News

In the latest episode of the GOVSI podcast, the guest is Michael M. Epstein, a U.S. expert in media law, who highlights the impact of disinformation on democracy, especially in the run-up to elections.

At the 23rd PRO PR Conference in Podgorica, the Director of the Government Communication Office (UKOM), Petra Bezjak Cirman, presented the Slovenian Stop Disinformation campaign: reREAD, reTHINK, RECHECK. In recognition of this campaign, the Government Communication Office received the Prizma 2024 Award, a top accolade in the field of public relations.

The Communication Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia (UKOM) has prepared an interactive quiz entitled Recognising disinformation and techniques for manipulating content, designed to encourage the public to reflect on how misleading information is created and how it can be recognised.

The claim, cited by some Croatian and Slovenian media outlets, that a US military drone crossed the path of an aircraft carrying evacuated Slovenian citizens on its way from Oman back to Slovenia is not true.

The National Election Commission (NEC) is intensively preparing for the parliamentary elections to be held on 22 March 2026. To ensure the smooth conduct of the elections, approximately 20,000 people will be engaged at nearly 3000 polling stations across Slovenia, making this the largest civic operation in the country.

In the latest episode of the government GOVSI podcast, host Zoran Potič talks with Maria Giovanna Sessa from EU DisinfoLab, an organization that has been studying the impact of disinformation campaigns for years and promotes building resilience against manipulative content in the digital environment.

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia warns that misleading advertisements promoting questionable health products have once again appeared on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. To give their product an appearance of legitimacy, the advertisers misused and manipulated a conversation with the renowned surgeon Dr Erik Brecelj, who recently appeared on the GOVSI podcast.

At the Break the Fake event, the Ukrainian disinformation expert Mykhailo Dankanych and former Russian prisoner of war Yevhenii Malyk spoke about the use of information as a weapon and the psychological impact of propaganda. The event was also attended by Petra Bezjak Cirman, Director of the Government Communication Office.

Petra Bezjak Cirman, Director of the Government Communication Office (UKOM), chaired a panel at the #Disinfo2025 conference on how to initiate the »de-shitification« of our online experience. Experts Maarten Schenk and Marc Faddoul shared their views on how we can actively contribute to a better online experience and strengthen digital responsibility.

In his opening speech at the #Disinfo2025, Vojko Volk said that we are living in a very complicated and difficult time of disinformation. The State Secretary for National and International Security at the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia stressed that every day we are fighting disinformation, which is attacking our values.

Today, the Slovenian Government and the German Federal Government held bilateral consultations on fighting disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI).

On the second day of the 20th Bled Strategic Forum, Petra Bezjak Cirman, Director of the Communication Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia (UKOM), took part in the panel entitled How About the Truth: Democracy under Siege in the Age of Disinformation, where seven speakers exchanged views on how to counter disinformation.

On the margins of the 20th Bled Strategic Forum, Petra Bezjak Cirman, Director of the Communication Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia (UKOM), met with Marcin Bosacki, State Secretary of Poland.

A misleading advertisement has appeared on social media inviting users to complete a form in order to receive a payment from the Government. This is not true. Users are advised not to click on the advertisement.

We would like to warn about the appearance of several websites registered in Africa that at first glance appear to be ordinary news websites, but a closer look reveals that something is not right.

The Communication Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia received a professional accolade in the field of public relations, the Prizma 2024 Award. The Office was awarded for its comprehensively designed and implemented national campaign aimed at raising public awareness of the dangers of disinformation and promoting critical thinking.

In response to increasingly aggressive disinformation campaigns, the European Union has adopted strict sanctions against Russian media outlets that manipulate information and spread propaganda. Among such tools for manipulating public opinion, the network of fake Pravda websites stands out in particular, using only seemingly credible websites to disseminate misleading content.

At the invitation of the Polish Embassy, Petra Bezjak Cirman, Director of the Government Communication Office of the Republic of Slovenia, attended a meeting of representatives of the diplomatic corps of EU member states (EU HoMS). At the meeting, she presented activities aimed at raising awareness and increasing resilience against disinformation, foreign information manipulation, and interference. Information security is one of the priorities of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council.

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia warns about misleading advertisements on Facebook that present themselves as being sponsored and conducted by official institutions, which is not true. The advertiser Blago za dom (Ukrainian: Товари для дому) is not connected with any official institution.

We additionally examined what or who is behind the questionable and misleading advertisements on Facebook which, using the visual identity of the Slovenian media outlet Slovenske novice, spread computer-manipulated photographs of Prime Minister Robert Golob together with misleading text claiming that the Prime Minister had been arrested by the police.