Close political allies Robert Golob and Asta Vrečko will distribute at least 4.1 million euros this year to selected media outlets who are supportive of them. The Ministry of Culture made the figures public almost as soon as the referendum campaign on privileged pensions started.
Perhaps this also happened because of the big scandal about free holidays, which is shaking Robert Golob. Bombshells in the thousands of euros so that “their” media can “correctly” inform the public about what is going on.
As of last Friday, there was no official information on who was on the commission for the distribution of taxpayers’ money, who applied, who was rejected, and so on. Our editorial office first asked for information on the aforementioned in the middle of last week and then again on Friday, but we did not get a reply from the Ministry of Culture.
Money for the 62 chosen media
The Ministry of Culture, headed by left-wing activist Asta Vrečko, published its regular annual public tender for proposals for co-financing media programming in 2025 at the beginning of December last year. The deadline for applications was the 15th of January 2025, and 4.1 million euros will be distributed. According to the information available so far, as published on the 15th of April by the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), referring to the Ministry of Culture, and then by the pro-government web portal MMC (of the national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia), the money will be distributed to 62 “projects”. Radio Študent and TV IDEA – KANAL 10 will receive the most (120 thousand euros each), followed by the newspaper Delo, Dnevnik media, Večer meda, Gorenjski glas and Mladina with 95 thousand euros each.
Political-tycoon links
Radio Študent operates as an institution and is owned by the Student Organisation of the University of Ljubljana, headed by Valentina Rajaković.
TV IDEA – KANAL 10, based in Murska Sobota, is reportedly linked to the media network of the family of the garbage-media tycoon Martin Odlazek. Delo is owned by the company of the tycoon Stojan Petrič, who is also one of the two directors of the company. Dnevnik media is run by the tycoon Bojan Petan, known from the stories of the publishing company DZS, the water park Terme Čatež and the newspaper company Dnevnik. Večer media has ownership links with radio Salomon and the media outlet Svet24, among others, and all roads lead to the network of Martin Odlazek’s family. Gorenjski glas in Kranj is partly owned by Petrič’s Delo, but is otherwise owned by a number of individuals. The ownership of the weekly Mladina is linked to the so-called overseas back office of the former State Security Administration – UDBA, the former Safti, and they were also financed through exorbitantly expensive and vastly overpaid vascular stents.
Who are the chosen ones?
The call was structured in two parts. Strand A covered the co-financing of programming content in the print media, radio and television programmes and online media. The amount of about 1.1 million euros was available for all of these.
Strand B, for which the amount of about 3 million euros was available, covered the co-financing of the programming content of radio and television programmes with local, regional, student or non-profit radio or television programme status.
In strand A, i.e. the one for print media, radio and television, the money – according to the results published by some media outlets referring to the Ministry of Culture – was distributed to 29 projects. Following the projects of the five applicants – Delo, Dnevnik media, Večer media, Gorenjski glas and Mladina – which will receive the most funding (95 thousand euros each), the next most funded project is Obalaplus aktualno, for which MBM Media will receive 58,650 euros, followed by Necenzurirano.si (Uncensored.si), for which the Media Partner Agency will receive 42,750 euros. Surprisingly, the web portal Oštro, owned by Anuška Delić Zavrl and known for being the censor on Slovenian Facebook or Meta, is also on the list.
At the bottom of the list in terms of the amount of funding granted are the projects of Asociacija (7,661 euros), Graffit Line (7,875 euros) and the Association of Humanists of Goriška (8,550 euros).
Money for radio and television stations
In strand B, i.e. the one for radio and television stations (excluding RTV Slovenia, which is the national broadcaster), 33 projects were selected. The largest amount, 120,000 euros each, will go to Radio Študent and Pomurski dnevnik, submitted by TV IDEA – KANAL 10. Radio Štajerski val is next with 119,990 euros, while Radio Koroška’s project will receive 39 euros less than Štajerski val.
The applicants that will receive the least for their projects are Multimedia Panonija with 5,247 euros, Vöter Association for Knowledge and Information with 6,555 euros, and Danilo Kiš Cultural Centre with 7,277 euros.
Asta Vrečko prepared gifts for selected media
Applicants for the public tender apparently started receiving notifications of their selection or non-selection at the beginning of April. At least, this is what Peter Jančič, editor and journalist, revealed on his web portal Online Newspaper (Spletni časopis). He announced that the Ministry of Culture will not finance his media outlet. This was decided by a special expert commission appointed by Asta Vrečko. Jančič also explained that this was “probably the last time” he could apply for the tender. The ruling coalition is changing the law on media, following a proposal by Asta Vrečko, and media outlets such as the Online Newspaper will no longer be allowed to apply, in order to give more money to rich individuals (Martin Odlazek, Stojan Petrič and others) who control most of the media outlets, practically all of which support the government parties. This is why they are adding a condition to the new media law that ensures that in order to be eligible for the tender, it is now necessary for a media outlet to have at least three employees. This is something that the Online Newspaper cannot afford. As for the Oštro web portal, owned by Anuška Zavrl Delić (this is how her details are listed in the record of the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services – AJPES), Jančič wrote that the Ministry of Culture had recognised Oštro’s status as an institution whose work is in the public interest, but Jančič had been rejected. This year, Oštro will receive 24,437.50 euros of taxpayer money for the project Together against illegal car dumping grounds.
