by Lori Šramel Čebular, Peace Institute, Ljubljana
On Saturday, 12 April 2025, the Peace Institute hosted the third Citizens‘ Parliament on Media and Democracy in Slovenia, bringing together 20 citizens to continue their dialogue – this time with a focus on key issues surrounding media and representation. To help introduce the topic, the session featured guest speaker Matija Stepišnik, editor-in-chief of Večer, one of Slovenia’s largest and oldest newspapers.
Expert insight: “The media should be a mirror reflecting society’s diversity”
The Citizens’ Parliament began with a presentation by Matija Stepišnik, Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper Večer and former president of the Slovenian Journalists‘ Association, who describes himself as “a journalist forever.” In his talk, Stepišnik shed light on the challenges that the print media is currently facing, while also emphasizing their vital responsibility of maintaining high professional journalist standards. In connection to the topic of this CP, he highlighted how Večer actively works to ensure the representation of diverse, also marginalized, communities in the media. “Večer has always made an effort to include the voices of those often excluded from mainstream coverage,” he noted, referring to communities such as the elderly, Roma, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities.
The citizens present at the CP, coming from various regions of Slovenia – including the Slovenian Styria region, where Večer is primarily based – emphasized the importance of having access to local media. “Since I was young, we have always had the Večer newspaper at home because it covered issues that felt relevant to us,” one participant explained.
Topics for continued discussion
Following the discussion with Matija Stepišnik, participants were invited to individually score and select the topics they wish to explore further and elaborate their demands based on the issues of concern they identified during the first Citizens’ Parliament. Three key themes emerged for this session: the media agenda and prioritization of content, socially responsible media reporting, and plurality in media reporting. After group discussions, citizens presented the demands developed for each topic, which were then immediately brought into a decision-making process.
Unveiling the next 12 demands of the Citizens’ Parliament
In this session, citizens formulated 13 demands, laying the groundwork for future deliberations of the Citizens‘ Parliament. Of these, 12 were approved, while one was rejected. The demands targeted a range of institutions, media, the Ministry of Culture, but also the European Union, addressing issues that spanned from financial support to educational initiatives.