The Slovenian Democratic Party parliamentary group demands that Tomaž Modic be removed from the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, the chair of which is the “independent” former journalist Mojca Šetinc Pašek. The journalist who works at the “Necenzurirano” (Uncensored) web portal could find himself among the very people being investigated due to his involvement and cooperation with state-owned companies, which would mean that he would be in a clear conflict of interest.
Tomaž Modic is a member of the team of journalists of the Uncensored web portal, which was set up to slander the work of Janez Janša, the entire Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), and right-win parties in general. He joined the Commission of Inquiry, which will investigate suspicions of illegal financing of parties’ electoral campaigns ahead of this year’s national elections, at the suggestion of the largest coalition party – the Freedom Movement (Gibanje Svoboda).
The SDS party states that: “It is a fact that Tomaž Modic is the director and co-founder of “Providentia, d.o.o.” company, a journalist of the web portal “Necenzurirano.si,” and the director of the TM Media Production and Consulting s.p. As a journalist and director of the company, he has worked with the web portal Siol.net, which is owned by the Tsmedia d.o.o. company, and Tsmedia is owned by Telekom Slovenije, d.d., which is a state-owned company. The Commission of Inquiry will be investigating, among other things, the operations of Telekom Slovenije, d.d., and, consequently, Tsmedia, d.o.o.” They then add that Article 7 of the applicable law clearly states that a member or professional staff may not be part of the Commission of Inquiry if he or she was a responsible person in the body or legal entity whose activities are under investigation at the time to which the investigation relates.
In its request, the SDS party also stated that the Uncensored web portal is under the umbrella of the media tycoon Martin Odlazek. According to some media reports, there are also financial and content links between the Uncensored web portal and state-owned companies. “We also want to point out the media reports about how the current Prime Minister Robert Golob, through the state-owned energy company Gen-I, which he headed, financed the journalist Vesna Vuković, the third member of the Uncensored team, who works there alongside Tomaž Modic and Primož Cirman. Robert Golob’s Gen-I concluded a contract worth 103,000 euros in 2019 with SEE M. & C., a company that was founded and, for a long time, also run by Vesna Vukovič,” they wrote.
Andrej Žitnik