Table: List of recipients of taxpayers’ money for printed press and online media
| Name of applicant | Project title | Approved amount in EUR |
| DELO ČASOPISNO ZALOŽNIŠKO PODJETJE D.O.O. | Opinion pages and columns for the newspaper Delo | 95.000,00 |
| DNEVNIK MEDIJI, d. o. o. | The light that must not go out | 95.000,00 |
| Gorenjski glas, časopisno podjetje, d. o. o., Kranj | Supplements GG+/Snovanja/Karavanke | 95.000,00 |
| Mladina časopisno podjetje d. d., Ljubljana | MLADINA SOCIAL REVIEW | 95.000,00 |
| Večer mediji, časopisno založniško podjetje, d.o.o. | Regional and local content in the newspaper Večer | 95.000,00 |
| MBM MEDIA, založništvo, d. o. o. | OBALAplus CURRENT EVENTS | 58.650,00 |
| MEDIA PARTNER AGENCIJA, tiskovna agencija, d.o.o. | SLOVENIA’S BYWAYS: QUALITY JOURNALISM AT NECENZURIRANO.SI | 42.750,00 |
| TSmedia, medijske vsebine in storitve, d. o. o. | Active Citizenship 2025 | 42.500,00 |
| Časopisno-založniška družba Kmečki glas, d. o. o. | SELF-SUSTAINABLE-WITHOUT A WORRY | 42.441,89 |
| Beletrina, zavod za založniško dejavnost | Confluences, crossroads, viewpoints | 41.890,50 |
| Pod črto, zavod za ustvarjanje kakovostnega novinarstva | In depth – innovative – multimedia: investigative project Pod črto | 38.950,00 |
| Mladinska knjiga Založba, d. d. | Media education and functional literacy | 36.265,85 |
| PRIMORSKE NOVICE, Časopisno – založniška družba, d. o. o., Koper Azienda giornalistico – editoriale, s.r.l., Capodistria | LAYERS OF CREATION | 35.458,19 |
| ZAVOD NEVIODUNUM, zavod za kulturo in odnose z javnostmi | REVEALING THE FOUNDATIONS | 33.599,63 |
| Podjetje za informiranje Murska Sobota, d. o. o. | SELECTED | 29.750,00 |
| Z.O.P. – zavod za oblikovanje prostora | Programme section of the magazine Outsider: Topic/Focus | 26.250,00 |
| UMCO, podjetje za reklamo, trgovino, založništvo, d. d. | Let’s read Slovenians in BuklaPlus | 26.208,82 |
| KOROŠKA REGIONALNA TELEVIZIJA, družba za medijsko in propagandno dejavnost, d. o. o. | EVENTS IN KOROŠKA | 25.531,68 |
| Oštro, Center za preiskovalno novinarstvo v jadranski regiji | Together against illegal car dumping grounds | 24.437,50 |
| Zavod Co-Kreate | PreLom – Ljubljana’s Agora | 19.935,00 |
| Klub radio Terminal | POPolitiki | 16.642,50 |
| Časoris, zavod za informiranje in izobraževanje | Časoris, online newspaper for children | 15.453,85 |
| Zveza svobodnih sindikatov Slovenije | Tuj-Tuja: breaking the myths about foreign workers in Slovenia | 13.785,93 |
| Zavod za ustvarjanje avdio in drugih medijskih vsebin Strašno hudi | The terribly fierce voices of change | 12.000,00 |
| Založba Goga, zavod za založniško in umetniško dejavnost | ERast.si – The voice of culture, literature and social issues of South-Eastern Slovenia | 9.236,25 |
| Zavod za založniško dejavnost Vzajemnost | Current | 8.984,25 |
| Društvo humanistov Goriške | Critical thinking in the time of polycrisis | 8.550,00 |
| Graffit Line, d. o. o. | PREMISLEKI – a column of in-depth writings, commentaries and assessments of events in the immediate and wider community | 7.875,00 |
| Asociacija, društvo nevladnih organizacij in posameznikov na področju kulture | Kulturosfera 2025: Cross-sectoral perspective for the culture of the future | 7.661,31 |
Source: Online Newspaper, Peter Jančič
120,000 euros will go to Radio Študent and TV IDEA – KANAL 10, respectively (the latter indirectly owned by the media-owning network of the Odlazek family).
95,000 euros will go to Delo, Dnevnik media, Večer media, Gorenjski glas and Mladina, respectively (all in the hands of the tycoon ownership).
Vida Kocjan
