By: Dr. Vinko Gorenak
In our constitutional order, which is very comparable to the constitutional order of Western countries, especially Germany, everything is clear. We have three completely independent branches of government, namely: the legislative (National Assembly), the executive (Government of the Republic of Slovenia), and the judicial branch of government (the Supreme Court with subordinate courts). In practice, outside the constitution, we are also talking about the fourth branch of government, which is not constitutional, but in practice it is, that is the media branch of government. This is even more true in the situation we know in our country, as the majority or dominant media perform their role very well in terms of promoting left wing political parties and, of course, slandering right wing political parties. But all of the above is not even problematic, except for the media branch of government and its role.
Within the relations between the legislative branch of government (National Assembly), the executive branch of government (Government of the Republic of Slovenia) and the judicial branch of government (Supreme Court with subordinate courts) in Slovenia there are serious anomalies. Let me name a few.
From a constitutional point of view, all branches of government are equal and independent of each other, and the so-called relationship of brakes and balances is supposed to prevail between them, which in practice means a kind of control of one branch over another branch of government. So far so good, who would not agree with that. What about practice?
Here a big problem emerges. Judges are appointed to a permanent judicial position by the National Assembly. However, the judicial branch of government claims that the National Assembly can only nominate candidates for judges without words and that it has no right to refuse to name a candidate for a judge. In more than ten years of history, I remember only two cases where the National Assembly refused to nominate a candidate for judge. If we turn the matter around, then we could say that the judiciary cannot and must not prosecute the crimes of the MPs, as they are an independent branch of government. This would be the same claim as the one that the National Assembly cannot refuse the naming of a judge for a permanent term. Thus, this is a real absurdity. The current situation is such that for more than 15 years the National Assembly has not granted immunity for trial before any MP, while the National Assembly has not rejected practically any candidate (except two) by appointing judges to a permanent term. Is this a balance between the branches of government? No, it is not, that is why I do not agree with such an explanation of this problem.
Something similar is happening in the relationship between the executive branch of government (Government of the Republic of Slovenia) and the prosecutor’s office, which is not even an integral part of the judicial branch of government, but is part of the executive branch. In this case, the prosecutors are appointed by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. However, the prosecutor’s organisation is of the opinion that the Government of the Republic of Slovenia can only name prosecutors without discussion and unconditionally on their proposal, without the right to reject the appointment. Excuse me, how? Can we then turn things around equally and say that prosecutors must not unconditionally prosecute members of the government? This would be absurd, as it is, of course, absurd that the government must name prosecutors and has no right to refuse appointment. That is why I do not agree with such an explanation of this problem.
What about journalists as the fourth branch of government? The fact is that the vast majority of the dominant media do not play their critical role towards all types of authorities at all, but are extremely biased towards left wing political parties. In such situation, the belief is spreading that journalists can ruthlessly criticise, lie, and falsify facts at the expense of the right wing government and its members. However, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and its members as well as the right wing political parties have no right to evaluate the work of these journalists. No, that is why I do not agree with such an explanation of this problem.
To conclude, let’s take a look at this example. Zoran Potić, the journalist of Dnevnik, responded to the following message from Uroš Urbanija, the head of the official communication government, and Janez Janša, the Prime Minister. The aforementioned wrote the following:
Janez Janša on Twitter: “Ever since @STA_novice has been run by director Veselinović, sick journalists have been fired and lies have been often sold for the truth. It is time for the director, as a political tool of the far left, to step down and be held accountable for his illegal actions. And enable STA a normal work and development.”
Uroš Urbanija on Twitter: “It is really difficult to understand that the director of @STA_agencija @STA_novice Veselinovič is lying like that. There is written documentation for everything. If he does business in the same way, then it is clear why he is hiding the documentation…”
Zoran Potić responded as follows:
“@p_zoran, in the event of such a tweet, the official must first be asked about his health, and then call on him to resign due to exceeding his authorisations, endangering democratic postulates and norms of Slovenian society. Anyone who supports these types of rulers is an accomplice in the violations of the Democrats and general norms.”
I informed Zoran Potić about this:
“dr. Vinko Gorenak @drVinkoGorenak replying to @p_zoran, Dear Mr. Zoran! I am afraid for your health in the last tweets around STA and JJ. Check if your bile is in place and if it is working normally. Do not take this as harassment, this is only my concern and please greet Darijan Kosir. My invitation to him to the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia is still valid.”
Read again what I wrote. Did I threaten him? I do not think so. He, however, sees my threats in the sentence above.
“Zoran str @p_zoran, Vinko continues to threaten. In the responses of Urbanija and Gorenak, we can see false kindness. What textbook is this from? Dear my a…”
Judge for yourself who is threatening whom and who is lying to whom. As a journalist, Zoran Potić is a representative of the fourth branch of government, who lies to you at every step. Are you still paying for his lies in the form of buying the Dnevnik newspaper?
Dr. Vinko Gorenak is State Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia.