By: Tomaž S. Medved
The media prostitution of Odlazek’s Reporter has clearly reached its peak. Now, with the story of a rape, they have started picking on Slavko Kmetič, otherwise a long-time trade unionist, former president of the Association for the Values of Slovenian Independence and programme councillor of RTV Slovenia, who is a severe thorn in transitional left’s side. He is accused of raping a journalist 25 years ago.
We recently reported about Reporter that, according to all market rules, it could no longer be published, as interest in the print edition is extremely low. Since 2016, the ownership has been part of the empire of the notorious garbage-media tycoon Martin Odlazek, and the journalists are formally employed by the disability company Salomon, which means that they are subsidised by the state, that is, by taxpayers. Since they are completely financially dependent on their godfathers, it is not surprising that the once respectable weekly has become a symbol of the dirtiest media prostitution. The heroism that most of the writers of this weekly showed a decade and a half ago, when the then brewery association (Boško Šrot, Stojan Zdolšek, Andrijana Starina Kosem) appropriated the former Slivnik’s “Mag”, is nowhere to be found. To paraphrase and in the style of Odlazek’s original mission: the Reporter was left with only trash.
Črnčec as political commissar at Reporter
Which is actually nothing unusual, at least since the time when the once-pervasive leader of the 2014 Committee, Damir Črnčec, “switched sides” and then became Marjan Šarec’s right-hand man, first in the Prime Minister’s office, now in the Ministry of Defence. It is Črnčec who is also the chief political commissar at Reporter and apparently chooses typically intelligence topics with which he tries to neutralise the most dangerous players on the opposite side. And in fact, Slavko Kmetič is one of them. He is an experienced 70-year-old civil society activist who, in addition to his basic occupation on the railways (he was an engine driver and also a trained reserve officer), was active in the independent trade union movement, which began in December 1988 with the strike of the mechanical staff of Slovenia and Istria. A book was also published about this years ago by our publishing house Nova obzorja, in which Slavko Kmetič appears as an interviewee and revives the memory of this almost forgotten event.
The aforementioned strike also triggered the creation of the first independent trade union, which is now called the Engine Drivers’ Union of Slovenia. He also got involved in party activities by joining the then Social Democratic Party of Slovenia and in 1990 became its MP. In the 1990s, he was engaged several times as a strike leader and was also internationally active. He gradually withdrew from the structures of the trade unions at Slovenske železnice. For one term, Kmetič was also the president of the Association for the Values of Slovenian Independence (VSO), and then a programme councillor at RTV, a position he holds now for the second time.
Dangerous programme councillor
It was on RTV Slovenia that he encountered the most severe opposition. Because of his often very direct statements, many left-wing influencers, such as Roni Kordiš (nicknamed “Had”), had nervous breakdowns. Such a statement is, for example: “Today, we get 90% of information online. Today, we do not need the RTV news programme at all. We have your TV; we have other TVs. When they had a monopoly, one would still understand that they were ‘hotshots’, but today they cannot be that anymore, and they do not realise it.” Obviously, Kmetič, who has the mandate of programme councillor until 2024 (if the transitional leftists do not manage to completely destroy the existing structures at RTVS with a law imposed and adopted following an urgent procedure), is a big thorn in the side of those who are “fucking more” and are convinced that the national RTV can only be theirs. His presence at the meetings of the RTVS programme council is clearly a source of terror and fear, as it is always uncertain what kind of statement he will make again and how it will spread in the media space. When the SDS referendum initiative regarding the new law on RTVS made it clear that the current structures at RTVS would remain for some time, the propaganda apparatus of the transitional left intensified its war against those who, in its opinion, threaten it the most.
Well, of course, it is worth remembering that Kmetič was a programme councillor at RTVS before, and in his first mandate, the current presidential candidate Nataša Pirc Musar, who at the time wanted to become the general director of the aforementioned institution – of course unsuccessfully, tried to “court” him with a meeting in a political way. Because the meeting took place in a too exposed place…
In May this year, Igor Kršinar – they mockingly call him Hermes, if Črnčec is Zeus – attacked Kmetič for a video from the VSO (local committee of Krško-Kostanjevica) event in the Tratnik na Raki tavern (before the elections), when Kmetič announced the victory of the SDS and regulation of the situation at RTVS. Well, Kmetič’s predictions were premature at the time, as the instant party Gibanje Svoboda won the elections with a huge margin. But, so Kršinar, continues the settlement of the SDS with journalists anyway?! Of course, it goes without saying that Črnčec, via Kršinar, is also heavily processing and “slicing like salami” the NSi party.
