A movement originating in Ukraine has been spreading globally to systematically deliver climate disinformation under the guise of climate change awareness. Although its main premise — the world ending in 2036 — may seem fringe, its proponents recently secured an audience with Pope Francis and engaged a registered lobbyist to work on their behalf in the US.
Read MoreFor more than two years, the two companies of lawyer Peter Premk, brother of Freedom Movement MP Martin Premk, have had no restrictions on dealings with the National Assembly. Peter Premk was also a co-founder of the predecessor of the Freedom Movement (Gibanje Svoboda), where Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič is now Vice-President. His ministry has transferred nearly 27 thousand euro to Premk’s company in a year.
Read MoreIn early September 2022, the wife of SDS MP Tomaž Lisec, then still employed in the public sector, opened a part-time sole proprietorship. Just a few days later, she signed a consultancy contract with the Rudolfovo Institute, which had been established by the government of Janez Janša (SDS). The sequence of events raises suspicions of a possible pre-arranged cooperation.
Read MoreSDS MP Andrej Kosi used to live in a building that was officially categorised as a crop storehouse. The living situation of two MPs, who are residing in buildings with reported useful floor areas smaller than a couple public parking spaces, also remains unclear.
Read MoreMore than 42% of the current MPs have not declared to the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption any related companies that the National Assembly is not allowed to do business with. Only 23% of the 88* MPs decided to cooperate at least partially with journalists, while the others remained silent or made excuses, claiming compliance with legal obligations.
Read MoreOnly 19 of the 50 state secretaries provided Oštro with copies of their asset forms. In the second installment of the Asset Detector project, we find that the main issues are in understanding and declaring companies linked to family members.
Read MoreOštro has developed a new interactive project Zvezoskop – the “Relationscope”, which allows the public to independently research the links between current ministers, secretaries of state and MPs. Of the 160 elected officials, as many as 40% were new to politics, while others were moving between politics and business.
Read MoreAt least five Slovenian portals which are sources of disinformation or disseminate disinformation earned advertising euros through the Google AdSense platform in 2021 and 2022, Oštro can reveal. Advertisers could block advertising on disinformation portals, but they do not.
Read MoreIn Slovenia, no one except the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption knows what assets high-ranking officials own. They cannot judge whether they are gaining illicitly from holding public office. This is why Oštro has decided to turn the light on for the public and track politicians' assets in the Asset Detector.
Read MoreDisgraced former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner personally funded an ethnically divisive disinformation campaign in Trinidad and Tobago designed by an election engineering firm to discourage black Trinidadians from voting.
Read MoreKaterina Tikhonova, the daughter of the Russian president, visited Slovenia at least five times between 2014 and 2019. Even though the visit was not by a foreign leader but by his daughter, the authorities should have been notified of visits by Tikhonova in advance. It is not clear if they were.
Read MoreWhat is the cost of security companies such as G4S? One way of calculating the harm is counting the dead and injured.
Read MoreA backpack equipped with a tracking device that Oštro dropped off in a waste bin in Moravske Toplice, Slovenia, pinged back its location from a port in Oman, from where it travelled on to Pakistan. The country is the most popular destination for second-hand clothing from the EU.
Read MoreOštro tested the Slovenian communal waste management system by setting tracking devices on waste items then disposing of them in correct or incorrect ways. A torn backpack travelled all the way to a Croatian port, while workers at a gas station threw separately collected plastic waste into a mixed waste container.
Read MoreMost discarded clothing in Slovenia end up in black containers intended for mixed communal waste. Oštro followed textile waste by equipping it with tracking devices and disposing of it in different locations.
Read MoreOštro’s reporters disposed of various waste items in containers and collection centres across the country. All items were equipped with hidden tracking devices that were emitting their geolocation data. What follows below are some of the more interesting findings.
Read MoreWe tried to hide the tracking devices in the waste items so well that collection centre workers wouldn’t notice them. We managed to achieve this with some ingenuity but the tracking process did not turn out entirely according to our expectations.
Read MoreIn 2006. a silo in Vranjic was transferred to a newly established company Žitni terminal owned by offshore companies. Documents from Pandora Papers now reveal who was behind this deal.
Read MoreSeveral Croatian farmers were never paid the silage they produced for biogas plants in the Slavonia region in 2019 due to two intermediary companies. One is now on the verge of bankruptcy and has apparently cheated the state out of many millions of kunas by using fictitious invoices, according to an investigation by the Tax Administration.
Read MoreEvery storm runs out of wind and leaves behind calm waters, especially in the Adriatic. Oštro wishes you smooth sailing in 2022!
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