Role and Brief History

Slovenia's Government Communication Office has evolved over a long period. The functions carried out by today's Office were first performed by the Republic Information Secretariat and then by the Republic Information Committee. Following the first democratic elections in Slovenia in 1990, a new law on state administration was passed and the Republic Information Committee was reorganised, first as the Information Secretariat and then later as the Ministry of Information.

During the ten-day war of independence in 1991 the Ministry played an important role in keeping the world informed of events in Slovenia. In the years following independence it tried efficiently to promote the new state. The Public Relations and Media Office was founded in 1993 taking the place of the Ministry of Information. The Office took over many of the Ministry's functions, as well as certain new ones. Particular attention was devoted at that time to the preparation of systemic legislation on public information (The Public Media Act and The RTV Slovenia Act.

In recent years, the Office also coordinated and conducted successful communication campaigns endorsing Slovenia's membership of the EU and NATO, introduction of the euro in Slovenia, as well as providing communication support to high ranking state visits and Slovenia's promotion abroad.

The Office has been intensively informing the domestic and foreign public about the work of the government by shifting the emphasis from still-predominant media relations to direct communication with citizens.

At its session on 22 February 2007 the Government adopted the changes to the decree on activities of the Government PR and Media Office, which became the Government Communication Office.