Status: 12.03.2021 12:33 p.m.
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Twitter attacks and insults: Slovenian Prime Minister Jansa repeatedly distributes against the domestic media. It goes so far that the journalists’ association regards the media attacks as threatening.
By Clemens Verenkotte, ARD-Studio Vienna,
zzt. Ljubljana
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“The environment is very hostile, very poisoned, on different levels.” This is how Spela Stare, General Secretary of the Slovenian Journalists’ Association, describes the current climate in which her colleagues work. She blames Janez Jansa, the 62-year-old right-wing conservative prime minister, for this. He has been one of the dominant figures in Slovenia’s domestic politics for over 30 years and has been the head of the Slovenian Democratic Party, SDS, for almost as long.
Clemens Verenkotte
ARD studio Vienna
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Jansa has been Prime Minister again since 2020
He has already been head of government twice, in 2004 and 2012, convicted of bribery a year later, imprisoned and released again by the Constitutional Court after a judgment was overturned.He has been Prime Minister again since March 13th last year. The head of the Slovenian Journalists’ Association says about Jansa’s media understanding:
“Jansa has this idea that the mainstream media are partial and unfair towards him. In this respect, the idea of some kind of war against the media is inherent in every government that he presided over.”
Clear words from Spela Stare, General Secretary of the Slovenian Journalists’ Association: She describes the current climate in which her colleagues work as a “hostile and poisoned environment”.
Image: Clemens Verenkotte
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Linguistic lapses and insults
Jansa wages a verbal “war” against journalists who have drawn the Prime Minister’s “displeasure” on Twitter. His Twitter account is teeming with linguistic gaps and open verbal abuse. Spela starlings:
“Lying press! You lie! You belong to the old communist system! Prostitutes (referring to journalists), or: Shame! Fakenews! The mainstream media are responsible for the epidemic, or the increase in the number of infections.”
Insults also against news agency bosses
This week, the head of the state-owned Slovenian news agency STA, Bojan Veselinovic, said on Twitter that it was time “for the director to step down as a political tool of the extreme left and to be held accountable for his illegal actions.”
Grega Repovz, editor-in-chief of the news magazine “Mladina” says: “This tweet about the STA was just one of the tweets to be expected. It’s the way it works, how he tries with fear and pressure to help people to resign. ”
Grega Repovz, editor-in-chief of the news magazine “Mladina”: calls Jansa’s criticism tweet about the STA “expected”.
Image: Clemens Verenkotte
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Crossing since the turn of the year
The head of government and the state-owned news agency have been cross-cutting since the turn of the year: The government office for communications blocked the agency’s monthly payments because it refused to send contracts with customers, salaries of all employees and reasons for editorial decisions.
On March 1, the STA blocked ministries and government agencies from accessing the agency reports. A request from the ARD Studios Southeast Europe to the government communications office remained unanswered until late Thursday evening.
Radio journalist Gasper Andrinek about Jansa: “People who are not on Twitter don’t know how he behaves there.”
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“Polite” TV appearances
Radio journalist Gasper Andrinek, who sits on the board of the Slovenian Journalists’ Association, makes a difference between the TV appearances and the Prime Minister’s Twitter attacks:
“He’s very polite when he’s live (on camera) or on recordings. Because he knows you have to be a lovely guy on TV. And people who aren’t on Twitter don’t know what he’s like behaves there. ”
Slovenia’s Association of Journalists sees media attacks by Prime Minister Jansa as a threat
Clemens Verenkotte, ARD Wien, 12.3.2021 · 10:44
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