by Adrian Vatovec

The journalist seminar held in Slovenia from September 23 - 29 was an excellent introduction to the workings and functions of the various media and the invaluable contacts that were made. Dr. Zvone Žigon (Slovenian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Office for Slovenians Abroad) executed an outstanding seminar, ably assisted by Sabina Popovič (Public Relations and Media Office of the Republic of Slovenia). The seminar ran like clock work, like a Swiss watch or should I say a Slovenian watch, logistically our delegation moving from one meeting/location to another in precision time.

 

The journalists who assembled in Ljubljana for this seminar had traveled from near and far, at the invitation of the Office for Slovenians Abroad. Dr. Eduardo Kovačič and Tone Mizerit from Argentina; Florjan Auser, Alfred Mlinarič, Katarina Peršič and Adrian Vatovec from Australia; Frank Brence, Stane Kranjc and Branko Maligec from Canada; Anthony Ovsenik from USA; Avguština Budja from Sweden; and Maja Dukanovič and Zlata Radisavljevič from Serbia and Montenegro. In total thirteen of us had made the trek to Slovenia from countries where each one of us is involved, in our local Slovenian community, with communication by either radio, newsletter, internet or television. Each one of us holds Slovenia close to our hearts and the amount of voluntary work that the delegates put into communicating the scope of Slovenian issues is a testament to this.

We, journalist delegates, registered at the Hotel Park (only ten minutes walk from city central) on a Tuesday afternoon and headed off to another hotel (Astral), as the hotel we were staying at did not have suitable meeting facilities, for introductions with our hosts (mentioned in the first paragraph) and ourselves, exchange of newsletters, followed by dinner. You got the feeling immediately that the group would click and they all turned out to be a great bunch of people to share the week.

The seminar can yield surprises in other ways. During the course I discovered that Stane from Ontario Canada comes from a village (Nadanje Selo) close by from where my parents are from, and that the father of Eduardo from Buenos Aires Argentina comes from the same village as my parents, Ostrozno Brdo. Stane is actively involved with the Slovenian society in Canada and has held various president positions. He is also the only immigrant, let alone Slovenian, to reach the level of Director at the giant General Mills company in North America. Eduardo is involved with broadcasting a Slovenian program every Sunday from 11.30am - 12.30pm on AM 1290 Radio Cristal called Slovenija ., moja ljubezen. Eduardo is also a doctor of law. Tone (Buenos Aires, Argentina) is involved with the newsletter Svobodna Slovenija, Florjan (Sydney, Australia) with the multi-media Slovenian media House and with the development of archiving - he gave an excellent presentation post seminar on the important work he is doing in archiving, Alfred (Brisbane, Australia) with the Slovenian radio program on 4 EB FM 98.1, Katarina (Melbourne, Australia) with the Slovenian youth radio program on 3ZZZ and is also a cultural worker, Frank (Ontario, Canada) is co-editor of the newsletter Glasilo voice of Canadian Slovenians, Branko (Winnipeg, Canada) is president of the Slovenian society in Winnipeg and is involved with its newsletter, Anthony (Cleveland, USA) with the Slovenian hour on Cleveland public radio 90.3FM and he contributes to Voice of America -Washington D.C. and to Radio Ognjišče - Ljubljana, Avguština (Landskrona, Sweden) with the Slovenian society in Sweden and is a member of the popular singing trio Sestre Budja (Sisters Budja) and writes songs for the group. They have released four recordings to date, the 2004 recording is well on its way, and they perform regularly in Slovenia (the car trip from Sweden to Slovenia takes 18 hours). On their Otroci zemle recording, Avguština wrote Slovenian lyrics for a song written by Agneta Foltskog (the blonde one from ABBA). Maja (Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro) is involved with the newsletter Bilten for Slovenians in Belgrade and she also teaches Slovenian, and Zlata (Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro) with the Slovenia newsletter in Novi Sad, Kredarica. My involvement is with Slovenia South Australia newsletter issued by Slovenian Club Adelaide, write the occasional article for other important publications such as Glas Slovenije, and I am involved with cultural pursuits.

The following days (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) the seminar started by meeting in the foyer of our hotel at 8.00am (after breakfast) and then in most cases walking to the venues where the presentations were held - you need to be reasonably fit to keep up with the pace. Luckily things are relatively close in this part of Ljubljana. After a full day of meetings the seminar would conclude at the end of the day with dinner at our hotel at 7.30pm. We were supplied by an abundant amount of information in the form of brochures, paper, books and CD's by the institutions and organisatons we visited.

