People

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She was taken by investigative journalism in 2006, when she was a journalist of the daily Delo that she divorced at the end of March 2018. She has acquired extensive experiences and specialized skills in investigative and data journalism, and continues to build on those as a the founder of Oštro in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

She spent the year 2015 in courtrooms while persecuted for allegedly publishing classified information in stories about neo-Nazis in the ranks of the political party SDS. She faced a three year prison sentence, but was eventually acquitted of all charges.

At the time, she also established “The MEPs Project” which brought together journalists that represented all 28 EU member states. Their demand that the European Parliament releases data on how Members of the European Parliament spend their professional allowances took them to the EU Court of Justice.

She works for OCCRP as a regional editor. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the network of journalists behind Forbidden Stories. As a member of ground-breaking global investigations, such as the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, FinCEN Files and The Laundromats she is a co-recipient of several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize on Explanatory Reporting.

For her data work and that of her team she received the Websi media award, and the Watchdog award for exceptional achievements given by the Slovene Association of Journalists. For her work on The MEPs Project the European online media outlet Politico Europe ranked her 6th among 28 most influential Europeans in 2018.

Her heart is divided to Slovenian on her mother’s side, and Croatian on her father’s side, therefore Oštro too will sit at the crossroads of both countries.

A qualified engineer who strayed into the domain of journalism. He started his career at Radio Student where he contributed to the programme on the economy. He was the editor of the news desk on current politics for two years and pursued further education by attending courses abroad. He is fascinated by the economy – from micro fraudulences to the macro phenomena. In 2018, he was conferred the Debutant Watchdog Award by the Slovene Association of Journalists.

Uroš Škerl Kramberger has been writing for Delo and its Saturday supplement Sobotna priloga since 2003, and for Dnevnik and its supplement Objektiv since 2006. In his articles and feature stories from Slovenia and abroad, he has reported on political power and the power of the people, social movements, conflicts, protests and migrations. He is a recipient of the award for outstanding accomplishments in journalism given by the Slovene Association of Journalists, and the European parliament and Anna Lindh Foundation awards. He was an associate assistant at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, leading courses on journalistic practice and writing skills. He joined Oštro in 2024.

She is a graduate of the comparative literature studies but has decided to follow the path of journalism. She had worked for different media outlets, most prominently and for the longest period of time for Delo – at first she was the author of numerous interviews and feature stories, later she worked as both the deputy editor and editor in chief of its web site. During this time, she also participated in the global Panama Papers investigation, for which she and her colleagues received a professional journalist award.

Žana Erznožnik is a journalism graduate and a master of Marketing Communication and Public Relations. During her studies, she was the editor-in-chief of student newspaper Klin and she and her team received two best student achievement awards by the Chair of Journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana. Before joining Oštro, she reported on politics at the Slovenian Press Agency and was a journalist at the weekly magazine Mladina. At Oštro, she leads the fact-checking project Razkrinkavanje.si and cooperates in investigative projects. For the Smetosled project, she and the team received commendation from the Association of Journalists of Slovenia.

Samo Demšar is a graduate of journalism and a master's student in journalism. Before coming to Oštro, he was a part of the sports program of Television Slovenia and one of the journalists of the student journalism project Republika športa.

Meta Gantar is a graduate of journalism. During her studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, she was the editor of the student newspaper Klin. As a freelance journalist, she worked for the Tednik show on national television, and continues to hone her speaking skills at the local radio Sora. She first encountered investigative journalism at Oštro where she was developing her skills during her bachelor studies.

Nina Rozman is a graduate in journalism and a master’s student in marketing communication and public relations. She wrote articles for the website of the Naprej/Forward Festival organized by the Slovene Association of Journalists. She also honed her journalistic skills during her internship at the newspaper Dnevnik.

Martin Justin graduated in philosophy and comparative literature. He is currently a master's student of philosophy. He also works as a literary critic and editor-in-chief of literary web magazine ludliteratura.

Illustrators

Matej de Cecco, 1979, Kranj. Illustrator and cartoonist. A self-described translator and interpreter manqué now illustrates youth printed media, as well as designs mascots, mobile games and comic books. He works and lives in Ljubljana.

Milanka Fabjančič is an illustrator and author of animated films. After finishing painting studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, she poured her forces of drawing into storytelling. Often telling stories without words. Her drawings are chock-full of codes and secret meanings and frequently shed light on the lines of writers, columnists or screenwriters from new, unexpected viewpoints. She teaches the subject of Zgodboris (Graphic stories) at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Nova Gorica. She adores animated films. And in recent years, this is what she invests most of her time in. She loves down-to-earth people and dreamers also. But she dislikes being led by her nose.

Samira Kentrić is a visual artist who weaves public and political speech into the intimate sphere of our everyday life. With her work she wants to communicate that which is still not reflected in the contemporary society, and thus unpleasant and hidden. So far, she provided artwork for numerous books and newspapers, among them Objektiv (Lens) by Dnevnik daily, the Saturday supplement by Delo (Work) daily, Zaupne besede (Confidential) by Mobitel, Finance newspaper, Gledališki list (Theatre Programme) by the Ljubljana Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television. She collaborates with various publishing houses and authors, every now and then she writes articles. She has published three graphic novels: Balkanalije (Balkan(n)als), Pismo Adni (Letter to Adna) and Adna.

Management

Manca Šetinc Vernik is a communication graduate with years of experience in project management, development of didactic modules and manuals, and conducting global learning, human rights and non-discrimination workshops and trainings. She gained experience at the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia, the Institute for Ethnic Studies, and in the non-governmental sector, where she has been active for the last 15 years. She also worked as an external expert for the Council of Europe, the European Commission, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Since her student years, she has successfully navigated three areas which excite her: communication, event organization, and design. She quickly switched architecture studies for communication studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, where she fit in more with the journalism students than her own classmates, and finally graduated in design management.

During nearly a decade at Gigodesign, a design studio where she led digital projects and communications, she launched the Naprej/Forward media festival together with her journalism colleagues and the Slovene Association of Journalists, and participated in the creation and development of the Competency Center for Design Management. After several years of developing corporate communications with the team at Dobre zgodbe, she joined Oštro with a desire to use her knowledge and experience to recognize and promote responsible communication in the media, and in society.

Board Members

Exceptional individuals from various areas of journalism and media watch over Oštro.

“
Investigative journalism is one of few things that still make a big difference for the better in the world.
„

Based in Sarajevo, Miranda Patrucić is an investigative reporter and editor in chief of OCCRP focusing on Central Asia, the Balkans and the Caucasus. She is the recipient of the Knight International Journalism Award, the Global Shining Light Award, the IRE Tom Renner Award, the Daniel Pearl Award and the European Press Prize. She is much in demand worldwide for training journalists on how to investigate and uncover corruption, money laundering and how to follow the money. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the network of journalists behind Forbidden Stories.

“
Investigative journalism is the essence of journalistic profession. Without those who help us sort the wheat from the chaff, the world would be a lot less democratic and free.
„

Nataša Briški holds a university degree in journalism and an MA in Political Science from the University of Ljubljana. She works as a consultant for strategic communications and the management of social media and new media platforms, and provides advice in the field of public relations, efficient media communication and public speaking.

She is the co-founder and director of Meta’s List Institute (Sl. Metina lista), a manager of the team that creates the content for metinalista.si web platform, the co-author of podcasts for Meta’s tea (Sl. Metin čaj), the European quarter (Sl. Evropska četrt) and LD;GD. She is also a member of the Expert Council for Gender Equality (the Slovenian Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities), a member of the Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science (the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport) and a member of the Human Rights Council.

Members of the Board of Experts