Slovenian journalist uncovered government scandal threatened with death

Epidemies as a Fusion

Nowhere in Europe is the fight for crisis measures for Corona developing as strong as in Slovenia. The new prime minister, Janez Janša, has only six weeks in office and is trying to use the moment to further expand his power. The epidemic is a unique opportunity to do this: the enemy is the virus, and anyone who criticizes the government is linked to the virus. Even appointments and evacuations from office to public television are justified with a state of emergency. In normal times the chances of such changes would be slim. Janša leads a weak three-party coalition. With its nationalist right-wing intentions and authoritarian governance, the 61-year-old doesn't even have a majority in government, let alone a population.

As soon as it became known that investigative journalist Bla finished Zgaga was awarded the Freedom of Speed Award (FOSA) by Deutsche Welle, he was hit in social media with a Russian-style attack. The fact that Zgaga received the prize is evidence that no one knows Slovenian at Deutsche Welle” B.C. A government party deputy. Hundreds of trolls from false accounts are insulting these days “the false warnings directed by George Soros”.

Government Campaign

The main source of campaigns is private Nova24 radio station, founded five years ago under the US FoxNews model to break the hegemony of liberal media. Nova24 attacks refugees, homosexuals and Roma, and is funded by Janša SDS's party, which is close to Orbán. mid-March chief of Nova24 Aleš Hojs, one of the thirsty twitterists, became interior minister in the SDS-led government.

Personal Attacks Against Zogaga

Blaz Zgaga is a hated figure for the Janša camp after discovering a scandal for buying Finnish tanks more than ten years ago. His expertise was indisputable: with a radio colleague, he published three volumes on arms smuggling at the time of the Yugoslavia Wars a standard work with more than 1,300 pages precisely investigated. Since then, former editor-in-chief of the Maribor newspaper “Večer” has written mainly for foreign media, including “Spiegel” and “Guardian”. In his writings he was not only dealing with Janšan and his camp é but also with former President Milan Kucan, who was involved in an arms trade. When the journalist wrote about corruption in supply of breathing devices early in April, Prime Minister Janša personally attacked him an illegal act for democratic governments. Zbga “chews his lies for decades”, the prime minister wrote on Twitter.

In an interview with DW, Zgagaga said he lives in a double isolation: “On one side because of Corona, on the other because of the threats I received. For some time, I dared to leave the apartment only at 11x1>. He is aware that politics is sometimes aimed at intimidating journalists and avoiding criticism of the state. “We all have to live in fear, the goal is a dictatorship of fear,” said investigative journalist, winner of the Freedom of Speed Award.