During the course of these three days we visited a number of organizations such as the Public Relations and Media Office of Slovenia, which included presentations by their people and Office for Slovenians Abroad as well as from the Slovenian Journalist Association. Here we heard that the Public Relations and Media Office of Slovenia is active in sending out information about Slovenia to other countries data about tourism, business, culture, issuing press releases, and they involved with awareness campaign building, press clipping service, issuing publications and they are involved with public relations and marketing. The Office is split into two sections a) media and b) projects and campaigns. Of the information that they issue, 80% of it is available on the internet. The Public Relations and Media Office's focus at the moment is increasing visitor numbers to Slovenia through promotional material. The Office says that the first two years of Slovenia's entry into the European Union is the hardest so they are working on a strategy ease this situation. In so far as the use of material for our own use is concerned, the Office and all other organizations visited stated that we have permission to use their material, just state the source of this information. The Euro barometer indicates that Slovenia has a low awareness level among residents of other European nations. The Office says that the level of awareness is low with the general population of those countries but higher with people with professional and management occupations. They have been actively targeting the latter group, opinion leaders, as they do not have sufficient funds to conduct a full scale promotional campaign to the general population of those countries. The strategy here is that information from opinion leaders will trickle down to the masses.

The Office for Slovenians Abroad holds two seminars per year. Each year a seminar is held for teachers of Slovenian language and on a rotating yearly basis seminars are held for journalists, archivists and culturalists. Eight to ten people work at the Office for Slovenians Abroad and as well as organizing seminars they assist with funding for cultural pursuits for Slovenian organizations abroad and support publications such as Rodna Gruda and Naša Slovenija. In evaluating proposals, the Office for Slovenians Abroad gives preference to projects that cost less and give maximum exposure. Enquiries about funding can be made with Slovenian embassies.

At the time of the conference there was no provision for Slovenian journalists living abroad to become members of the Slovenian Journalist Association. A proposal was put forward to the Association and we await the outcome. Benefits of membership include access to events where a press pass is required in Slovenia and perhaps even in the country where a person is living, if a high profile Slovenian delegation is giving a press conference for example. Registered journalists in Slovenia get 10% discount on Renault (hire car) and 20% discount on rail travel in Slovenia. There are 460 freelance journalists in Slovenia.

At the Ljubljana University's Faculty of Arts we were told that Slovenian is studied at forty five universities around the world and is one of the hardest languages to learn. Gramatically things are changing, Slovenian is a living language, for example words that used to start with a capital letter don't now and some words are now combined.

At the Faculty we were told that journalists must know everything and be open to all levels of information and knowledge and to be aware of the impact economics and politics has on journalism.Radio Slovenia is a major media outlet with a non-commercial focus and started life in 1928 as Radio Ljubljana. Their programming is centered on promoting, supporting and preserving Slovenian culture through music, interviews, plays etc. They are interested in receiving programs from Slovenians abroad (besides Christmas greetings) and the language can be of any level of Slovenian or the native tongue in which the person lives. A few of us attended a practical announcing session which was very interesting in how to pronounce and where to place emphasis in words for radio broadcasting. I find the Slovenian language very melodic.

Besides Radio Slovenia, there are an amazing 90 radio stations of all descriptions in Slovenia. Maca Švabič whose reports from Ljubljana can be heard on SBS radio in Australia conducted two group interviews with members of our journalist delegation which went air on Radio Slovenia on a Thursday and Friday night.

Radio Slovenia is part of the Radiotelevizija Slovenija institution which was founded by the Parliament of the Republic of Slovenia as a public broadcasting service with two television channels, three radio channels and a radio and television channel for each of the minority Italian and Hungarian communities. The first television broadcast commenced in 1957, colour was broadcast in 1966, teletext in 1984, digitalisation for TV commenced in 1999 and independent satellite broadcast from Domžale started in 2001. The Television centre which we walked through was first built in 1975 with four studios. TV Slovenia creates video cassettes which are available to Slovenian emigrant organisations abroad.

Delo is Slovenia's leading newspaper house, has a commercial focus, trades on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, and commands the largest share of reading audience in Slovenia. In the past ten years this private enterprise has built an impressive publishing business from a low base. The flagship is the Delo newspaper which can also be viewed in abbreviated format daily on the internet (the following day's edition comes out at 9.00pm Slovenian time on the previous day. Did you know that if you read Delo from the top of the first page to the bottom of the last page it would take you 4hrs and 32mins!
Our delegation noted a lack of reporting of Slovenian emigrant communities in the newspaper and suggested that a weekly or monthly section be devoted to this topic. Some journalists in the delegation also felt that a lot more use could be made of Slovenian journalists living abroad who have a sound knowledge of the country in which they live and can accurately report on facts.

