1990 and photos from 1998.

Ownership and governance

Under the 1990 law, the Sabor appointed and dismissed HINA’s director. The HINA Act adopted in October 2001, which replaced it and has not been amended since, defines HINA as a legal person with the status of a public institution whose founder is the Republic of Croatia. It states that HINA works on the principles of independent, impartial and professional news-agency reporting and is autonomous, while the relevant ministries supervise the legality of its work.

HINA is governed by a Management Council with a president, a vice-president and three members, whom the Sabor appoints and dismisses for four-year terms on the Government’s proposal after a public call. One member must come from HINA’s employees and one must be a media expert, while the other three are economic, financial, legal or IT experts; state officials and political party office holders cannot serve. The Council appoints the director for four years after a public competition, appoints the editor-in-chief after a public competition, on the director’s proposal and after obtaining the opinion of HINA’s journalists, and reports to the Sabor at least once a year. The Sabor also approves HINA’s Statute. On 15 July 2025 the Sabor reappointed three Council members whose terms had expired and appointed David Benić as a new member.

Branka Gabriela Valentić, a former spokesperson for the Croatian Pensioners’ Party (HSU) and long-time journalist of Vjesnik, was appointed director in December 2012, and in September 2021, as Branka Gabriela Vojvodić, she was elected for a third term. On 22 September 2025 the Council elected the journalist and editor Siniša Kovačić as director by three votes to one, with the chair absent. Kovačić is a former acting Director General of Croatian Radio Television (HRT), a former editor-in-chief of the Croatian Catholic Network and the first president of the Croatian Journalists and Publicists association (HNiP); his mandate runs to September 2029. On 16 February 2026 the Council reappointed Serđo Obratov as editor-in-chief for a fourth term, after he received the support of 92 per cent of the 75 creative staff who voted.

Source of funding and budget

Under the HINA Act, HINA’s funds come from its founder, the provision of services and other sources, and the Republic of Croatia holds a 100 per cent share in its operating assets. Each year HINA signs a contract with the founder on a collective subscription for state bodies and other public users, paid in equal monthly instalments; the first annual contract took effect on 1 May 2004. The Ministry of Culture and Media’s financial plan for 2025 to 2027 allocates EUR 4,115,205 a year to information services provided by HINA.

In 2022 HINA’s revenue rose by 10 per cent to HRK 28.4 million (EUR 3.7 million). In 2023 its revenue was EUR 3,807,181 and its expenditure EUR 3,731,373, with 116 employees. In 2024 revenue rose by 11.32 per cent to EUR 4,238,300, including EUR 2,659,056 from the collective subscription, 17.22 per cent more than in 2023, and EUR 1,429,298 from other users; expenditure was EUR 4,119,848, the profit EUR 118,452 and the average number of employees 114. According to the Financial Agency (FINA), HINA’s revenue rose by 15.33 per cent to EUR 4.89 million in 2025, with a net profit of EUR 164,462.

Editorial independence

HINA’s Statute, adopted in 2002, makes the Management Council responsible for guaranteeing HINA’s autonomy and independence and allows the editor-in-chief to request the Council’s protection if their editorial autonomy is violated. The HINA Act and the Statute provide for no programme council or ombudsman. Journalists and experts interviewed by State Media Monitor in Zagreb in May 2024 described HINA as a government propaganda tool and said that its editorial independence was not respected in practice.

In May 2022 HINA’s director informed the Sabor and the Croatian Journalists’ Association (HND) of pressure by the opposition Most MP Marija Selak Raspudić on a HINA journalist, after the MP accused HINA of harassing and censoring her. In March 2025, when the Sabor’s media committee discussed HINA’s 2023 report, its chair from the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) complained that HDZ views were kept quiet, which HND described as pressure on editorial policy. In July 2025 the HDZ MP Dario Pušić said in the Sabor that HINA, through its correspondent in Bosnia and Herzegovina, continuously shapes the narrative about political events in Bosnia and Herzegovina in a way harmful to the Croatian people.

The Euromedia Ownership Monitor reported in December 2025 that HINA’s recent leadership changes had raised concerns about potential political influence, that Kovačić had been appointed despite his controversial past at HRT, and that the Croatian Journalists’ Union (SNH) considered the procedure to have been carried out under outdated rules not aligned with the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). The European Commission’s 2026 rule of law chapter on Croatia reports some stakeholders’ concerns about current appointment procedures, particularly about potential political influence, notably possible influence on editorial decision-making by HINA’s management, and states that no detailed plans have been reported for the reform of HINA. In September 2026 HND president Hrvoje Zovko said that the Croatian model for selecting the governing bodies of HRT and HINA is not in line with European legislation.

Croatia’s EMFA implementation law, in force since 26 March 2026, gives the media regulator oversight of appointment procedures for public service media governing bodies. It does not, however, replace the appointment arrangements established by HINA’s 2001 Act.

AI and digital policy

In February 2026 editor-in-chief Serđo Obratov included the introduction of new technologies and artificial intelligence among his plans for HINA. No publicly available HINA editorial policy governing the use of artificial intelligence was identified for this update. Article 23 of Croatia’s EMFA implementation law requires media service providers, electronic publications and video-sharing platforms to label content generated in any way by artificial intelligence.

Classification rationale

HINA was classified State-Controlled (SC) from 2022 to 2025 and is reclassified as Independent State Funded and State Managed (ISFM) in 2026. It depends predominantly on state funding through the annual collective subscription contract with its founder, and its Management Council is appointed by the Sabor on the Government’s proposal, which makes it state funded and state managed. The typology reserves the SC category for media that follow an editorial line imposed or approved by state authorities, and this review did not establish that HINA’s coverage is directed in this way: the documented cases show pressure by politicians rather than evidence that HINA changed its reporting, and its Statute provides safeguards for editorial autonomy, including the editor-in-chief’s right to request the Management Council’s protection. The concerns raised by interviewees in May 2024, the political influence on appointments and the questions surrounding the 2025 change of leadership remain, and HINA’s coverage under its new director warrants continued review.

October 2026