by Sara Kovač (Nova24TV)
Last Tuesday the breaking news in Slovenia were that the government of Janez Janša quietly stopped financing Slovenian Press Agency (STA). Public RTV Slovenia labeled this as a new attack on the public media, but they did not mention the fact that caused this government decision; Director of the Slovenian Press Agency, Bojan Veselinovič, did not present complete business documentation on which it is established what amount is appropriate for the funding of STA, which is defined by law. And that is not all. There is another interesting fact which was not mentioned in the mainstream media, and that is the astronomical amount received by the Director of STA, who now claims that the law about the press agency is being reinterpreted.
The revision report from the 31th of December last year, conducted by the company Valuta d.o. o. shows that Mr. Veselinovič received astonishing amount of 102.668 euros brutto. From this amount it is obvious that we are talking about a well-paid position. Since this cannot be dismissed, it seems quite utopian to expect that such news would be massively reported about in the same manner as it was reported that the defunding of the STA done quietly by the government is supposedly an attack on all public media.
The news was challenged by Uroš Urbanija, the Director of the Government Communication Office, who explained that from October the Director of STA would not reveal the necessary documentation for the financing of STA, in spite of all the requests and warnings. “We warned the Director several times that his unwillingness to reveal the documentation could bring serious financial trouble upon STA and that he will be held responsible. Not only that, but we also received his memorandum and the memorandum of the President of the Supervisory board, asking us to tell them how much money will we give them and how much money there is in the budget. This is in complete contrast with the lawful request for the suitable financing”, explained Mr. Urbanija. He added that it is completely unacceptable for the Director of STA and for the President of the Supervisory board to demand from Government Communication Office to act against the law. It would be illegal for Government Communication Office to pay for something, without having all the records.
In their response, the Slovenian Press Agency claimed that they meet all the demands according to the law, and warned that they have found themselves in a difficult position because the Government Communication Office ceased funding them, a decision which “jeopardizes the business stability of the agency and the ability to conduct their public work of informing, prescribed by law”.