PM links replacement at UKOM to war on hate speech

Ljubljana – Prime Minister Robert Golob has indicated that Dragan Barbutovski is being replaced as director of the Government Communication Office because he lacks organisational and managerial skills to run an office that the government would want to get help from in the war on hate speech.

Commenting on topical issued on Thursday, Golob said his party and coalition had declared war on hate speech in the media before the election and that he would want UKOM to help in the effort.

He said Barbutovski was appointed UKOM director for an interim period, a job he was “moderately successful in”. “During the time he has been with us we’ve established that he is immensely better suited to other roles.”

Barbutovski, an expert on EU affairs who had most recently headed the Slovenian office of the British Council, is to be transferred to the PM’s office to be responsible for international communications, if he decides to take up the offer, of which he will inform Golob on Friday.

What Golob found missing in Barbutovski is organisational and people skills.

“The primary role of the head of such an office should be organisational and managerial and we will make the best effort to find such a person, in particular for permanent capacity,” he said, adding that a call for applications to fill the job would be published within two months.

In the meantime, Petra Bezjak Cirman is joining UKOM as acting director. Being employed with RTV Slovenija and working as the head of the works’ council, Bezjak Cirman knows well how the existing leadership of the public broadcaster operates, Golob said, adding that they would not want such practice to continue at UKOM.

“This is why we want to prop up the government office with people who understand where politicisation of journalism can lead to and where the spread of hate speech can lead to,” said the prime minister.

Under the previous government, UKOM was headed by Uroš Urbanija, who has since been appointed director of TV Slovenija by RTV Slovenija director general Andrej Grah Whatmough. The latter was appointed to the post under the previous government.

Urbanija’s time at UKOM was marked by withdrawal of funding from the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) and weekly scrutiny and assessment reports of reporting by TV Slovenija.

Former journalists are also joining Golob’s party; Vesna Vuković, formerly an investigative reporter with the news portal Necenzurirano, is joining the Freedom Movement as a PR officer.

Golob also commented on other topics, announcing that his party would decide next week whether to endorse Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković for another term in the autumn local elections.

“I’m not going to deny that I see Mayor Janković as the most appropriate person to continue in office for another term,” said Golob, who used to be vice-chairman of Janković’s party Positive Slovenia.

The post PM links replacement at UKOM to war on hate speech appeared first on Slovenia Times.