A week ago, the influencer Zala Klopčič posted a video in which she commented on the Slovenian LGBT series called “First Time” (“Prvič”), the topic of which is homosexual sexual relations, and it also features a drag queen show. Apparently, due to the high reach of the video and the outpouring of criticism, the national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia (RTVS) invoked legal measures to penalise copyright infringement and demanded that the video be deleted – and was even successful in doing so. We spoke to Zala Klopčič about the deletion and censorship of her content.
“A few days ago, I received an email saying that RTV Slovenia had sent a request to remove my video from YouTube. The video had a high number of views and had received a lot of approval and praise, so the RTV people decided to silence me and take my video down, as they were clearly offended by it. It’s sad that in this country, you can’t even have your own opinion about content that you yourself have to co-finance,” explained Zala Klopčič, who doesn’t think it’s fair that they are trying to silence her just because she disagrees with their presentation of LGBT content on the show “First Time.”
The web portal Oštro is responsible for Facebook censorship
Zala Klopčič pointed out that on Slovenian Facebook, the Oštro web portal is responsible for checking the “credibility” of posts, but unfortunately, Oštro is a far-left extension of political parties and has no qualms about censoring those who disagree with their views and opinions. Zala has thus had her reach restricted for the second time in a row. “For an average post on my Facebook page with almost 4,000 followers, I get 300, 400 likes, but when I post a new video, the post reaches maybe ten people. This can’t be a coincidence, and it’s the second time it’s happened to me! I am well aware that they would not try to silence me if they were sure that they were right. But they are so afraid of the truth that we who know what is right are spreading, that they try to silence us.”
Zala Klopčič also pointed out that freedom of speech is the cornerstone of any democratic country, and this incident is proof that in Slovenia, this is clearly not the case. In her opinion, there are certain privileged people in our society at the moment, such as members of the LGBT community, to whom no one should hold up a mirror, because they will immediately be labelled racist, homophobic, etc.
The web portal e-maribor is even being threatened with a lawsuit
The web portal e-maribor received a letter this week, in which the national media outlet RTV demands that they withdraw the article on Zala’s video, and even threatens with legal action if they do not comply. This is despite the fact that the content of the public broadcaster is available to everyone on the internet, and all households have to pay a mandatory contribution to finance the national media outlet. With such a big campaign against an online influencer, many questions arise as to why this is happening. Could her video be a threat to the propaganda of the depoliticised RTV?
T. R.
