EFJ urges Slovene newspaper group Delo to reconsider unjustified dismissal of journalist

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), the European group of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), urges the management of Delo, the largest national daily newspaper in Slovenia, to reconsider the recent dismissal of   Dejan Karba, who has been employed as journalist by Delo.

According to the information we have received by our members in Slovenia, the Slovenian Association of Journalists and the Slovenian Union of Journalists, Dejan Karba was urged by management of Delo to sign the resignation of his employment contract on 8 January due to some critical stories he wrote against high political figures including from the Catholic Church. He was even denied time to be able to contact his trade union and consider this unexpected request.

Dejan Karba was never sentenced to break any law or the Code of conduct of Slovene Journalists or any internal rules of Delo.

 

However,  Marjeta Zevnik, the director of Delo  said that  Delo would not cover any legal costs for lawsuits against Karba in these different cases if he won’t sign the resignation of the contract.

 

All journalists’ organisations in Slovenia as well as his colleagues and editors demanded that Delo management withdraws the signed resignation of the contract and starts procedures against Karba that are in accordance with the labor law and in which he will have the possibility to defend himself. The management refused to do that.

 

We fully support our affiliates in Slovenia, the association and the union, to take all legal measures to defend Dejan Karba, and we call to the management to reconsider this case taking fully into account media law, labour law and the Code of conduct of Slovene Journalists. It cannot be that journalists are not allowed to engage in investigative critical journalism in the name of the public interest.

 

Arne König,

EFJ President