By: Luka Perš / Nova24tv.si
STA director Bojan Veselinovič does not dare to confront UKOM director Uroš Urbanija in front of television screens. “Today I am invited to the show Tema dneva on Nova24TV about STA. Like last time in Odmevi show on RTV Slovenia, Bojan Veselinović is again not available… he has a long vacation,” comments Urbanija. So what is Director Veselinovič afraid of if he claims to have arguments on his side?
Calls and accusations are following each other in the Slovenian and foreign media that the current government wants to destroy the STA. With the latest call for the preservation of the STA, the Department of Journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences once again responded via social networks. With the media machinery and various calls, they want to kill the truth that the director of the STA, Bojan Veselinovič, has been refusing to hand over the required documentation requested by the owner, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, for several months now. This is how the contractual obligations between the STA and the government are stated.
The director of the Government Communication Office, Uroš Urbanija, wants the director of the STA, Bojan Veselinovič, to deliver the documents, which he has been requesting for several months, once and for all. Whereas, the central Slovenian media, which cover more than ninety percent of the media space, are making Veselinovič a “national” hero because he is resisting the current government. However, no media owned by transitional tycoons point out that the real culprit for the situation is Veselinovič. On top of that, he does not even dare to face Urbanija in public, but communicates only individually, with mass media coverage. Namely, Veselinović refused to face both RTV and POP TV, and now also Nova24TV.
Veselinovič plays the “victim” in majority transitional media
The STA has long ceased to be a national agency, which it should be in terms of its status. During the decade of Bojan Veselinovič’s rule, it turned into another satellite of the network of the transitional left. It is sold as “independent” and necessary for Slovenian society. The duty media experts from the Faculty of Social Sciences also like to convince us of this. Thus, in recent days we have been listening to Marko Milosavljević, Igor Vobič, and Jernej Amon Prodnik.
Unfortunately, these experts never ask themselves why Veselinovič does not want to show the documents required by UKOM. It can quickly become clear to any individual with some logic that the disclosed documents would call into question the “successful” leadership of Veselinovič as director of the STA. However, he does not want to give up his position, as he earns a little less than 100 thousand euros gross per year.
The Association of Journalists and Publicists of Slovenia also disagrees with Veselinovič’s actions, and are urging him to resign. As they are convinced, the director of the Slovenian Press Agency Bojan Veselinovič in the current dispute “did not show the ability to talk and negotiate with the government communication office (Ukom), but even seems to deliberately and consciously exacerbate the dispute.” In this regard, ZNP argues with UKOM’s allegations that the director of the STA refuses to grant the state administration a 60 percent discount for an unexplained reason.
The government wanted to pass a law on the demographic fund this week. The purpose of the law is, among other things, to regulate that all state property would be operationally managed from one place. Among other things, STA would also join this fund. This greatly disturbed the left wing opposition parties, which would lose influence over editorial policy with a possible sale or change of leadership. At the beginning of its term in office, the current government wanted to appoint lawyer Radovan Cerjak as its supervisor, but it was prevented to do so by repeated manoeuvres. So you ask yourselves, how you would feel as a business owner in which your own workers would do things their own way. Bojan Veselinovič has once again proved his cowardice, as he appears only in those media where they kindly present his aspect of the story.