Radio Ognjišče is devoted to radio broadcasting of the Catholic religious faith. They are very keen for Slovenians abroad to send them material, as they say the only people who have no time are the dead - so no excuses! You can visit their web site for news items and listen to their radio webcasts. Our journalist delegates were interviewed on Radio Ognjišče by Matjaž Merljak and broadcast at a later date. Matjaž can be heard sending reports from Slovenia on Slovenian emigrant programs abroad.

Slovenska tiskovna agencija (STA) or Slovenian Press Agency is responsible for assembling news articles and draws information locally and from abroad. They publish in Slovenian as well as in English (and perhaps other languages) and their articles feed into publications such as Slovenia News and Slovenia Business Week which are published in English. Any newsworthy items can be sent/emailed directly to STA in Ljubljana.

At Parliament House the President of the Commission for Relations with Slovenians in Neighbouring and Other Countries, Franc Pukšič spoke about the Commision's work. The Commission as part of the Slovenian National Assembly has as a firm charter to preserve the Slovenian identity, language, culture and cultural heritage and to encourage cultural growth among Slovenians living beyond its borders. The Resolution brought forward in 1996 stipulates the areas of cooperation between the Republic of Slovenia and Slovenians living abroad to ensure that the inclusion of Slovenians abroad in the cultural, scientific, informational, economic, educational, sport and other fields of endeavour of the Slovenian society are covered. President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor spoke to us outside the large hall where stunning murals surround the room depicting the history of Slovenia. The large hall was empty so we had the opportunity to stroll around the hall where Slovenian political issues are discussed.

The Slovenian European Minister Dr. Janez Potočnik stated that the main job of the European Union really only starts when Slovenia enters the European Union. He said it won't be easy but it won't be difficult either and believed that changing rules is easy quick, but changing the way people think is much harder and takes a longer time to occur. Next year will be the first time that Slavic countries enter the EU and in a sense the "wall" between these countries and Western Europe is coming down, as when the Berlin wall came down. The working language in the EU is English. The current thinking is that the Euro will replace the SIT in 2007-08, although a few retail outlets in Ljubljana accept the Euro now and give you the change back in SIT. Following this we visited the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Office for Slovenians Abroad where we were greeted by department head Metoda Bračkovič. This is the location at which Dr. Zvone Žigon works.The Ministry of Information Society gave us an overview of the projects they were working on including learning the Slovenian language over the internet, a test version is timed for December 2003 and a working version is expected March 2004. This will enable students of Slovenian language to access the learning modules 24 hours a day. An e-library is also in the works (due December 2003) and the value of this project is 90 million SIT. Other projects are e-schools, multi-media centres, kiosk terminals and e-points. In 2002 between 41-45% of Slovenians regularly used the internet, which is lower than the EU average of 51%, up from 30% the previous year. The latest news and developments from the Ministry of Information Society can be read on their web site at
http://www.mid.gov.si
At the National University Library Vlado Kreslin and I presented to members of the journalist party and the library a copy of our joint recording "Play with fire", which I wrote, and which Vlado sang on when he was in Adelaide in 2000. Many thanks to Zvone Žigon and Irena Šešek (from the library) for their co-operation in organizing and including this segment in the schedule. A copy of Slovenski pevski zbor Adelaide's CD was also made available. I feel this is a very special building to hold your work.

Rozina Švent from the National Library showed us around the building and the library's priceless collection of books from Slovenia's masters of word such as France Prešeren. As each book was opened and with the sun's rays streaming into the room you could almost feel the writer's spirit filling the room, as if a genie had been released from a bottle. The National Library building was built by another master, in the architectural field, Jože Plečnik.

The seminar included a visit to Slovenian minority groups living in Austria and Hungary and on the Saturday we left bright and early, 6.30am, for Austria, traveling by mini-bus from Ljubljana through Maribor to Pavleva hiša (Pavel House). Pavleva hiša is located just inside the Austrian border from Murska Sobota, Slovenia, in a village called Potrna (Laafeld). The house, an L-shaped building built in 1837 has been renovated through financial support provided by Slovenia and Austria. This centre is regarded as a meeting place for Slovenians and Austrians and as a cultural institution for the local community and a publication is issued called Signal The house features a permanent exhibition of pictures on the history of Slovenians in Styria (Štajerska). The House owes its name to Avgust Pavel who was a linguist (he taught in three languages), folklorist, poet, and lecturer at Szeged University, and a museum director. He was born in Cankova in what today Slovenia in 1886 and his family settled in Laafeld. In 1931 he obtained a Ph.D. in Slovenian philology.

