Overview of the week's top stories
since 22 June 2002

On Monday, Mladina published an article by Igor Mekina revealing that the Ministry on Foreign Affairs has prepared an analysis of anti-Nato viewpoints published in the Slovene media. Mekina suggests that the report may lead to a black list.

The report, called Elementi za oceno pisanja slovenskih medijev o vstopu Republike Slovenije v Nato (Elements for Evaluating the Writing of the Slovene Media Concerning the Entry of the Republic of Slovenia into Nato), focused on the period 1 March to 14 July 2001. The period was chosen because it saw an escalation in anti-Nato public opinion. The report found 236 articles with "negative connotations concerning Nato," according to Mekina, of which around 130 came from Delo, 80 from Dnevnik and 30 from Mladina.

Mekina became aware of the report after comments made by Foreign Minister Dimitri Rupel in Dnevnik alluding to it. According to Mekina, it took two weeks for the Foreign Ministry to honor his request, at which point he was allowed to see the report, but not to photocopy the parts that related to Mladina.

On Thursday, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Service for Public Relations, Nataša Prah, issued a public statement in which she denied the allegation that the Ministry is preparing a black list, and said that the analysis was conducted for the Ministry’s internal use.

Mekina writes that he called on the 45^th article of the Law on Media to get access to the report. The article says that state organs and other public agencies must "give truthful, complete and timely information concerning questions relating to their areas of work."

Prah, however, writes that "the Ministry of Foreign Affairs most sharply refutes the allegation of Igor Mekina that the Foreign Ministry ‘does not respect the law and does not enable access to non-secret documents in public polemics." She added that Mekina did not mention the Law on Media in trying to gain access to the document.

On Thursday it was announced that the government will buy a smaller plane at a price of USD 28 million plus value-added tax. Earlier this year, the controversy over the decision to buy a similar plane at a cost of more than USD 35 million forced the government to seek a less-costly alternative.

According to Nahtigal, the government is pleased with the negotiations, since it did not have to pay a penalty for breaking the original contract and got a "more advantageous dynamic" for paying back the debt. However, as part of the agreement, the plane will not be in the government’s hands until 23 December 2003.

He added that the savings will be used to buy a multipurpose search and rescue helicopter.

Blanka Primec of the Finance Ministry said that the lower cost lessens the finance charges and taxes, which will make the full cost of the smaller plane significantly less than the other. The cost will be paid over the course of five years.

At the press conference, "journalists did not get an answer as to who will take political responsibility for the first decision which proved to be wrong," according to Finance.

Amendments to the Law on Local Elections and Political Parties entered into force on Wednesday. As part of the changes, EU citizens will be able to join Slovene political parties once Slovenia joins the EU.

The biggest change concerns the country’s nearly 16,000 resident aliens, who will now be able to vote in local elections in the towns where they are registered. They will also be eligible to run for positions on city councils, but will not be permitted to run for the post of mayor.

The law also increases the maximum amount of resources towns can earmark for financing political parties from their own budgets. Previously, towns could not spend more than SIT 30 (USD 0.12) per vote cast, or 0.2 percent of the resources they have earmarked according to the regulations for the towns’ finances. The new regulations increase that percentage to 0.6.

The hostel will occupy the former military prison within the Metelkova complex. Renovation of the building is expected to end next spring at the latest. The hostel will open as soon as it gets a legal permit, which is expected before the end of this year.

The hostel will include tourist and conference services, a cafeteria and a library. In total, there should be nearly 100 beds. The project is funded by the city of Ljubljana and ŠOUL, and the hostel will ultimately be under the authority of the Institute for Youth Tourism.

Also this week Barbara Vajda, director of the Ljubljana Institute for Tourism, told the press that almost 40,000 tourists visited Ljubljana between January and May 2002, an increase of 37 percent over the same period last year and actually more than in all of 1999. The Institute expects the total for the year will be around 160,000.

Sunday, 23 June, marked the start of Škofja Loka’s Medieval Days, which concluded this Sunday. Harpist Nancy Thym of Freising, Germany, started the week of performances of medieval song and dance, which throughout the week included chamber choirs from Škofja Loka, Kranj and elsewhere, as well as a choir from Serbia which performed selections from the Russian Orthodox liturgy.

On Saturday, Škofja Loka relived its history with a medieval marketplace, an archery tournament, sword fighting, workshops for children as well as a medieval wedding.

Like last weekend’s event in Kamnik, the Škofja Loka Medieval Days are part of the international tourism initiative Venerina, which is based on a medieval poem about Ulrich von Lichtenstein who journeyed through 52 towns in what is now Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy and Slovenia disguised as the goddess Venus in the 13^th century.