PRESS REVIEW FROM SLOVENIA,

Ljubljana, 20 June - THE DNEVNIK: FOR ALL OF US - Ivo Štandeker is no longer with us, yet we knew him well. Not personally, but through his work and courage, which sometimes bordered on madness, but only because his work often took him for walks along the borders of the realm of madness incarnate. Two tenths of all the reporters in the world have already fallen in the line of duty in order to inform the world of this madness and to make the world realize. And still the world does not see. How many more senseless deaths must there be - also in the ranks of the world's journalists? The U.S. and allied "Desert Storm" was hermetically closed to the media and the media were under supervision in the Gulf War, while the Balkans seem to be one big "shooting range" where the targets are also often reporters, wrote Miran Šubič. Ivo Štandeker, a reporter of the Mladina magazine, has fallen - for all of us. Only those dare to go down there (to the battlefields) who are driven by a specific need to prove to themselves and to others that it is necessary to tell and show mankind what some people are doing (in bold in the original, comment: STA). All those of us who lack Ivo's and many another person's courage should, upon the death of this excellent reporter, colleague and war correspondent, keep in mind at least one thought: maybe a small part of this mad courage can be channelled into an attack on all those who believe that we are just pawns in their game of chess, something to conveniently service their political aims. In anticipation of the sealing of deals during the oncoming election campaign, the death of one Slovenian journalist in Sarajevo is sadly, to many, merely a thing of fleeting interest. Yet for us journalists, it may be one reason more to try and do something for ourselves, our consciences, our reputations, and the good name of our profession. It was the curse, or magnetism of this profession, that also claimed the life of Igor Štandeker, wrote Miran Šubic upon the death of a Mladina journalist.