Journalist sues PM Janša over 2019 tweets

Ljubljana – Igor Kršniar, a journalist for the political magazine Reporter, has initiated a private prosecution against Prime Minister Janez Janša over two Twitter posts in 2019 that implied he was a drug user.

In one tweet, in October 2019, Janša said about an article that Kršinar wrote. “Pure lie. Kršinak is already using heavy drugs.” A month later, Janša shared a tweet by then MP Žan Mahnič, who wondered whether “Kršinar was mixing whiskey and Helex again”.

The first tweet referred to an article describing proceedings at the Commission for Oversight of Intelligence and Security Services, which Kršinar subsequently corrected after getting access to the minutes of the meeting.

The second tweet referred to Kršinar’s article about a “fake news factory” operated from the headquarters of the Democrats (SDS), Janša’s party.

Kršinar says that since 2017 Janša has written disparagingly about Reporter and him personally, but the claim that he is a drug user “exceeds the boundaries of appropriate and permitted communication,” the magazine said in an article published on Sunday.

Kršinar says he uses neither drugs nor is he an alcoholic and has never had problems with drug or alcohol abuse.

An arraignment hearing was scheduled for 26 May but was postponed until further notice because Kršinar’s lawyer was ill.

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