By: Andrej Žitnik (Nova24tv.si)
When news broke that the Constitutional Court had – for the first time in its history – ruled completely differently than before and thus overturned its own decision, we at Nova24TV immediately reacted. Our Editor-in-Chief, Aleksander Rant, personally called the Constitutional Court and asked if there would be a press conference held on Friday, given that something like this has never happened before. After several calls and unsuccessful transfers, Ivan Biščak, the Director of the General and Financial Affairs of the Constitutional Court, who should have had nothing to do with this kind of inquiry, answered the phone on the seventh try. He initially said that the Constitutional Court does not hold press conferences to explain its decisions. When asked by the editor whether this was an official position, Biščak replied that it was not, but that he did not know who he was talking to. Aleksander Rant then introduced himself and said that he was the Editor-in-Chief of Nova24TV and that it was in the public’s interest to know what was happening at the Constitutional Court.
Biščak then replied, “Oh, Nova24TV. All clear. Go ahead and write slander about us, and you can also write that my brother is Bogdan Biščak!” We were, of course, completely shocked by such an unprofessional response from a public servant. What does this have to do with the decisions of the Constitutional Court? It is becoming increasingly clear that something is wrong in this institution. Who is supervising the employees? Why did the head of the finance sector, and not the Secretary-General or his deputy, come forward to answer a press enquiry?
We tried 15 more times. Each time, we reached a frightened lady working at reception, frantically transferring our calls. And then came another shock. We found out that Ivan Biščak, Bogdan Biščak’s brother, had ordered that nobody should answer the editor’s calls anymore and, moreover, that his calls should not be transferred to any other department. He even went so far as to invent the idea that Aleksander Rant had already met with Mrs Šušteršič and that the matter had been settled. In addition, the telephone number of the editor Aleksander Rant has been blocked by the General Secretariat of the Constitutional Court. Unbelievable, grotesque, totalitarian.
But Mr Biščak, after ten repeated attempts, picked up the phone again – he denied that he had ever given the instructions that they had to ignore our calls and said: “That one down there in reception knows nothing.” Then, when confronted with the reported ban on picking up phones, he said, “Write whatever you want, nobody reads you anyway – I don’t care – I’d rather keep quiet, so I don’t say anything else!”
This is the attitude of the Constitutional Court towards citizens and towards the media who want the truth! This is the attitude of an institution that has been taken over, that only serves the authorities, and that can only be – abolished. This Constitutional Court is, indeed, very far from actually being constitutional. The direction of the rule of law starts today!
Secretary-General of the Constitutional Court: This is unacceptable
After the incident, Sebastian Nerad, the Secretary-General of the Constitutional Court, responded to Rant’s email and confirmed that Biščak was not authorised to communicate with the media. Nerad also said that Biščak’s actions were, indeed, unacceptable and expressed his deepest apologies to editor Rant, assuring him that something like that would never happen again.