Global Petition Voices Concern About Academic Freedom in Slovenia

Some 150 scholars, mostly specialists in Central and Southeast Europe, from different parts of the world, have signed a petition expressing concern about the autonomy of scholars and academic freedom in Slovenia and about the Slovene government's alleged "attempt to take control of important cultural and academic institutions".

"We are prompted by our sincere fear that academic freedom - one of the core values of the European Union and of democracy - is under threat," the letter published on Thursday said.

They claim that since rightist politician Janez Jansa came to power, the government has refused to reappoint several museum directors and one director of a research institute. They say that scholars "must be allowed to work without this kind of political and governmental interference".

"The recently announced plan to establish a new Museum of Slovene Independence further suggests that what we are observing is an attempt to control an entire scholarly field," the letter said.

Slovenia plans to establish a new museum dedicated to Slovenia's drive for independence from former Yugoslavia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to officials, it will show "the sacrifices of our forefathers who died for independent statehood during the centuries of foreign rule".

Petitioners claim that such statements "contradict everything modern scholarship has taught us about the Slovene past", and demonstrate that the new museum would be "a propaganda institution, promoting a nationalist narrative about the past", aimed mainly at buttressing the ideological agenda of the ruling Slovene Democratic Party.

This week, members of the history department at the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts expressed reservations about the plans to establish a...