It seems that the former editor-in-chief of the web portal Siol, Peter Jančič’s old columns have been censored, including his writing about a possible conflict of interest of journalists linked to Prime Minister Robert Golob. Jančič said that at first, he did not believe the rumours, as the old texts have no serious impact on anything. But it has indeed happened. The withdrawal of the content of articles or entire commentaries without the consent of the author is an intervention that is completely unusual for our country, Jančič claims.
Jančič only realised that censorship had actually taken place when he tried to read the article he published in August, about the TV presenter Saša Krajnc, who was leading a revolt against the leadership of the national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia (RTV). In the article in question, Jančič drew attention to the personal connection between Krajnc and the acting Secretary-General at the Ministry of Culture, Toni Tovornik, who is also a former RTV journalist, which has been concealed from the public. This, if true, could be important because if this is really the case, the journalists’ revolt against RTV Slovenia management could be just part of the policy of the government of Robert Golob to remove the leadership of RTV Slovenia, which we will be deciding on at Sunday’s referendum, too. Krajnc’s protests would then just be a propaganda game for the ruling party, with which he is personally connected.
According to Jančič, the link to his article was not working yesterday. And what is even more bizarre is that his other articles were still available. It is also interesting that they left the short introduction of the article online, despite everything.
Jančič: it is usually the editor-in-chief who deleted the articles
It is unusual that part of the article was left published, but access to the full article, which also includes the responses from RTV Slovenia, was blocked. If you try to read the rest of the article, you will notice that you cannot scroll further down. Former editor-in-chief Jančič claims that this usually happens if the editor-in-chief decides on it. The new editor-in-chief of the Siol web portal is Mihael Šuštaršič.
Jančič says that in more than two and a half years as editor-in-chief of the Siol web portal, he has never done anything like this. If a request for a correction or intervention was made, he always consulted the author of the article first. This is also required by the Code of Ethics for Journalists, which says: “No one can make any content changes or alterations to a journalist’s contribution without his or her consent…” And there were lots of requests made. One of the more interesting ones was the request made by Rok Snežič, to retract the articles about him that were written by Primož Cirman, Vesna Vuković and Tomaž Modic, because of which Snežič is suing these journalists. However, Jančič insisted that this was a matter for judicial review and that it was not possible to interfere with texts from the time when he was not editor-in-chief, bypassing the authors. Now, it seems, Mihael Šušteršič has done just that.
Just like the aforementioned article, which only a part of is still available, another column about Prime Minister Robert Golob is also unavailable. But this one is inaccessible in its entirety. The archived link to the column is still available on Google, but when you try to open the article, you get an error message that says the content cannot be found.
Jančič asked the editor-in-chief and a member of the Telekom Slovenije Management Board for clarification
Jančič asked the editor-in-chief of the Siol web portal, Mihael Šuštaršič, for an explanation as to why parts of the text and even the entire editorial column about the TV presenter’s possible conflict of interest and links with politicians were inaccessible, and also asked Irma Gubanec, a member of the Telekom Slovenije company’s Management Board about it, as she represents the broadcaster. Telekom is state-owned, and any censorship interference under the new management set up by the government of Robert Golob, which has expressly replaced the editor-in-chief, would be a major embarrassment for the government. Were these interventions made in a hurry? Were there any reasons for them? The content about Robert Golob and his links with journalists, whose companies he made payments to in the past, have also been deleted.
The part of the column that talks about Robert Golob’s journalists and the possible conflict of interests, which was probably the reason why the column has now been deleted, reads as follows:
“The possibility that there could also be such a connection was brought to our attention by RTV Slovenia journalists when the presenter Saša Krajnc refused to report on the planned personnel purges at RTV by the new government, when the “purge” was publicly demanded by the editor of the Mladina magazine, Gregor Repovž, and RTV Slovenia broke of its business cooperation with Mladina as a result of it. Krajnc’s public resistance to informing the public about these things was supported by some of the staff in a gesture of solidarity when they joined him in the studio in front of the cameras. These people are usually aware of the journalistic connections, which are mostly hidden from the public. If Krajnc is indeed more than just a former colleague and friend of Toni Tovornik, this paints the “rebellion” in a very strange light.
Why is that so? Well, in that case, we are in a situation similar to if, say, Manca Krnel had been informing people about Luka Mesec’s complications in the Smodej case on TV Slovenia, while claiming that these are just vile imputations, and TV Slovenia kept quiet about the fact that this angry “independent journalist” was Luka Mesec’s intimate partner, who is checking Mesec’s side of the story during their pillow talk. Or as if Primož Cirman had reported on TV Slovenia about the 103 tousand euros that Robert Golob had transferred to the company once founded and run by the journalist Vesna Vuković, but had failed to warn the public that he was the husband of the former RTV journalist Petra Bizjak Cirman, who Golob had in the meantime hired as the boss of the Government Communication Office, and Vuković as the boss of his own party, the Freedom Movement (Gibanje Svoboda), public relations…
We did not publish the story about the government’s July appointment of former RTV Slovenia journalist Toni Tovornik, who may have more than a friendly relationship with Krajnc, as Secretary-General of the Ministry of Culture, headed by Asta Vrečko, without checking the facts. We formally asked RTV Slovenia and the Ministry of Culture for clarification on whether the information about Krajnc and Tovornik’s intimate partnership is accurate. The agreement in the editorial office was that we would not write about the intimate relationship if they even slightly deny it. Or at least hint that our information is false.
But they did not do that.