 

To this day the Styrian Slovenians have not been recognised as an independent ethnic minority by the Austrian government and apart from the arts display in Pavlova hiša the Styrian Slovenian's goal is for political recognition and the promotion of Slovenian as an optional subject in Styrian schools. In the Laafeld region there are a number of Slovenian villages, which a guide showed us, traveling with us on our mini-bus.

After completing our visit in Austria we head for Monošter in Hungary and on the way we stop at the wine maker Radgonske gorice in Slovenia (Gornja Radgona d.d.), sample their wine and delegates purchase some to take back home. I buy a bottle of Miklavževu vino which I have never heard of before. I understand the grapes for this wine are picked in early December, and thus the name. Next we visit the Župnijska church in Bogojini which owes it stunning architectural design to the genius of Jože Plečnik and from here we visit the pottery making establishment of Lončar Bojnec.

 

Monošter has a population of 9,000 with 500 Slovenians, and surrounding this town are villages in which Slovenians live. Marijana Sukič is our guide and host and she is also the editor of their Slovenian newspaper Porabje. Hotel Lipa, where we stayed, as well as functioning as a hotel (with restaurant and lodging facilities) serves as the Slovenian cultural centre with a radio studio where programs are recorded (in digital format) and broadcast (Radio Monošter FM 106.6 MHz) and where the Porabje newsletter is written. The Slovenian cultural centre receives funding from Slovenia, Hungary and from the European Union Phare Program.

We travel by bus to be shown where the Slovenian school and library are located. A music teacher comes once a week from Slovenia to teach in the library and there are numerous school classes in the building with some furnished with computers. The walls in the hallway are lined with pictures and names of past students and it is interesting to see children with Slovenian surnames but with Hungarian Christian names, a way I think of fitting in with the local Hungarian culture. In Australia it is the same, children of Slovenian descent and surname, with an Anglo-American Christian name. The Slovenian teacher in Monošter says it is harder and harder to get children of Slovenian heritage to learn Slovenian, they would rather learn German as job opportunities are better in Germany. A similar situation existed with the Slovenian Styrians in Austria. It will be interesting to follow what happens in these two regions as Slovenia becomes part of the European Union, if new industries open up in Slovenia, what influence this will have.

 

We drive around the vicinity of Monošter looking at villages where Slovenians reside and at art, craft and cultural places. An interesting slice of life, it is a Sunday morning and church has just finished. As the people exit from church a panel van pulls up to the gathered crowd, opens its back doors and the parishioners queue to purchase ice-creams. We enter the church and view the highly ornamented interior and there is a skull of Vincentius preserved in a glass case. We visit the compound of the General Consul of the Republic of Slovenia in Monošter. The Consul General, Marko Sotlar, has only been in the position for a week. We are served refreshments outside in the gardens on what was a glorious warm blue sky day.

Heading back into Slovenia and back to Ljubljana, we stop for refreshments in gostilna Kramberger in Maribor where one of our delegates, Branko Maligec, used to frequent when he lived in this city. He and his brother (who still lives here), purchased the touring party a round of drinks. The fast pace of the last week had started to relax and one could sense the end of the seminar was in sight.

Back in Ljubljana for the final wrap-up, de-brief and a festive lunch of what has been an excellent and well rounded seminar exposing us to a multitude of media information sources

. One issue that was raised during the course of the seminar was the urgent need for a migration museum to be set up in Ljubljana. There are numerous museums and in Slovenia but I am told not one is dedicated to our migrants. It is said half a million Slovenians live outside her borders due to past difficult conditions. This number of people is extremely significant in relation to Slovenia's population of 2 million people today and there must be some permanent representation and display centre set up for this very important part of Slovenia's history.

At the end of the seminar I think this is really the beginning. The beginning of new contacts, new people, new sources of information, new ways of looking at things, for us to utilise and to expand upon. Thank you once again to the organisers (who worked very hard) and the people we saw who gave their time and energy and to the fellow delegate journalists who made this seminar extremely worthwhile. As we all know Slovenians are singing people and at every opportunity we would sing the following song, which in a way became our theme. In conclusion ...
Kol'kor kapljic tol'ko let
Bog nam daj na svet živet
Živijo oj živijo
Živijo na svet.
Adrian Vatovec
Thank you to Dragica Bosnjak from Delo, Ivan Merljak from radio Slovenija, Frank Brence from Canada, Florjan Auser Australia for photography.