The European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) wrote an open letter to Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa urging him to reverse his decision to suspend the financing of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), calling the call "unjustified."

Slovenia’s Government Communication Office (UKOM) has suspended the financing of the agency until STA submits its commercial contracts to it.

STA has said that such a request is unlawful and is a blow to the agency’s autonomy.

Half of STA’s revenue is earned in the market, and half of it is received from the state based on the public information obligation.

EANA sent the open letter to Jansa on Thursday, and it was published on Monday, still with no response from the authorities.

The letter says that the suspension of financing for the Slovenian Press Agency was “clearly unjustified” and that it “could only be explained as a form of pressure on the independence of the STA”, which is “unacceptable” and “goes against the basic principles of democratic societies”.

EANA, an organisation that brings together 32 European news agencies, urged Jansa to reinstate the financing for the Slovenian agency, stressing the importance of the freedom of media from political influence.

EANA thus joined the letter sent to the Slovenian prime minister by Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic, in which she expressed concern that the suspension of public financing could jeopardise STA’s operation.

The government finances the Slovenian news agency, which employs about 70 people, with €2 million a year, which is half of its annual income, while the unpaid monthly installment for October is €165,000.

UKOM, headed by Uros Urbanija, who was an editor at STA during Jansa’s 2004-2008 term, has justified the suspension of financing with accusations against the agency’s management, saying that it should submit its commercial contracts to the office, after which its financing would be reinstated.