The journalists Vinko Vasle and Špela Predan, former State Secretary at the Slovenian Ministry of Defence Dušan Mikuš MSc, the owner of the Politikis portal and the co-owner of the publisher Nova obzorja Dejan Kaloh, the former presidential candidate Milan Zver, and former Slovenian Minister of the Interior during Janša’s second term Vinko Gorenak. At first glance they might not have much in common; each has built a successful career in his or her own field, but they are also connected by an unpleasant matter. All of them have been or are still plaintiffs in judicial proceedings against the notorious blogger Mitja Kunstelj, former employee of the Special Brigade MORiS, who is spreading hate speech and lies as well as attacking former colleagues, the political right, and conservative members of the media on his Mikstone blog. Each day there are more people amongst the offended, and consequently dozens of lawsuits have piled up – allegedly 20 people have sued him in the last five years alone. Kunstelj has already been criminally liable for his lies since he has recently been imprisoned for half a year in Nova Gorica, but the above-mentioned plaintiffs are still waiting for compensation. Kunstelj is not employed and is not a recipient of social security, but he still has a monthly net income of €5,000. He is being financed by the underground.
On his Mikstone blog, Mitja Kunstelj writes, among other things, about his cooperation in MORiS and later in Paravomo, a special group of former special forces members. He usually attacks his former colleagues with insults and slander, gets personal, and offends human dignity. He bears a particular grudge against the political right and journalists who practice their profession at rare conservative members of the Slovenian media. A few years ago, he attacked the journalists Vinko Vasle and Špela Predan. His insults and lies were most often related to intimate matters. The journalists did not hesitate and brought both a criminal and a damage action against Kunstelj in 2011. They won.
Virtually at the same time, action against Kunstelj was also brought by Dušan Mikuš, who, in his own words, could no longer endure the constant and recurrent numerous false claims about him, deciding to defend himself against the slander and defamation. On 20 December 2011, he already brought a suit at the Local Court in Ljubljana and petitioned for an interim order preventing Kunstelj from both false and insulting writing. The court agreed completely and prohibited Kunstelj from such practices, declaring that he would be required to pay €10,000 into the state budget for each subsequent offensive remark concerning Mikuš, but the fine would be limited to a total of €100,000. According to our information, Kunstelj has long since exceeded the above limit since he has not complied with any judgement.
The court ordered Kunstelj to issue a public apology on his blog, but he merely moved to another server
Among other things, the notorious blogger was obligated to post an apology on his blog within 15 days, but he has never done this. He was also obligated to pay €10,000 with statutory default interest and legal costs amounting to €1,738 within 15 days after the judgement acquired the authority of a final decision, but of course he failed to pay. Mikuš also brought criminal charges against Kunstelj in June 2012 due to criminal offences (Špela Predan and Vinko Vasle did this at the same time), but his proceedings are still ongoing, unlike the proceedings of the aforementioned journalists. Currently the proceedings are at a stand-still since the court has still not called the first trial, which surprises Mikuš greatly. “I can only wonder why the case is still collecting dust on a desk somewhere,”, Mikuš entrusted to the author of the article in a telephone conversation.
Our sources tell us that lawyers are advising their clients against suing Kunstelj due to bad experiences, since up to now no one has even recovered any legal costs, let alone compensation. Years ago, Kunstelj already made it clear before the court that he would never pay compensation to the plaintiffs. He did not want to listen to the court hearings at all but nevertheless made it clear to the judge that he receives a monthly net income of €5,000. According to him, he earns the money through his partially paid blog.
L. S.