International Press Institute

PKN Orlen flag flies at Polish oil refinery Orlen Lietuva in Mazeikiai, Lithuania, 05 April 2019. EPA-EFE/Toms Kalnins

Activists protest in Tirana against new laws targeting online media on 19 December 2019. Photo: LSA

Vienna – A number of international journalism and media freedom organisations have signed a joint statement urging the Slovenian government and the Government Communication Office (UKOM) “to immediately end the economic suffocation of the STA and take steps to ensure sustainable funding before its collapse”.

Brussels/Ljubljana – The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a coalition of press freedom organisations and journalism groups, stressed on Monday that media freedom was at risk in Slovenia. Attacks on Slovenian media take place at multiple levels, both legislative and administrative, and on social networks, the group said.

London – Several international journalist organisations condemned Wednesday Prime Minister Janez Janša’s tweet that said Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović was “part of #fakenews network”. This came after her warning about deteriorating media freedom in Slovenia. The organisations agree with her assessment of the situation.

Ljubljana – The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), an initiative funded by the European Commission that monitors violations of press and media freedom, will be on a virtual mission to Slovenia over the next two weeks to examine alleged deterioration in media freedom in the country. The findings are to be released in July.

The International Press Institute, IPI, on Friday accused Prime Minister Janez Jansa of putting intense pressure on Bojan Veselinovic, director of the Slovenian Press Agency, STA, saying that this pressure "reaches worrying new heights".

Ljubljana, 3 May – A month-long fundraising campaign kicked off on World Press Freedom Day in a bid to secure funding for the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), which has not received budget funds for the performance of public service for four months.

Washington – The US Department of State has released the 2020 Human Rights international report in which it also analyses the situation in Slovenia. Attacks on media and harassment of journalists in the country feature more prominently than ever, the latter being described as one of the key human rights issues in Slovenia.

The International Press Institute said on Tuesday that it has joined four other media watchdog organisations in writing to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to express concerns over a decline in press freedom in Slovenia since the government of Janez Jansa came to power.