• Parliamentary appointments
• Parliament to debate ratification of ICC privileges and immunities agreement
• Corruption charges filed against Novo Mesto mayor
• International symposium "Odprte meje – Open Borders"

Anti-Roma protest to hit Ljubljana on 27 May

The Dolenjska region was rocked this week when a Slovene resident was shot in the neck with an automatic rifle near the Romany camp near Krška vas. Police have arrested an 18-year old Romany, who is now charged with attempted murder.

The incident took place on 17 May, weeks after Roma set up a camp on private land near Krška vas. Residents of the area allege that the Roma were terrorizing them with threats and thefts. Though the locals called the police several times, they could not force the Roma to leave.

A group of 25 locals went to the camp on 17 May and found just two Roma, but more Roma soon showed up and STA reported that "someone began shooting an automatic rifle from a van that kept driving in circles around the group." One of the locals was shot in the neck and is in intensive care, and one of the Roma was also shot.

In response, residents of not only Dolenjska but also neighboring Posavje and Bela Krajina are planning to stage an anti-Roma rally on 27 May in Ljubljana.

Publishers worried about newspaper promotions

A 20 May report in Finance states that Mladinska knjiga (MK) publishers is likely to sign an agreement linking MK Biroopreme and Cankarjeve publishing to MK Shops. MK publishers has a 96 percent share of MK Shops. The move is in response to ever weakening market conditions for booksellers in the country.

One of the major threats to booksellers Finance points out is the recent launch of book-selling programs through daily newspapers. Such programs offer books at prices with which regular book stores cannot compete.

Milan Matos, director of MK Publishers, told a 19 May press conference that these programs are both good and bad – while they do encourage reading and popularize giving books as presents, they also give the public unrealistic expectations as to books’ prices.

The weekly news magazine Mladina is the latest to jump into the fray, but with DVDs rather than books. From 17 May through 7 June, the magazine is offering deeply discounted copies of "Apocalypse Now," "Chicago," "Blair Witch Project" and "Malena" on DVD, as selected by the Mladina film critic, Marcel Štefancic jr.

Slovenia Invigorates

The Slovene Tourist Organization (STO) launched its "Slovenia Invigorates" campaign on 17 May with its first ad, in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The campaign hopes to promote tourism in Slovenia through ads in German, Austrian and Italian print media and on the internet.

Imago is the advertising agency which designed the campaign, together with STO. The project is valued at 1.67 million euros with 753,000 euros going towards advertising space abroad, according to a report in Finance. The Slovene company Pristop, as well as MPG Italia, Media Planning Group Gmbh and MPG Scmitter are executing the campaign.

Maribor debate on gays and lesbians

Lingsium, an organization for gay and lesbian young people, organized a debate on 20 May about being gay in the in city of Maribor. The debate was held at Media Nox gallery, and focused on public acceptance of same-sex oriented people in Maribor, as well as acceptance of gay and lesbian individuals at school, home and among friends.

Lingsium is part of Maribor’s Youth Cultural Center and is the only organization in Maribor which deals with gay and lesbian young people. It offers information, literature, socializing opportunities and advice to young people struggling with issues of identity and sexual orientation. Lingsium invites participation by not only young gays and lesbians, but also anyone who wants to help out.

Ljubljana has several such organizations, such as Legebitra, which is part of the Student Organization of the University of Ljubljana.

And in other news…

• On 19 May, Parliament appointed Barbara Brezigar the Slovene representative to Eurojust and Dr. Verica Trstenjak of Maribor University’s Law Faculty to the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg. Current Ombudsman for Access to Public Information Igor Šoltes was also appointed the president of Slovenia’s Court of Audits.

• The government has sent a bill on the ratification of the Agreement of the Privileges and Immunities of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to parliament on 20 May. Slovenia signed the treaty creating the ICC on 7 October 1998, and ratified it on 31 December 2001. The Privileges and Immunities agreement was signed on 25 September 2003.