Ali Zerdin
Editor-in-chief
Dnevnik
Kopitarjeva 2 and 4
1510 Ljubljana
Slovenia
ali.zerdin@dnevnik.si
Dear Mr. Zerdin:
The Overseas Press Club of America, which has been defending the rights of a free press around the world for seven decades, fully supports your efforts to publish news of an Italian businessman’s alleged involvement in a corruption scandal and to appeal the injunction preventing you from publishing further news of the affair.
The facts as we know them are this: The Ljubljana District Court has banned Dnevnik from reporting about Italian businessman, Pierpaolo Cerani, who became a major owner of the beverage group, Pivovarna Lasko, earlier this year. Without in any way taking a position on the accuracy of your reporting, we find the threat to fine Dnevnik as much as €500,000 outrageous. We recognize this threat for what it is; not a legal penalty, but an attempt to shut down Dnevnik.
We can not understand what law gives a court the right to silence a newspaper before the libel charges against it have been proved, which, in Dnevnik’s case, even appear to include coverage of its libel trial. It is a fundamental right of the press to report court proceedings, unless there is an overwhelming reason for not doing so, such as the privacy of a minor or a national security question. A lawyer seeking an injunction would have to prove such an overwhelming reason, and that has not been the case.
Of further concern to us is that the action against Dnvenik takes place against what appears to be the recent deterioration of press freedom in Slovenia. We note that in July, the Slovenian judiciary charged a Finnish journalist, Magnus Berglund, of Finnish broadcaster, YLE, with two counts of criminal defamation in connection to a documentary he produced, which tied the former prime minister, Janez Jansa, to an alleged arms-deal scandal. Berglund, who has left the country, now faces up to six months in a Slovene jail at the urging of Jansa’s lawyer. Coincidentally, that same lawyer is also reportedly representing Pierpaolo Cerani.
We wish Dnvenik luck in its appeal to the Court of Appeals. Add our names to the ranks of your allies in this matter.
Sincerely,
Kevin McDermott
Jeremy Main
Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
H.E.. Danilo Turk
President
Office of the President
Erjavčeva 17
SI-1000 Ljubljana
Republic of Slovenia
Fax: (011.386.1) 478.1357
Hon. Mariam Mozgan
Charge d’Affaires
Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia
2410 California Street, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 386.6633
Ambassador Sanja Ftiglic
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Slovenia to the United Nations
600 Third Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Fax: (212) 370.1824
Hon. Brad Freden
Charge d’Affaires
Embassy of the United States of America
7140 Ljubljana Place
1000 Ljubljana
Republic of Slovenia
Fax: (011.386.1) 200.5555
Magnus Berglund
TV Finland
Fax: (011.358.9) 1480 3388
tv.finland@yle.fi
Borut Peterlin
borutpeterlin@hotmail.com