“The Slovenian Association of Patriotic Journalists rejects such a reprehensible practice and considers such posts on Twitter to be an announcement of a major purge in the media,” the Slovenian Association of Patriotic Journalists (SZDN) wrote in response to the SAB party’s social media post.
We are publishing the press release of the Slovenian Association of Patriotic Journalists in full.
Press release of the Slovenian Association of Patriotic Journalists: the SAB announcements are a major threat to media freedom
»128 days to go. The fight against fake news will be our priority,« the SAB party said on its Twitter profile. The attached photo gives a clear hint of which media outlets the party had in mind – those that do not belong to the circle of the old transition empires, of course.
It is clear from the text and the photo that not only freedom of the media, but freedom of speech in general will have to be defended. The tweet by the SAB – which at European level is a member of Alde, which presents itself as an association of liberal political parties – is nothing other than an announcement of censorship and (police) persecution of journalists. And this without any reason or proof that the media graphically depicted in the tweet are spreading fake news. It is obvious that the SAB’s announcement is about starting to persecute media and journalists who do not share the same or similar worldview as Alenka Bratušek’s party.
The recent reaction of the Supreme Court to a journalist’s inquiry about the diploma of Supreme Court Judge Branko Masleša, that he would file a lawsuit, is reason enough for concern, as they also prejudged the outcome of the ruling. It is quite clear that it is the successors and defenders of the former totalitarian regime who really despise media freedom or want to subject it to the protection of the ‘sacred cows’ of the Slovenian transition.
In the light of this statement by SAB, which is one of the parties in the KUL coalition, we would also like to draw attention to the conduct of the party’s chairwoman, Alenka Bratušek, when she became Prime Minister in 2013. At that time, she used her influence to prosecute photojournalist Jani Božič. The Slovenian Association of Patriotic Journalists therefore rejects such a reprehensible practice and considers such Twitter posts to be a harbinger of a major purge in the media. The SAB’s tweet is therefore clear evidence of who in Slovenia really wants to abolish media freedom.
Board of the Slovenian Association of Patriotic Journalists
Ljubljana, 17 December 2021
P.T.
