When the President of the Republic expelled the activist Sara Štiglic from her youth advisory committee due to the latter’s attack on the freedom of expression of opponents of abortion, Luka Hiti and Vid Čeplak Mencin also left the President’s committee – as a sign of support. The mother of the latter, Metka Mencin Čeplak, later appeared on the “depoliticised” show Odmevi (Echoes) on the national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia (RTVS), as an independent expert. She did not disclose that she was not only defending her own views but also those of her son. Neither did the presenter of the programme. However, Roman Vodeb on social networks did.
“How perverse! Correct me if I’m wrong: the “stammering” guest Metka Mencin Čeplak is the mother of that Vid Čeplak Menicin, who resigned from Nataša Pirc Musar‘s circle because of the “removed” Sara Štiglic! RTV Slovenia, don’t you have a sense of what is right and what is not?” wrote the psychoanalyst on the social network X. He then added: “She is in agony and does not know what to do. She surely knows (unconsciously) that she does not belong on the show – since she is the mother of one of those ‘heavily involved’ in this incident, in this farce. This is an utterly perverse decision by RTV Slovenia. Cerar probably also did not like having such a ‘tainted’ interlocutor either.”
The presenter of the programme introduced Metka Mencin Čeplak as an expert from the Centre for Social Psychology at the Faculty of Social Sciences (FDV), and in the studio opposite her was former Prime Minister Miro Cerar, a professor of law at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. After the former Prime Minister gave his opinion that the right to freedom of expression and association is a constitutionally guaranteed right, the mother of one of the people involved in the recent incident started to respond to his argument.
“A perverse decision by RTV”
Igor E. Bergant, the presenter of the show Odmevi, was part of an activist collective of journalists before the national media outlet’s “depoliticisation”. For example, at a protest, he criticised the management of the time, accusing it of unprofessional interference in the programme. “Every new programme that is produced by new forces is, in fact, the best advertisement and an indicator of what RTV Slovenia should not be in the future,” he said at a protest last November. How very professional and trust-inspiring it is not to disclose to the public an essential piece of information – that the independent expert is the mother of the person involved in the incident – the viewers of the show Odmevi can figure out for themselves. Vodeb apparently already answered the question himself when he wrote: “This is an utterly perverse decision by RTV Slovenia. Cerar probably also did not like having such a ‘tainted’ interlocutor either.”
Ž. K.
