The Slovenian public witnessed the protests that took place during the term of the Janša government. Vandalism, public slander of the government and its measures, violent riots, attacks on police officers and journalists – all this was done by supporters of the left-wing authorities, which used the protests and their organisers as a “tool” to achieve its goal. The most reasonable response in cases of such violent protests and attacks was the intervention of the police, who acted in accordance with the situations they had to face at the time, but the current government and the Ministry of the Interior have to “heal” the wounds of the violent protests, their supporters. And, of course, the easiest way to do this is by blaming the previous authorities, in this case, the former Minister of the Interior, Aleš Hojs, who gave a statement regarding the alleged abuse of power of the police, but the POP TV television station did not publish it in its entirety.
Due to the alleged complaints that the Ministry of the Interior supposedly received, related to the work of the police during the 2020 and 2021 protests, “eight of their representatives had a hearing before the Senate, due to the serious allegations of interference with human rights and fundamental freedoms,” the 24ur web portal reported. Journalist Anže Božič, who draws most of his information from the left-wing “Necenzurirano.si” (“Uncensored”) web portal, also asked former Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs to comment on the alleged “overstepping of the authority” that supposedly happened in four cases where the Ministry of the Interior found that four policemen acted unprofessionally and encroached on human rights. However, Božič did not publish Hojs’s response in its entirety. Therefore, after the publication of the article, Hojs commented that this was yet another clear proof that the self-proclaimed independent media are only independent on paper, and then he published his response in full.
On Friday, the POP TV journalist Anže Božič, who constantly quotes Odlazek’s leftist web portal Uncensored, prepared a piece about Hojs’s alleged violations of power, commenting on how the use of force was unjustified, and he also asked the former Minister for a comment, which he (of course) did not publish in full. He left out the last sentence, which Hojs considers to be the most important, as it speaks loudly about the “independence” of the media, which mainstream media outlets such as POP TV constantly talk about, and which is also essential in order to understand how the allegations of “breach of mandate” is only presented in a one-sided manner.
Here is Hojs’s quote that was published by Božič: “There were more police officers injured than there were hooligans, and the police supposedly violated their human rights? What?! Perhaps Ličina, Jenull, Čordić and company will even get some police awards under the new government. They even wanted to ruin the EU Summit we hosted, but they failed!”
Hojs responded to Božič’s attempted cover-up on Twitter, publishing his response in full: “This was my full response to journalist Anže Božič from POP TV, who asked me to comment on the ‘findings of the breach of authority.’ He, of course, did not publish or summarise the last sentence, as it is not pleasant to publish criticism at one’s own expense.” And this is the message that Hojs sent to Božič in its entirety: “There were more police officers injured than there were hooligans, and the police supposedly violated their human rights? What?! Perhaps Ličina, Jenull, Čordić and company will even get some police awards under the new government. They even wanted to ruin the EU Summit we hosted, but they failed! Thank you again to the police for their excellent work during the epidemic and the violent protests. The only ones who saw them as non-violent were POP TV and Radio-Television Slovenia.”
Rehabilitation of protest violence in the media and state institutions is currently happening
Let us remind you of the scene at Ljubljana’s Republic Square when, during the epidemic, which was still in full swing back then, nobody adhered to any of the anti-corona measures at the unregistered protests, and later, the initially peaceful protests turned into a frenzy. Rioters threw bottles, pyrotechnics and granite cubes at the police officers. Several police officers were injured, and, of course, some of the perpetrators were detained. Journalists, photographers and cameramen were also attacked, and the violence was strongly condemned by the Slovene Association of Journalists and the Association of Journalists and Publicists. We even saw recordings of protesters kicking police officers after they had to intervene when protesters blocked the motorway and thus caused everyone who was on their way home or somewhere else at the time from getting to their destinations safely. Are these the peaceful protests they are talking about?
Not to mention the other protests, when force was used against police officers and the protesters were threatening the safety of everyone by throwing stones and even torches. The violence even went so far that they had to use a water cannon, and there was a police helicopter monitoring the events at all times.
To claim that the use of necessary force by the police in such cases was unjustified is a bit absurd, and to conceal essential matters from the public is unacceptable. However, we have seen examples of such reporting by POP TV in the past already. In fact, when covering the protests, one could not escape the feeling that POP TV, a commercial television station, was saying one thing but showing something completely different. While they were serious in their condemnation of the violence that was constantly happening at the protests at the time, they went to great lengths to insert footage that suggested that it was the police who were carrying out the violence – and not the protesters.
Tanja Brkić
