News

In the new episode of the government GOVSI podcast, hosted by Petra Bezjak Cirman, we delved into the world of statistics with guests Apolonija Oblak Flander, Director-General of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS), and Martin Bajželj, Head of the Data Publishing and Communication Sector. They discussed the importance of statistics for everyday decision-making, societal governance, and economic development.

The Director of the Government Communication Office, Petra Bezjak Cirman, presented the challenges of identifying disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference, and the awareness-raising campaign Stop Disinformation: READ, THINK, CHECK, at the Strategic Communication in the Contemporary Security Environment training, which took place from 3 to 6 December at Jable Castle in Mengeš.

In the latest, 15th episode of the GOVSI podcast, the guest is the Chief Labor Inspector, Katja Čoh Kragolnik. Host Zoran Potič discussed pressing issues surrounding workers’ rights, legislation, and the practical role of the Labor Inspectorate with her.

The National Assembly approved the law on the public sector pay system yesterday.

In this episode of the GOVSI podcast, we discuss civil defense. Together with Boštjan Pavlin, the Director General for Defense Affairs at the Ministry of Defense, we explain the essence of civil defense and the difference between civil defense and civil protection.

October is Cyber Security Month in many countries, including Slovenia. In the 12th episode of the GOVSI podcast, Dr. Uroš Svete, Director of the Government Office for Information Security, and Petra Bezjak Cirman, Director of the Government Office for Communication, discussed this topic.

In the latest episode, Zoran Potič hosted distinguished American professor in the field of communication and public diplomacy, Nicholas J. Cull. They discussed the history of disinformation, the characteristics of disinformation today, and the challenges modern technologies and the increasing amounts of (dis)information pose to democracy.

At the panel “Information Disruption: Strengthening the West's Resilience against Foreign Information Manipulation”, Petra Bezjak Cirman, Director of the Government Communication Office (UKOM), presented the government's activities in countering disinformation to European students at the 12th “Balkan SAYS (Security Architecture Youth Seminar) 2024” seminar in Ljubljana.

Director of Government Communication Office (UKOM) Petra Bezjak Cirman Meets with Chief of Staff to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy at Bled Strategic Forum.

Today's roundtable at the Slovenian House discussed the end of a sporting career, which is an important milestone in every athlete's journey. Former top skier and UKOM I feel Slovenia brand ambassador Tina Maze and sports aces Urška Žolnir Jugovar, Goran Dragić and Igor Vušurović, Montenegro's gold-winning volleyball player, spoke about the pitfalls and fears they faced along the way and about their experiences.

It has been one year since the catastrophic floods affected a large part of Slovenia. The Government promptly responded to this extreme event and did much to ameliorate the immediate effects. Later, it also adopted many measures for flood recovery. One of the key people who led the first response and saved lives was Civil Protection Commander Srečko Šestan.

The Government has adopted a series of recommendations and is preparing new legislative measures to improve the fairness and transparency of the state media advertising, the European Commission noted in a recent report on the rule of law in the EU.

Slovenia House in Paris has officially opened its doors today and will serve as the centre of fan gatherings and Slovenia’s comprehensive presentation featuring numerous events in the coming Olympic days.

Slovenia's colours will be represented at the Olympic Games in Paris by its largest-ever Olympic delegation, consisting of 197 members, including 90 athletes. In addition to its outstanding sports team, Slovenia will also be making its presences felt at the largest version of the Slovenia House so far.

With the new episode of the GOVSI Podcast, we are counting down the last days until the Olympic Games in Paris. In the studio, we hosted the president of the Olympic Committee of Slovenia, Franjo Bobinac. Petra Bezjak Cirman, director of the Office of Communications of the Republic of Slovenia, spoke with him.

In the new episode of the GOVSI podcast, host Zoran Potič interviewed two guests, one from the public sector and one from the non-governmental sector – Director of the Directorate for Nature at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning Dr Katarina Groznik Zeiler and President of the Society for Observation and Study of Birds of Slovenia (BirdLife Slovenia (DOPPS)) Dr Tanja Šumrada. The occasion for the interview was the awarding of a new national award, the Rado Smerdu Award, for contributions to the development of the profession of nature conservation and to nature conservation itself.

To mark the launch of the Stop Disinformation - reREAD, reTHINK, RECHECK campaign, we're taking a closer look at this topic in a new episode of the GOVSI Podcast.

When the catastrophic storm that struck much of Slovenia in August 2023 caused a widespread disaster, the Government Communication Office (UKOM) immediately provided a rapid, coordinated and efficient flow of information between field teams, the government and the population through official communication channels and close cooperation with the media. Its professionalism in this regard was recognised by the Slovenian Public Relations Association with the Prizma Award.

Have you heard about the invasion of bedbugs in one of Europe’s countries? And seen a photo of Pope Francis in a white puffer jacket? Even if the news sounds credible and the photo on the screen in front of you looks completely real, these two cases are among the more well-known examples of disinformation that has been exposed.

The guest of the new episode of the GOVSI podcast is Romano Prodi. We invited him to talk to host Nataša Čepar on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Slovenia's accession to the EU. They also discussed relations between Slovenia and Italy and current events in world politics.