By: Vida Kocjan
“When the team, mostly from the former Slovenec, began working at Demokracija in the summer of 1996, uncertainty was considerable. They predicted we would last a few months, maybe a year or two; the seventh year was supposed to be critical.
It was not easy. We were a small team, but with unwavering determination and strict work habits. We did not count hours, nor were we shaken by attacks – not even those in the middle of the night at the door of our offices on Wolfova Street in Ljubljana, when ‘external’ visitors disabled our phone lines and blocked the exit. We were not shaken even by lawsuits from individuals from the State Security Service (commonly known as the former UDBA), which poured in during the first weeks of publishing the weekly. We had published lists of SDV collaborators. They did not frighten us, but they did drain us financially.
Lawsuits also came from various more or less well‑known individuals and politicians. It was similar: a lawsuit ‘fell’ even if a young journalist mistakenly wrote a word or two incorrectly and then apologised. And behold: the apology itself became the reason for conviction. Guilty. High payment claims followed.
We endured all of this. We were not tempted, broken, or converted by various capital connections. We kept our pride and backbone. We developed as much as was realistically possible within the Slovenian circumstances.
Work saved us. And steadfastness. That is why today, 30 years later, we are still here – stronger than ever.
And that is what I, as the editor in the early years of Demokracija, am most proud of and most grateful for: that we did not give up, that we did not sell the name, and that we remained faithful to what we began with.
Thank you and congratulations to everyone. Thirty years is a great reward for the entire team and for all who led the editorial office. I myself have remained a firm member of the team. The greatest thanks go to our loyal readers.