Slovenia: Attack of a vaccine against a television channel | They arrested 20 demonstrators who had invaded a studio

An anti-vaccine group and coronavirus deniers broke into the headquarters of Slovenian public television, RTVS, in the early hours of Saturday, demand that their theories be expressed.

The studio was no longer on air when protesters stormed in demanding they be allowed to express their views. Opponents of the vaccine have been gathering outside the building for months, often interrupting reporters coming or returning from work.STA news agency reported.

The police quickly intervened and arrested 20 people who attempted to enter the reporting studio, the Slovenian STA news agency reported.

“Attack on Democracy”

“It is an unacceptable attack on the media, journalism and democracy”, denounced the network’s programming director, Manica Janezic Ambrozic.

For his part, the station manager, Andrej Grah Whatmough , described Friday’s incident as “a serious attack on our media house and our public communications medium, which we condemn in the strongest terms.”

Whatmough admitted that protesters have the right to protest although he warned that new security measures have already been taken, after four months of harassment of station staff and protests outside its headquarters, the Europa Press news agency reported.

“Hate Campaign”

Slovenian Press Association (DNS) denounced that this attack is only “tip of the iceberg” of a “hate campaign” against the media encouraged by the government of Prime Minister Janez Jansa.

RtvSlo journalists have been the target of various accusations, conspiracy theories and slurs that anti-vaccines have been shouting during frequent protests outside the building for months. These are people who they deny the existence of covid-19 and they oppose measures against the pandemic, especially vaccination.

According to the STA, behind the incident is the movement led by ex-soldier Ladislav Troha, a veteran of the Slovenian War of Independence (also known as the Ten Day War in 1991).

“No muzzles”

Led by the head of a “patriotic organization” called “Conscious Residents of Slovenia”, the demonstrators first distributed leaflets in the street and then inside the studio asking “Safe schools and universities without muzzles”.

Tanja Staric, a reporter from RtvSlo, told media that his company repeatedly warned authorities that anti-vaccines were causing a mess outside his building and making it harder for journalists to do their jobs, but no one responded.

Independent

The public broadcaster RtvSlo, which maintains an information line independent from government, receives many reviews from the first in March 2020.

Slovenia has seen an increase in Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations in recent weeks, with an average of 537 new cases per day. Since the start of the pandemic, Slovenia, with a population of just over two million, has suffered 269,979 infections and 4,783 deaths.

About one million Slovenes have been vaccinated and almost 1.9 million doses have been applied.