A journalist with a difficult life story
And now to the article in the Reporter, which has become the headline topic and is entitled “Sexual predator from the elevator”, with a photo of Slavko Kmetič added. It is strange that none of the existing Reporter journalists took up this dirty business this time, but Katarina Keček (who otherwise has a registered e-mail address as a regular contributor to the Reporter). She is a journalist who, according to our information, has a difficult life story behind her. She is said to come from the family of a former YPA officer (her maiden name is Stojanović, but she is said to have been divorced in the meantime), at a young age she was among the erased and later became involved in this field, experienced the death of her own child, and also suffered from cancer. A year ago, she published the book Umetnost zavijanja z očmi (The art of the eye roll), and in Ona plus magazine announced the publication of the autobiographical novel Okupatorjeva hči (Occupier’s daughter), the story of how she ended up among the erased during her studies. “When my son Maks died, I did not leave the house for three months, I could not even take out the trash. I was afraid that I would meet someone and that he would ask me how my child was doing. I could not stand the situation where I had to say out loud that my child had died. When I had to get this sentence out of my mouth,” she described her tragic story, among other things. The event is said to have taken place some fifteen years ago, the child was a few months old, and the grieving mother sued the doctor because of the death.
In the article itself, she described the period from 1997, when she worked as a young journalist for the then fairly newly founded Pop TV, when she covered the railway strike (it lasted a few weeks). It is interesting that she described in detail the differences that arose between Silvo Berdajs on the one hand and Slavko Kmetič and Albert Pavlič on the other (of course, these events are of a much more recent date). But the crux of her story begins when she tackles Kmetič as the most influential programming councillor with the loudest (and, according to her, offensive) performances, even though she supposedly has no references from the media (otherwise, no law stipulates that only media experts should sit in the programming council).
Why did Perovič never speak about this event?
As she claims, at the time of the strike in 1997, she and Kmetič saw each other regularly, they were said to be together in the elevator (in the building of the Ministry of Transport), and there Kmetič allegedly jumped on her and kissed her. Of course, we will not write about the details, but it is bizarre that the journalist reported the alleged sexual attack on her to her superiors (the editor, now deceased Špela Šipek, and the director Tomaž Perovič), who promised her support. And why did Perovič, who never hid his affiliation with the transition left, keep silent about this incident if he knew about it? And interestingly, just a week or so before the publication of this article, he himself gave an interview to the Reporter, where he also admitted that he supported Robert Golob in the elections.
In short, many more questions than answers. In the otherwise long article, several cases of sexual harassment appear, the author even mentions an affair with Zoran Janković and a pharmacist, and with Mia Skrbinac, who became a victim of a predator at AGRFT… If it is somehow understood that the victim spoke after only 25 years, is it incomprehensible that with such loud luminaries in the world of media, such as the regime’s Association of Journalists of Slovenia, no one knew anything about the alleged rape in the mirror?
Is the signed journalist really the author of the article?
Anyway, we also called Slavko Kmetič, who remembers the events of 25 years ago in general and that it is quite likely that he met the mentioned journalist several times, but he denies physical contact with her. However, he will not decide on a lawsuit against her. For which we can believe him, because there is a suspicion that the author of the text may not be Katarina Keček at all, who, as we have already written, is recovering from cancer…
In short, with the publication of the article in the Reporter, another abuse of a person in need has occurred. Therefore, in the coming days and weeks, we will try to find out who is actually behind the article about rape, which is suspiciously reminiscent of the famous story published by Mladina in January 2002, namely that a similar act was committed by Marko Pogorevc (it is said to have happened ten years earlier in Metlika), who was the general director of the police at the time the article was published. The story about the rape faded out then, but the bitter aftertaste remained…