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