The TV show Tarča (Target) revealed a recording of a telephone conversation between Minister Zdravko Počivalšek and former director of the Agency for Commodity Reserves Anton Zakrajšek. They both confirmed that they did not record the conversation, so there are only two options: either the conversation was illegally recorded by the intelligence services, or the police recorded it, which is allowed by law, but the recorded footage should by no means be published by the media. Zakrajšek’s lawyer has already announced the filing of legal proceedings against the RTV.
On Thursday’s show Tarča, where the procurement of medical equipment was being discussed, a recording of a telephone conversation between Minister Zdravko Počivalšek and former director of the Agency for Commodity Reserves Anton Zakrajšek was published. They have both confirmed that they did not record the conversation, and Zakrajšek’s lawyer Dejan Markovič has already announced the filing of legal proceedings, in order to protect the legal interest.
This means that the story might get very complicated for the RTV, as there are only two bad options for them: either the conversation was illegally recorded by the intelligence services, or it was recorded by the police on the basis of the Electronic Communications Act, but in this case, the recording should not have been published by the media.
Let’s recap: in the recording, we can hear Minister Počivalšek, who demanded that Zakrajšek pay an advance to a certain company, as the company had secured the business with a bank guarantee. Zakrajšek then asked Počivalšek if this applies to all companies, and Počivalšek replied that the option of an advance payment was only valid for one specific company, as the business had been secured by a bank guarantee. The public had misinterpreted the recording, believing that it proves that the Minister favors one particular company, but at a time when many frivolous companies were offering medical equipment on the market, this was the only way to provide protective equipment with any kind of certainty.
Rok Krajnc