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TV KOPER-CAPODISTRIA ILLUSTRATING DEMOCRATIC ORIENTATION
Thirty years of Italian television programme in Slovenia
(video in slovenian language)
Portoroz, 17 May 2001
The mission of Television Koper-Capodistria on Slovene territory eloquently illustrates the realisation of a democratic orientation not just in the past and present, but also in the future Europe, stressed President Kucan at a celebration on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of broadcasting television programmes in Italian for the Italian minority who live in this region, which has far exceeded this framework.
This project respects and takes account of mankind in his uniqueness and individuality, it respects the equality and particularity of Slovenes and Italians in this area and builds on what is shared, in order to be able to live together in the Europe that Slovenia is helping to create, among other things President Kucan further stressed.
Ladies and gentlemen, egreggie signore e signore,
The thirtieth anniversary of TV Koper-Capodistria is a fine, valuable moment. On this occasion, we remember the times when we began work with the understanding which is still today bearing such rich fruit. We are grateful to TV Koper-Capodistria for that. It appeared as a new media in a space which cried out for openness, tolerance, co-existence, difference and dialogue. It called for removing the consequences of bad decisions after the end of the Second World War that had affected the people and places in this sensitive part of Europe. You launched your work professionally. On a border which was meant to separate two ideological and political worlds, but increasingly linked people with the power of sound judgement of life, you offered information in pictures and words, Italian and Slovene, by which mutual understanding begins even in the most demanding circumstances.
Tonight’s celebration is especially valuable because Television Koper-Capodistria is a successful project. It also deserves a good future. Its mission on Slovene soil eloquently illustrates the realisation of a democratic orientation, not just in the past and present but also in the future Europe. It crosses the state border and spiritually links people in a region which those who made history arbitrarily wanted to divide. This project respects and takes into account mankind in his uniqueness and individuality, respects the equality and particularity of Slovenes and Italians in this area and builds on what is shared, so that we can live together in the Europe that Slovenia, too, is helping to create.
Ladies and gentlemen, in slightly over a month Slovenia will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the independence of its state. We created it in order to be able to step into the future. On a path which is not easy and on which there is no lack of mistakes, we also brought with us a profound respect for life in its variety, for the dignity of the individual, his rights and the rights of the communities to which he belongs, including ethnic. The region on the two sides of the border with Italy is more than an allegory. It is a permanent material test of the capacity of all of us to live as a region of open borders; in order to accept national minorities with an understanding of personal human rights and freedoms as a factor that enriches the common spiritual and cultural life; in order as the majority nation, because of a genuine commitment to democratic values and recognising the special rights of minorities, to protect their particularity and equality and thus ensure independence and the conditions for their creative validation on both sides of the border.
Precisely in the border region between Slovenia and Italy, many good things have happened from this point of view in recent times. I am thinking above all of the law protecting the Slovene minority in Italy. Such democratic behaviour, which must be followed each day with fresh good deeds in order to consolidate it and give it sense and content, are undoubtedly the right signposts for the coexistence of nations, their minorities and countries in the European Union, in the emerging united Europe. I want to believe that, on this common path, we will be bound to the same values with the new Italian government, and a future which is friendly to all European peoples and nations, which is able to overcome historical burdens at those junctions of nations, cultures and civilisations which have in the past threatened European security and peace. We owe this to the idea of European unification, to people who were victims in the past of war and political violence and, above all, to a safe future for the European generations which are coming after us.
TV Koper-Capodistria will also have an important role in this and in such a new Slovenia, in Italy and in the common Europe. It will link us, and this bond will spread into a new space on this and on the other side of the border. So, on this fine jubilee, we wish it happy birthday and good luck in a future, friendly for us all.
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