What is STA?
STA is Slovenska tiskovna agencija, the country’s national news agency, and its form is set by statute rather than by self-description. Article 2 of the Zakon o Slovenski tiskovni agenciji (ZSTAgen), published in Uradni list RS no. 50/2011 of 27 June 2011, provides that "STA je organizirana kot družba z omejeno odgovornostjo" — that STA is organised as a limited liability company.[1] Article 3 provides that "Edini ustanovitelj in družbenik STA je Republika Slovenija" — that the sole founder and member of STA is the Republic of Slovenia.[1]
The same act sets independence provisions alongside that ownership. Article 7 requires the agency to work on principles the act calls "neodvisnega, nepristranskega in profesionalnega" journalism, and article 8, headed načelo samostojnosti, provides that "STA je finančno samostojna v skladu s tem zakonom, aktom o ustanovitvi in drugimi predpisi".[1] The Euromedia Ownership Monitor’s Slovenia country report, published in December 2025 by a project coordinated at the University of Salzburg with support from the European Commission’s DG CONNECT, states that "The Act on the Slovenian Press Agency (ZSTAgen) regulates the status and operation of the Slovenian Press Agency, which was originally established as a private news agency but later came into public ownership".[2] That account of the agency’s origin is the monitor’s and is anchored to its December 2025 edition.
What does STA cover?
What the agency is funded to produce is enumerated, and the enumeration is worth reading exactly. Article 2, first paragraph, of the Uredba o opravljanju javne službe Slovenske tiskovne agencije, Uradni list RS no. 94/2021 of 11 June 2021, lists the public service as news summaries in Slovene, clearly separated from the full news items the agency sells to media and other subscribers and freely available to all on equal terms; translations of those summaries into English on the same terms; radio news texts adapted for the radio medium and freely available in full; copyright-protected photographs of the most important events, freely available on equal terms; and the content specified in the fourth paragraph of article 4 of ZSTAgen.[3] The regulation is made under ZSTAgen as published in Uradni list RS nos. 50/11 and 36/21.[3]
That enumeration does not name šport. It is framed by format and by terms of access rather than by subject, so it neither requires nor excludes sport, and no claim about a sports desk is made here from it.[3] What can be shown is that STA-credited copy on sport reaches readers under other mastheads: Gorenjski glas carries a section of STA-bylined material, and its STA-credited report of 22 May 2025 covers the government’s approval of the national programme of sport for 2026–2035 and its referral to the National Assembly.[4] The agency’s own institutional pages returned HTTP 403 on every attempt made for this page, so its own account of its sports service could not be read and is not summarised from elsewhere.[4]
How large is STA’s audience?
No audited audience or subscriber figure for STA was retrieved. A wire agency’s reach is in any case a matter of subscriber take-up rather than readership, and neither the number of subscribing media nor any circulation of its copy was obtained from a source that resolved.[1][3]
The web measurement does not supply a substitute. MOSS — Merjenje obiskanosti spletnih strani — is the recognised currency for online audiences in the market, and Marketing magazin publishes its monthly results; the release for March 2026, published on 7 April 2026, reports a measured universe of 1,521,902 monthly users across 56 participating sites and carries no line for the agency.[5] Traffic estimators are not audited measurement and are not used. What the record does fix is the terms of access rather than the size of the audience: the 2021 regulation requires the summaries, the English translations, the radio news texts and the photographs it enumerates to be available free of charge to all on equal terms.[3]
Since when has STA existed?
Three dates are in play and only two of them are documented. The act in force from 2011 is dated: ZSTAgen was published in Uradni list RS no. 50/2011 of 27 June 2011, and the 2021 public-service regulation cites it as amended at Uradni list RS no. 36/21.[1][3] That is the date of a statute, not of an establishment.
The agency is older than that statute, and by how much could not be established from a source retrieved for this page. The Euromedia Ownership Monitor records only that it "was originally established as a private news agency but later came into public ownership", without a year for either step.[2] A third date is more recent: the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom, reporting on Slovenia in the 2026 Media Pluralism Monitor, describes "A new law on the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) aimed at reinforcing STA’s financial and institutional independence" as having been "adopted by the National Assembly in 2026" as the Act on the Slovenian Press Agency (ZSTAgen-1).[6] Foundation, the 2011 act and the 2026 act are three different things and are kept apart here.
Why does STA matter in Slovenia’s sport?
Because its copy appears in other publishers’ sports pages under its own byline rather than only on its own service, which is how a wire agency reaches a reader at all: the Gorenjski glas report of 22 May 2025 on the national programme of sport carries the STA credit.[4] And because the terms on which it produces and releases material are set by instrument rather than by commercial contract — the 2021 regulation fixes both what the public service comprises and that the enumerated items are free to all on equal terms.[3]
Both of the named monitoring bodies have published on the agency. The Euromedia Ownership Monitor, in its December 2025 Slovenia report, records that "the Slovene Association of Journalists has criticized the proposal for increasing bureaucratization and politicization of the agency", and states more generally that "Complex ownership chains, the use of third parties, or formally concealed ownership reduce the effectiveness of legislation and make it difficult to obtain a transparent view of actual influence".[2] The Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom scores Slovenia in the 2026 Media Pluralism Monitor at 42 per cent risk for Fundamental Protection, 75 per cent for Market Plurality, 51 per cent for Political Independence and 50 per cent for Social Inclusiveness, and describes the new ZSTAgen-1 as aimed at reinforcing the agency’s financial and institutional independence.[6] Both characterisations are those bodies’, quoted and attributed.
References
- Uradni list RS — Zakon o Slovenski tiskovni agenciji (ZSTAgen), Uradni list RS 50/2011, 27 June 2011. Accessed 2026-09-22.
- Euromedia Ownership Monitor — Slovenia country report, December 2025. Accessed 2026-09-22.
- Uradni list RS — Uredba o opravljanju javne službe Slovenske tiskovne agencije, Uradni list RS 94/2021, 11 June 2021. Accessed 2026-09-22.
- Gorenjski glas — STA-credited report on the national programme of sport, 22 May 2025. Accessed 2026-09-22.
- Marketing magazin — MOSS results for March 2026, published 7 April 2026. Accessed 2026-09-22.
- Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom — Media Pluralism Monitor 2026, Slovenia. Accessed 2026-09-22.