By: Dr. Metod Berlec
You are holding the redesigned Demokracija magazine. We have listened to your suggestions and wishes, dear readers, and therefore changed the typography and font size. This will make the magazine easier to read and more user-friendly.
There will be fewer photos in it, but they will be larger. There will also be more infographics, with which we aim to enhance and enrich the content. We are introducing some new sections as well, ranging from caricatures, which we will create using artificial intelligence, to a political barometer and a “Personality of the Week”, where we will evaluate public figures from politics, the economy, culture, the media, and other fields. These evaluations will consider individuals who have, through their actions, inactions, behaviour, or statements, positively, leniently, or negatively influenced events in the past week or recent days.
Of course, form and appearance are not everything. Content is paramount. But one is connected to the other. That is why we will continue to strive to make the content as high-quality as possible. To ensure that articles, interviews, and commentaries are as informative, analytical, and professional as possible, committed to truth, justice, and democratic standards, in line with Article 39 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, which speaks about freedom of expression and states: “Freedom of expression of thought, speech, and public appearance, as well as freedom of the press and other forms of public communication and expression, are guaranteed. Everyone may freely collect, receive, and disseminate information and opinions. Everyone has the right to access information of a public nature for which they have a legally justified interest, except in cases provided by law.”
Therefore, we will continue to keep a close watch on those in power and highlight their authoritarian tendencies, undemocratic actions, and irregularities. We will expose corruption, cronyism, and crime. We will do this with even greater persistence because freedom of speech and media freedom under the rule of the so-called Freedom coalition is fundamentally endangered, as demonstrated by the government’s proposed media law. We will also point out the scandalous double standards in Slovenian society. What is allowed for the “first-class” citizens is not permitted for the “second-class” ones. If leftists mock centre-right politicians, it is considered “refined art”; if we mock left-wing politicians or hold up a mirror to them, it is labelled as a “gross insult”, “hate speech”, “worthy of criminal prosecution”, or God knows what else. Similar examples abound in Slovenian society and state, in line with the Latin phrase: Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi (“What is permitted to Jupiter is not permitted to the ox”).
In short, pluralistic and investigative journalism is as essential to the existence of a free and democratic society as water is to life. Media freedom is vital. And it is worth striving for it – day by day…