Slovenian district court bans publication on richest couple

LJUBLJANA, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Slovenian Reporter magazine on Tuesday announced that the District Court in Ljubljana had issued a gag order prohibiting the publication of an already-printed magazine's special issue, which explored the family background of the wealthiest Slovenian couple -- Iza and Samo Login.

According to the Reporter, the court ruled that the story exceeds the privacy limit.

The couple is well known for their successful sale of the mobile app company Outfit 7, which is Talking Tom developer, for as much as 1 billion euros (1.18 billion U.S. dollars) to Asian investors, according to earlier reports by Slovenian media.

In the aftermath of the deal, the couple has frequently appeared in local and foreign media and shared stories on their private lives, local reports said.

That is why the Reporter magazine's editor-in-chief, Silvester Surla, is very surprised about the couple's decision to seek a gag order restricting the story, which, according to him was actually very positive, from being made public.

The ruling by the District Court Ljubljana has banned the publication of any information on the couple's private family life, personal family history and reasons for changing their previous names.

Furthermore, publication of their childhood photos has also been banned, even though such photos already appear on various social networks.

In case of the gag order's violation, Reporter shall be subject to sanction of 100,000 euros, or up to one million euros in the event of a repeated violation.

The Association of Reporters and Columnists expressed indignation at the court's "grave interference" on media, perceiving the gag order as "abolishing the freedom of expression", which is protected under the Constitution's Article 39.

They call on the court "to stop with outrageous crackdown on the media and restore the constitutional norm of the freedom of expression". Enditem