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August 8th, 2008
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Stifled speech

Journalists report increased censorship, pressure from Slovenian government
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August 29th, 2007 issue

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By Blaž Zgaga
Open letter to people who live in the European Union:
In Slovenia, a sister country to the Czech Republic, many articles are censored that express any critical statements toward our prime minister, Janez Janša, our government or any of its policies.
For example, my newspaper, Večer, scrapped an opinion piece I wrote about how the new chief of the Slovenian Army was selected. Editors had previously planned for my column to run at the top of the editorial page.
The next day, I wrote about a change in policy that allows our secret services to eavesdrop on citizens. That column wasn’t published, either. These types of opinion columns were always assigned by editors and run in the past. Since January, however, I have not been called on to write any opinion columns.
According to research by the Peace Institute, an international nonprofit group with offices in Ljubljana, there are three types of press censorship in Slovenia. The first type of censorship is when sentences or whole paragraphs of text are deleted or changed without the consent of the author. Second on the list is when a newspaper refuses to publish articles or opinions after they have been assigned by editors. The third kind is people and topics that are verboten to writers if editors believe writing about them could disturb the government.
All three types of censorship exist at my newspaper and, unfortunately, also at a majority of other major Slovenian publications.
At newspapers, top editors and the chief executive officer make these decisions. That means the distinction between editorial and management is practically dissolved in most Slovenian media.
Worse, most of these managers are informally or personally connected with the government or the ruling SDS political party, which gave them their positions.
Editors removed me from my beat covering intelligence matters five months ago, when the government established a special commission to investigate a Slovenian intelligence-security agency. This investigation and dismantling of the secret service has become a big scandal this year in Slovenia and it still is not finished.
Editors have also threatened to remove me from covering defense and military issues, despite my background in this field.
So now I cover press conferences and write some other stories where there is a need. But I don’t do investigative journalism anymore, because I can’t get the stories published in my newspaper.
Self-censorship is now a plague in Slovenia. Hundreds of journalists are afraid of the potential consequences if they talk openly about what is happening. But, informally, there are a lot of complaints about government pressure.
Why is this happening now?
All Slovenian media except public TV, public radio and the state-run Slovenian press agency have private owners. But the government has controlling shares in many Slovenian companies that have controlling shares in media companies.
The second sort of pressure is this: Media not under government control no longer get advertising from companies influenced by the government.
Also, some government officials traded state shares in some Slovenian companies that had interests in media companies. Those officials also continue to pressure other owners of media shares.
Interventions in the media are not the only sign of the less democratic rule of the current government. Almost all institutions that assure checks and balances needed to make democracy work are under pressure in Slovenia.
I’d like to ask you, the leaders and citizens of the EU, for help.
Tell our government to stop interfering with the media. You can send letters to the Slovenian Embassy in your country or write or call the Slovenian government directly.
Slovenia will take the presidency of the EU in January.
It is a worrying message to all EU citizens and to the world that in the 21st century the EU can be led by a country where censorship and pressures on journalists are so widespread. As media freedom and other democratic freedoms decline, an authoritarian type of government continues to grow.
Unfortunately, this is the situation in Slovenia at the moment. The forthcoming presidency is a worrying signal for the present, and, even more disturbingly, for the future of the European Union.
— The author is a journalist who has written more than 2,000 published articles for the Večer and Delo newspapers since 1993. Večer is one of the top three daily newspapers in Slovenia, with a circulation of about 45,000. He has also worked for international publications such as The Observer in London and Jane’s Intelligence Review.


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