Radio-Television Slovenia informed us that no such information is collected by the institution’s management. We did not ask them whether RTV management collects information on who is married to whom or on their employees’ partnerships. We asked them about the specific relationship of the journalist Krajnc with Tovornik. Even after the story was published, when we raised the question of a possible conflict of interest publicly, neither Krajnc nor Tovornik denied their connection. We are still waiting for a response. And if they decide to respond, we will share their answers and explanations immediately. State institutions, which includes both the Ministry of Culture and Radio-Television Slovenia, are legally obliged to be accountable. No matter what they are doing. At least RTV Slovenia replied. The Ministry of Culture, however, has not responded yet.
But they tried to discredit us immediately after the story about the possible conflict of interest was published. We were accused of peeping into bedrooms and trying to slander the TV presented Krajnc by writing about homosexuality. This is nonsense.
We are not peeping into bedrooms. And I have absolutely nothing against anyone, no matter who they love. But the problem is not sexual orientation. But what is the problem is if the partner of a television presenter is a high-ranking government official who works in a ministry and is leading the project of replacing the top of RTV Slovenia, which he is arguing is actually a rebellion at RTV, and this rebellion is being publicly led by his intimate friend, who is the television presenter. This would constitute, if their connection is kept private, an unfair link between politicians and RTV Slovenia journalists. It would also be highly problematic if it were not covert.
People find such “independence” of journalists somewhat difficult to understand.
It is well known, however, that journalists and politicians who accuse others of having political connections do not find anything wrong with that in themselves, if they really are connected and break the rules, they demand others to respect. In the Left party (Levica), we have already seen this. Namely, an MP of the Left party, who was a journalist before being elected, has already formally requested the National Assembly’s permission to continue working as a journalist in addition to his parliamentary duties. Completely independently.
At least Mojca Pašek Šetinc did not commit such a stupid thing as to ask for permission to work as an editor at TV Slovenia, where she would be taking care of the propaganda of Robert Golob’s activities against Janez Janša, in addition to her duties as Member of Parliament of the Freedom movement. Even though that is her current role in parliament.”
And here is the question Jančič sent to Irma Gubanec, the acting Director of TSmedia and Member of the Board of Telekom Slovenije, and Mihael Šuštaršič, editor-in-chief of the Siol web portal, asking them to explain their behaviour:
Dear Irma, editor-in-chief Mihael Šuštaršič and Tanja,
While I was checking the data for an article which I will publish in Spletni časopis (Online Newspaper), I noticed that certain content from articles I wrote had disappeared from the Siol website. For example, most of the article entitled “Just a friendship of the RTV Slovenia journalist and a government official, or a hidden conflict of interest,” is no longer available online. The content of the Sunday editorial column entitled “The rapes and drugs of the radiator affair,” has also disappeared and, with the exception of the headline, is completely inaccessible.
Please explain why some of my content has been severely truncated and other content has been deleted completely. In another time, we would say that the content has been censored.
I am asking for a response as soon as possible, and I will be publishing an article tomorrow, in which I will ask you publicly about this strange development, in which the texts of the previous editor-in-chief of the web portal were interfered with without the consent of the author.
As soon as I have your answers, they will, of course, be included in the article.
I would also like to point out that the Code of Ethics for Journalists prohibits tampering with texts without the author’s consent.
Here is the article I am referring to:
“Article 29
No one may, without the consent of the journalist, alter or rework a piece of writing. A journalist has the right to sign his or her contributions. They cannot be signed without the journalist’s knowledge or against their will.”
Conduct inconsistent with the Code of Ethics is also objectionable in light of the Media Act, which stipulates:
“Freedom of expression
Article 6
The activities of the media shall be based on freedom of expression, the inviolability and protection of human personality and dignity, the free flow of information and the openness of the media to different opinions, beliefs and diverse content, the autonomy of editors, journalists and other authors in the creation of programme content, in accordance with programme concepts and professional codes, and the personal responsibility of journalists or other contributors and editors for the consequences of their work.”
I would also like to ask you to please explain to me why you have not informed me of the removal of content and the reasons for it. Let alone obtained the consent required by the Code of Ethics. I would also like to ask you to inform me of any other texts from the time when I was editor-in-chief that you may have withdrawn or interfered with or only partially blocked access to, and also to explain your reasons for doing so.
Your sincerely,
Peter Jančič
Editor-in-Chief
Spletni časopis
What does the censorship of Jančič’s articles mean?
It is, of course, utopian to expect that Jančič would succeed in court in getting the articles re-published. This is a private company which, although it was formally predominantly publicly owned, follows the basic entrepreneurial freedom, and the Media Act provides for only minor fines in such cases. What is more important is what this deletion of content reveals. It is obvious that Golob’s coalition, together with the surrogates in the media, has completely lost control of its authoritarian tendencies and that Robert Golob wants to create a model of Russian control of the media in Slovenia. It is equally appalling that Mihael
Šuštaršič, who is increasingly outing himself as a far-left activist, had the same job at the Slovenian Press Agency before becoming editor-in-chief of the Siol web portal, namely, as the editor of the foreign policy section.
Employing far-left activists
The employment of the far-left political activists at the country’s main news agency, which represents the information face of the nation, is a scandal and a national disaster, and explains why Slovenian Press Agency’s articles have always been – to put it mildly – a little biased against the right and more in favour of the left. After Jančič’s revelations, it has become even more important that as many people as possible go to the referendum on the 27th of November and say no three times to such a fear-mongering policy.
Andrej Žitnik
