Oštro, Centre for Investigative Journalism in the Adriatic region, has been the target of an unprecedented smear campaign for several weeks since Meta’s announcement to stop its fact-checking programme in the United States. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) interviewed its founder, Anuška Delić, an award-winning investigative journalist. Delić reflects on the toxic climate in which she and her team of journalists have to work.
Could you tell us about Oštro and its mission?
Anuška Delić: Oštro nurtures investigative and data journalism. I established it in Slovenia, and in 2021 Oštro founded a namesake sister organisation in Zagreb, Croatia. Oštro’s fact-checking department also serves as an incubator for future investigative reporters where we train students and junior reporters during the fact-checking work. The incubator was awarded a prize for social innovation at last year’s SozialMarie regional awards. At Oštro, we focus on corruption, crime, and environmental issues, and contribute to our profession with training programs.
This year, Oštro is celebrating its 7th anniversary. Over the years, the work of Oštro has been particularly under attack. Looking back, what type of threats has your editorial team been facing?
Anuška Delić: Unfortunately, I have to say that we have become used to being attacked, from discrediting statements to abusive lawsuits and cyberbullying. The online threats particularly increased when we were investigating Covid-related disinformation and public procurement. Currently, we are facing a systematic disinformation campaign citing “political bias” and “censorship”. This escalated with Oštro’s fact-checking claims about Slovenia’s new media law draft but the basis for them was laid by Zuckerberg’s announcement that he would end fact-checking on Meta’s platforms in the United States. By accusing all fact-checkers of restricting freedom of expression and being politically biased, Zuckerberg created confusion by throwing everyone into the same basket and gave power to wrongful accusations of censorship. As the only regular fact-checking organisation in Slovenia, and as a signatory of both the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) and the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN) codes of conduct, we have become an easy target for accusations of conducting censorship on Meta’s platforms. Such allegations are ridiculous. Under Meta’s fact-checking program, organizations are not allowed to fact-check political speech, so we cannot be politically biased.
How do you and your team handle the constant verbal attacks, including those from the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), which has repeatedly targeted you and Oštro in public statements?
Anuška Delić: I have been attacked a lot throughout my career. In 2013, I was charged with disclosing classified information for publishing a story on members of the neo-Nazi group “Blood and Honour” in the SDS party. It ran the government after my publication and installed the head of Slovenia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency who made sure I was indicted. The charges were ultimately dismissed. Over the years at Oštro, I have had to withstand smear campaigns while ensuring that various pressures and fear do not spread into the newsroom. In 2025, Oštro was smeared again after our fact-checking department published a report on statements by political influencer Zala Klopčič, a former SDS Youth vice president, on the media law draft. Just a few weeks ago, SDS leader Janez Janša portrayed me as a censor in a podcast. The SDS party is not the only one attacking us. Transparency of Oštro’s funding and its ethics are constantly called into question by some portals spreading disinformation. The attacks are relentless. I suppose my skin has grown thicker over the years. What worries me the most is that this affects everyone associated with us, including our young student reporters who have yet to begin their careers in journalism.
The threats are time-consuming and thus present a heavy burden on mental health in the newsroom. We are currently preparing an application for funding to provide psychological support to the team if needed. We try to keep our distance from this toxic climate to continue our work in the public interest. On Valentine’s Day, we decided to make a short congratulatory video that included some of the threatening emails we received.
Threats of violence against Oštro’s newsroom were recently monitored by the EFJ as part of the MFRR’s Mapping Media Freedom. One threat of a knife attack was particularly serious. What triggered this?
Anuška Delić: On 5 February, we received an anonymous email saying that “the knives are sharpened”. In the past, we were used to receiving this kind of email once in a while. Now we are receiving threats regularly. Between 4 and 10 February, we received a total of seven emails containing either threats or hate speech. Some of these were in response to our fact-checking of claims made about the draft media law, including criticisms made by Zala Klopčič who launched an online petition against the bill. The publication of our findings, which examined the veracity of the claims, prompted Klopčič to accuse Oštro once again of censorship. Discrediting statements and articles soon followed, especially on the Nova24tv.si portal, as did threatening emails. These attacks were condemned by the Association of Journalists of Slovenia (DNS), which claimed they were the result of a hateful smear campaign against Oštro.
Have you reported the threats to the police? If so, how are the authorities dealing with the threats?
Anuška Delić: According to our lawyer, some of the emails we received constituted a threat that should be reported to the police. Slovenian laws are not strong enough to deal with hate speech and threats against journalists. For example, in the summer of 2023, we received a threatening email that was also posted on Facebook. It said that if we didn’t unblock all the content and profiles we had blocked or deleted on Facebook and Instagram, people would come to our homes. Ten of us, including five Oštro editors and five student reporters, received the email. At the time, the prosecution in Ljubljana dismissed the charges as the threat to visit one’s home was not concrete enough.
Slovenia is a fairly free country. I can’t imagine what colleagues in more authoritarian countries are going through right now. I think we’re in the middle of a global war on independent journalism.
Source: EFJ
