STA, 20 June 2021 - The Slovenian Press Agency (STA) will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a ceremony in front of its headquarters in Ljubljana on Sunday to mark the day 30 years ago when it published its first news article.
The STA was entered in the national register of companies on 3 June 1991, and started operating on 20 June 1991, a few days ahead of the official declaration of Slovenia's independence.
On this day 30 years ago, the national news agency published its first news article in Slovenian and English in a bid to form a channel of communication with the domestic and foreign public.
Since its humble and difficult beginnings during the Slovenian war of independence, the STA has developed into a modern media service that provides text articles, audio clips, photographs, livestreams and several other types of content.
Employing more than 80 journalists, photographers and other staff, the STA publishes more than 350 news items in Slovenian and English daily.
In the 30 years of its existence, the agency has published more than 2.5 million news items and other pieces of text content in Slovenia and more than 270,000 in English, around a million photographs and more than 130,000 audio recordings.
The anniversary comes at a difficult time as the agency has not been paid by the government for the public service it provides for more than 170 days and is on the verge of insolvency.
Jumping in to help was the Slovenian Journalist Association (DNS), which launched a donation campaign in May as part of which more than a quarter million euro has been raised for the agency.
The association has also proposed that President Borut Pahor decorate the STA on the anniversary, which the president responding affirmatively. The agency will thus receive the Order of Merit at Presidential Palace on Wednesday.
