By: Domen Mezeg (Nova24tv.si)
“It is absurd and humiliating for journalists that the Prime Minister does not answer the question at the press conference, and the journalists act as if they do not notice it at all. How unimportant journalists are to this government is also shown by the fact that the Prime Minister does not respond to the invitation of national television and that his right-hand man does not answer journalists’ questions for months. I wonder what Slovenian journalists will have to experience in order to finally say enough?” asked the responsible editor of the Domovina weekly, Mamić.
A few days ago, Prime Minister Robert Golob caused a lot of stir at a press conference, where instead of answers to the RTV journalist’s questions about controversial transfers to the former journalist of Necenzurirano portal Vesna Vuković (in the amount of 103 thousand from the state Gen-I), controversial Balkan transfers in the amount of two million euros to the Kosovo ambassador in Croatia, Martin Berishaj, and a stolen identity in Romania, he responded with an attack on employees of RTV Slovenia and a threat to the Constitutional Court. Between the lines, he told all of them that they must “dance” to his tune if they want to have a good time.
Above all, it is crucial for Golob that the Constitutional Court approves the controversial law as soon as possible, which would “behead” the management of RTV Slovenia. As a result, the public institution would be more under control, and the Prime Minister (in dictatorial style) would not have to face “disturbing” questions… Otherwise, it is just one of Golob’s last rhetorical flowers. The Prime Minister recently also shocked when he offered successful entrepreneurs a job in the public administration if they failed in business… We asked the editor-in-chief of the Domovin weekly Tino Mamić for his opinion on the matter: “Prime Minister Golob is behaving extremely strangely. It is like he does not have a public relations job at all.”
“His spokesmen are only concerned with mitigating the consequences of his thoughtless and, in some places, completely nonsensical statements.” Mamić is convinced that the Prime Minister cannot promise jobs in the public administration in such a way that he invites entrepreneurs who will fail to come to him for a conversation in order to give them a job. This is open corruption because people cannot be employed in the public administration without public tenders. Journalists who should be pointing this out are silent, Mamić noted with horror, and added: “Instead of being barking guard dogs, they are like poodles wagging their tails, as Vipavska.eu writes.”
“I wonder what Slovenian journalists will have to experience in order to say enough for the last time?”
A member of the Association of Journalists and Publicists of Slovenia is convinced that it is absurd and humiliating for journalists that the Prime Minister does not answer a question at a press conference, and journalists act as if they do not notice it at all. According to him, how unimportant journalists are to this government is also shown by the fact that the Prime Minister does not respond to the invitation of national television and that his right-hand man does not answer journalists’ questions for months. “I wonder what Slovenian journalists will have to experience in order to say enough for the last time?” asked Mamić, horrified, and added that we can only imagine what would have happened if Prime Minister Janez Janša and Minister Matej Tonin had behaved this way at the previous government’s press conference.
The ZNP’s official response: “We consider the above-mentioned behaviour of the Prime Minister in the ZNP to be unfit for office and disrespectful to journalists. Any journalist can ask a politician who holds a public office anything, as long as the question is not inconsistent with the code of ethics, and it is up to the politician to answer the question, as far as he knows the answer. Since these were questions that Robert Golob, as a former director of Gen-I, could have answered, we understand his behaviour as inappropriate and disrespectful, especially since he used the answer to launch a new attack on the management of RTVS and put pressure on the Constitutional Court.”