“The Celje District Court has fined the leader of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) and former Prime Minister Janez Janša 8,000 euros for the accusations he made, which were presented in a private lawsuit filed by Bojan Veselinovič, former Director of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), whom Janša accused of “participation in the murder of journalist Borut Meško”,” reported the newspaper Večer’s journalist Damijana Žist. The verdict is not yet final, but Janša stressed that it was already written in advance. Former Director of Television Slovenia, Uroš Urbanija, and Peter Jančič, Editor-in-Chief of the media outlet Spletni časopis (Online Journal), have also responded to the ruling.
“The judgement sends a clear message: the directors of state-owned and state-funded media, who are set up by the left to then brutally settle the score with editors and journalists who are not “theirs,” must not be spoken about very critically if those editors and journalists then die,” Peter Jančič, Editor-in-Chief of the media outlet Spletni časopis, wrote in his response to the decision of the Celje District Court, while Uroš Urbanija stressed that the truth cannot be silenced.
The trial of former Prime Minister Janez Janša for an allegedly defamatory Twitter post against the former director of the Slovenian Press Agency, Bojan Veselinovič, continued on Friday at the District Court in Celje. Veselinovič and his defence lawyer, Gorazd Fišer, accused Janša of the serious offence of defamation after Janša said what was allegedly “common knowledge” to all who knew the situation. The allegedly defamatory tweet read: “It is unbelievable for the European Union in the 21st century that a collaborator in the murder of a journalist still runs the Slovenian Press Agency and therefore gets 8,500 euros a month. More than the President of the Republic.” With this message, Janša supposedly insulted the then-director of the Slovenian press Agency, Bojan Veselinovič, accusing him of being complicit in the death of journalist Bojan Meško. “It is obvious from the above that Veselinovič used all possible forms of bullying and pressure on me, he did not choose the means to achieve his goal but was willing to do everything to make me ‘voluntarily’ leave the post of the Slovenian Press Agency’s Editor-in-Chief as soon as possible,” wrote Meško, who lost his life 12 years ago due to the consequences of a long battle with a cruel illness.
Former Director of Television Slovenia, Uroš Urbanija, also responded to the verdict. He wrote: “This is a real shame. Veselinovič fired the terminally ill Meško for fabricated reasons, before which he also carried out terrible mobbing against him. But he belongs to the ‘correct’ political option, so his dirty deeds should not even be talked about. However, he will not silence the truth.”
The trial began with the reading of the articles proposed as evidence by Bojan Veselinovič. The articles, which were written about the death of Meško in 2010, were published on the 24ur, RTV Slovenia, Finance and Dnevnik web portals. Bojan Veselinovič, through a proxy, then pursued a claim in property law, but Janša’s lawyer, Franci Matoz, stated that they would not recognise the claim in property law. Janša commented on the evidence – the articles – as follows: “What has been read only further confirms that Meško was not a high conflict person in his journalistic career, he participated in many editorial offices, he was not bullied anywhere, it only happened when Veselinovič became his boss. From this, it follows that he was subjected to mobbing, to threats, even when he was ill, as was evident from his numerous sickness absences. Meško thus found himself in a situation where the bullying worsened his state of health.” Janša’s lawyer Matoz then stated that they do not recognise the property claim.
The fact that Janša’s claim was not just slander is evidenced by various statements, including one from Veselinovič himself to the media on the 26th of May 2009: “And if Borut Meško considers the warning to work conscientiously to be pressure, then he can expect that there will be many more such pressures in the future.” He added to this statement that if the Slovenian Association of Journalists and Publicists (ZNP) does not understand this, it is, in fact, advocating precisely the curtailment of editorial autonomy. At the time, the said Association repeatedly protested publicly and demanded that the then-government of Borut Pahor, which had appointed Veselinovič, dismiss him, because of (also) politically motivated pressures. This did not happen, but the government coalition, on the proposal of the Zares party’s Minister Majda Širca, even adopted a law on the Slovenian Press Agency, which further strengthened Veselinovič’s position. As Meško refused to comply, Veselinovič dismissed him from his position as Editor-in-Chief in November 2009 and fired him. At the time of his dismissal, Meško was undergoing examinations at the Institute of Oncology, where he learned that he had suffered a recurrence of a serious illness. He had to undergo treatment and was left destitute. He filed a lawsuit against STA in the Labour and Social Court, but did not see the outcome of the lawsuit, as he had died before the trial reached a conclusion. After his death, a settlement was reached in court, whereby STA had to pay Meško’s family the amount that Meško would have received if Veselinovič had not fired him. According to the Association of Journalists and Publicists, Veselinovič should have reimbursed the amount to STA, but this did not happen. “Borut, we will never forget you,” they wrote on the ZNP website.
In the past, Urbanija has repeatedly highlighted how Veselinovič tortured and then fired the sick Editor-in-Chief Meško – something he witnessed himself as Meško’s deputy or editor of STA’s internal politics editorial. “What happened with Meško is a really dirty story – to the extreme. Veselinovič should never have been a director of any state-owned company, let alone a media house. Listen – where have you ever seen a director fire a terminally ill man, who has been on sick leave for a long time anyway? Only a person corrupt to the extreme can do that,” he said in an interview with the magazine Demokracija in the past.
T. B.
