Prouti tvojemi bližnyemu krivo ne izvedocsi.« Slika prekmurskega protestantizma v medijih v preteklosti

Abstract

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” Media Image of Protestantism in Prekmurje in the Past In Prekmurje, the leading publisher of newspapers in the local Slovene language was the Catholic priest Jožef Klekl Sr. (1874–1948), who published the highly popular monthly Marijin list (since 1919) and the weekly Novine (until 1941). After the unification of Prekmurje with the rest of Slovenes, the range of newspapers expanded and each publisher or editor tried to reach the readers in his own way—with carefully selected publications. Klekl left a special mark in the Prekmurje media landscape, not so much as a priest and because the contents of his publications were mostly religious, but because he was also active as a politician. During Klekl’s political career, Prekmurje became part of a new country. From Hungary, where a Slovene word was rarely, if at all, heard in the public sphere, this region entered the politically troubled Kingdom of SHS/Yugoslavia. And this happened at the time when two ideologically opposite camps were finally outlined: conservative/Catholic and progressive/liberal. After 1919, the identity of the people of Prekmurje was redefined: it was no longer only that Slovene region with religious diversity; now there was a tension between the native dialect and a “new”, standard Slovene. Old friends became new political rivals, the coexistence with the Hungarians took on a new meaning. The only constant in Klekl’s media was his attitude towards non-Catholic believers and/or atheists. Despite the fact that he was a knowledgeable erudite, he maintained a firm belief throughout the years of his activity that the only true religion was Catholic. According to Klekl, all other religions, especially Protestantism, deviated from the path. This is how he perceived them, and it was from this perspective that he wrote, translated and published articles about them, in which many pieces of information were not verified. As a result, he often came into “conflict” with other newspaper offices or Christians of the Augsburg Confession. Keywords: Prekmurje, newspapers, fake news, Klekl, Lutherans, Catholics