By: Domen Mezeg / Nova24tv
“Jak Koprivc was a well-known “triple official.” He was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Delo, and at the same time, he was also the President of the Slovene Association of Journalists, as well as the executive secretary for informing of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Slovenia. Adhering to the decree, first Popit, and then Kučan (both were the Presidents of the Slovenian Presidency at one time) had to go to Koprivc once a week for “briefings.” There, they explained to them all about what is being written, how it is being written, and so on. And as the editor-in-chief of Delo, he was considered one of the biggest censors. That was his main role. Of course, he also had an editorial team working for him. At that time, nothing in journalism could have happened without them knowing about it. He is also known as the undertaker of the satirical newspaper Pavliha. Namely, Pavliha was a newspaper that dealt with real political satire and also published information that could not be published elsewhere,” the then-rebel journalist, Vinko Vasle, said about the father of Marko Korpivc, an MP from the Social Democrats party (SD).
“The proud successor of the League of Communists,” Marko Koprivc, is a self-proclaimed defender of “freedom,” “democracy,” and “independent journalism.” But as is well known, he inherited lots of things from his totalitarian father Jak Koprivc – not only his natural beauty and the blood-red aura, but also the family karma of persecuting “journalistic independence” (namely, persecuting RTV journalist Jože Možina because of the recent episode of the show Utrip – Pluse – which he prepared). Journalist Vinko Vasle also told us that Marko Koprivc is a pure-blooded “child of the State Security Administration of Yugoslavia,” who learned all about the then-journalistic freedom (meaning, the Yugoslavian version of it) through his own experience. “Jak Koprivc was a well-known triple official. He was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Delo, and at the same time, he was also the President of the Slovene Association of Journalists, as well as the executive secretary for informing of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Slovenia.”
“Adhering to the decree, first Popit and then Kučan had to go to Koprivc once a week for “briefings.” There, they explained to them all about what is being written, how it is being written, and so on. And as the editor-in-chief of Delo, he was considered one of the biggest censors. That was his mail role.” He, of course, also had an editorial team working for him, and at that time, nothing in journalism could have happened without them knowing about it. He is also known as the undertaker of the satirical newspaper Pavliha. Namely, Pavliha was a newspaper that dealt with real political satire and also published information that could not be published elsewhere. All of this happened in the late seventies and early eighties and the satirical newspaper in question was a thorn in the side of the then-government, so it always had some problems it had to deal with. Questions arose as to what should be done with the leadership of the Pavliha newspaper. At that time, journalist Vasle was one of its outworkers.
At that time, Pavliha had a series of satirical feats, which tried to “forge” other newspapers, for example, the then-weekly magazine Jana. The editions were of a similar size, the font that they chose was similar, and so on. The edition was named “Pavlihova Ana” – “Pavliha’s Ana.” They did it to make fun of Bernarda Jeklin and her “feminist nonsense.” On another occasion, they made fun of the Maribor “Vroči Kaj” (“The Hot What”) (which was a semi-pornographic magazine) and called it “Pavlihov Jak” – “Pavliha’s Yak” (the Slovenian word for “yak” is the same as the name of Koprivc – Jak Koprivc). In that edition, Zlata Kraševec (who is now also active on Twitter) wrote an editorial for the magazine, entitled “Yak,” in which she wrote that “Yak is Tibetan cattle.” It was a very interesting piece of writing, indeed. Apparently, someone recently even wrote on Twitter that “Marko Koprivc is the son of the Tibetan cattle.” It seems that people still remember what was published in Pavliha back in the day.
Koprivc senior knew what “independent journalism” is: He destroyed the satirical newspaper Pavliha
However, there were lots of other things published in the edition called “Pavliha’s Yak” as well, for example, a report on the attack on the federal government, etc. And right after “Pavliha’s Yak” was published, at night (around midnight), Popit convened an extraordinary meeting of the party’s closest leadership. There, they talked about what to do, how to take action. “Jak Koprivc complained and lamented about what they were doing to him, how they were insulting him, and so on. However, Popit even scolded him, saying that “if he is so incompetent that he does not know how to deal with them alone,” they cannot help him. And then they decided to deal with the matter. And since the Communist Party was in charge of appointments, they replaced Bogdan Novak and Bogo Sajovic and instead brought in a different team – and that is when Pavliha began to crumble. It took it about six months to completely collapse.”
Pavliha was being controlled by the so-called “alternative journalists,” who resisted the regime. Some came from the Delo newspaper, some from the television, and a strong team also came from the newspaper “Kmečki glas” – “The Farmer’s Voice,” some worked directly for Pavliha, some worked for “delavska enotnost” – “The Workers’ Unity,” and others. And the authorities were always uncertain about what they would do next. During this time, all of these journalists often got threats about how they were going to lose their jobs and so on, but they were also prepared for these possibilities if they ever came true. “We did not care if we were fired because we were well-prepared…” The then-totalitarian system was already a little bit “scared” at the beginning of the eighties. Namely, it was already known where society was heading – in the global sense, in the East, and elsewhere. Certain indecision of the then-totalitarian authorities became palpable. Regarding Marko Koprivc, a former journalist said: “An apple does not fall far from the tree.”
Koprivc talks about the freedom and democracy in which his father lived and worked
“And what he writes are pamphlets. He does not have a single argument – I would like to hear about one lie, one untruth, one fabrication that Jože Možina used in the show about Dražgoše, both from Koprivc and from Fajon. However, for them, it was not so much about Dražgoše and this myth of theirs, as it was about the fact that Možina talked about Milan Kučan and some other “important” personalities. And that is what bothered them; that is what stung. Kučan is still untouchable.” And Koprivc is a firm communist totalitarian, just like Kučan. He comes from a convinced family, and he was brought up accordingly. He is working for democracy and freedom of speech – but the Communist Party type. He is the “proud successor,” who bows to one of the greatest murderers – Boris Kidrič, who also killed personally, not only signed liquidation orders. In light of this, we need to stay aware of the type of “democracy” and “freedom” that Koprivc is talking about – the one in which his father lived and worked.