“They refuse to hand over the documentation in order to maintain the conflict and portray themselves as the poor victims of a fascist regime abroad. Veselinovič does not care about the journalists or the public. They are cannon fodder,” was a sort of working hypothesis of last night’s show Ura moči (The Hour of Power). Among other things, the guests also discussed the Slovenian Press Agency’s saga, which is now finally moving to where it belongs – to the court. “To me, this is the mafia way of doing business – intimidation, which is completely foreign to me,” analyst Edvard Kadič assessed the Press Agency’s operating. Communicator Edvard Kadič pointed out that the director of the Slovenian Press Agency, Bojan Veselinovič, is the ideal person for his role, as he has been at the very top of this ideological fortress for all of his life.
In last night’s show Ura moči (The Hour of Power) with Bojan Požar on Planet TV, the guests talked about the “media war” that the Prime Minister Janez Janša is supposedly waging against the media, or, more precisely, against the Slovenian Press Agency (Slovenska tiskovna agencija – referred to as the STA). To date, the required documentation has still not found its way to the Government Communication Office or the government itself, and that is also why the contract for this year has still not been signed. The STA is, of course, playing the scapegoat in this situation, and they are raising funds for the agency through their Take a STAnd campaign. “The very question of whether Janez Janša is at war with the media or if the media is at war with Janša, si a product of what the left transitional wing of the deep state is implementing,” said communicator Edvard Kadič on the show Ura moči.
The transitional wing of the deep state is carrying out its part of the war in front of the people, using soldiers in the armour of journalism, who attack with their journalistic pen instead of a sword. And instead of a shield, they defend themselves with the platitudes about attacks on journalistic independence and so on. The director of the STA, Bojan Veselinovič, is a proven, ideal person for this situation, as he has been at the top of this ideological fortress all his life. “He managed to activate the journalistic community and raised the notion of an attack on journalistic freedom to certain dimensions that are actually admirable,” Kadič added.
Veselinovič took the Sta as a hostage in a very Hamas-like manner
Analyst Miran Videtič said that Veselinovič was doing a favour to those who put him in his position. This is quite “Hamas-like,” he made a comparison with the terrorist organisation Hamas. From a calm, residential town – in this case, these are the journalists, Veselinovič is shooting at the government by refusing to hand over the required documentation. At the same time, of course, he is also playing the victim when the government strikes back. The former government has made it so that Bojan Veselinovič is very difficult to replace, but there is also the supervisory board, which is also not doing its job well. Comments also never focused on the content, on the implementation of the STA public service, but on the leadership or the management.
Videtič believes that no politician in Slovenia is stupid enough to try to ruin the STA because it is an important institution. So, what is the point of this concealment of documentation – is it just a political issue or also concealment of some controversial businesses? Videtič mentioned the 250 thousand euros that went to the private company Dnevnik for an advertisement, which makes absolutely no sense. Namely, readers of the newspaper Dnevnik are certainly not the potential subscribers for the STA services. Veselinovič probably “helped” his former employer a bit, but it is also necessary to point out the role of the supervisory board here, which obviously did not pay any attention to what was going on. As our media outlet also reported, quite a few details of the controversial STA business have recently come to light, so it is not surprising that the director does not want to hand over the documentation – and is also using the situation to fight the current government at the same time.
Sara Bertoncelj