‘It’ll be Bloody’: Under Jansa, Troubled Times for Slovenian Media

"And once again this thesis has emerged that authoritarian regimes which want to establish greater power are taking on those who have different opinions," Maksuti told BIRN.

Governments exploiting pandemic to curb media freedoms

A cyclist wearing protective mask passes in the almost empty Preseren square, in Ljubljana. Photo: EPA-EFE/IGOR KUPLJENIK.

In mid-March, Zgaga, an investigative reporter and correspondent for the international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, RSF, complained to IPI that he had been the target of a smear article in a news weekly close to Jansa's Slovenian Democratic Party, SDS, after he had asked the government about the operations and structure of a newly-founded Crisis Headquarters created by the government to lead the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Headquarters did not respond. Instead, its official Twitter account retweeted an anonymous attack on Zgaga describing him as having "escaped from quarantine" and carrying a "COVID-Marx/Lenin virus," a play on a common smear by the Slovenian right-wing against its opponents on the left or centre. Zgaga also received anonymous, online death threats.

On April 17, RSF and six other press freedom organisations urged the European Commission - the executive arm of the European Union, of which Slovenia is a member - to do everything in its power to guarantee the safety of the Zgaga and ensure that "death threats and attacks against him are treated with the utmost seriousness by the Slovenian authorities."

"Despite the unprecedented context in which Slovenia and other countries currently find themselves, the COVID-19 crisis shouldn't be an excuse to prevent journalists from doing their job," RSF said, echoing the deep concern...