Polonca Frelih

Frelih was brought up by her single mother in a remote village in Slovenian Alps. When she was 15, Polonca moved to Ljubljana where she studied at Poljane Grammar School with the dream of pursuing a career in journalism. In 1992 she entered University of Ljubljana and a few years later spent one year in Chicago as an exchange student studying TV journalism at Roosevelt University. Her studies were sponsored by Open Society Institute. Upon her return to Slovenia, Polonca together with her collagues Bojana Skrt and Manja Klemenčič established Slovenian debate program ZiP.[1] Frelih worked at the news desk and later foreign news department of Slovenia's public television. In 2005 she won an internship for CNN, Atlanta. Upon Frelih's return to Slovenia, she was Slovenian correspondent for the CNN World Report. At that time she self-studied Russian in order to move to Moscow as a news correspondent, a post she eventually received from Delo, Slovenia's oldest daily newspaper.

While based in Russia's capital, Frelih traveled extensively around the former Soviet Union and wrote on various topics from Russia's politics to Caucasus, Central Asia, Belarus and Ukraine, gradually becoming a well known member of the Moscow journalist community. She interviewed prominent members of the Russian opposition, including Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, and Eduard Limonov to name just a few of them. She also covered controversial topics, such as Seliger (forum), far right boot camps and activism, gay rights in Russia, opposition protests and the growing authoritarianism of president Vladimir Putin.[2] In 2007 she was accredited by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an official foreign correspondent working in Moscow.

Frelih was the first journalist from the European Union to report from the ground during the Russo-Georgian War in August 2008 and stated that the war started with the Georgian attack on Tskhinvali on August 7, 2008. The fact which was later confirmed by independent international commission under the supervision of Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini.[3] In her article for Delo, she wrote that she came to Georgia shortly before the conflict working on another report and so was there by chance. Frelih came under fire as she was in close proximity to the battlefield,[4] however, she decided to stay in the conflict zone and refused evacuation arranged by Slovenia's foreign ministry.[5]

In July 2013 Polona Frelih was the only journalist who attended the closed door meeting between Edward Snowden and representatives of international humanitarian organizations and lawyers, which took place in the securely guarded transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport.[6][7]

A controversy arose due to the fact that Frelih came to the Snowden meeting uninvited and took a photograph of Snowden despite being told not to do so.[8] Following a scandal in Slovenia, Frelih wrote that she worked in the public interest, because “no other journalist could at the time witness that Snowden was, indeed, in Sheremetyevo airport’s transit zone”, to say nothing of Snowden's requests for asylum that were not yet made public.[9][10] Consequently, Frelih moved from Russia back to Slovenia and resigned from her post as Delo's correspondent citing her disagreement with editorial policy.

In 2014 Frelih wrote a series of news articles covering the War in Donbas, and in 2015 - together with several European and American journalists - she traveled to Donetsk, where she interviewed a number of civilians,[11] fighters and representatives of human rights organisations, as well as self-proclaimed foreign minister of Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Kofman.[12]

Back in Slovenia, Frelih was accused of bias in her reporting, the allegation she dismissed by arguing that pro-Ukrainian view of the conflict was "over represented in Western media". In 2015 the case against Frelih was reviewed by Journalists' Ethics Council of Slovenia. The council ruled in Frelih's favour confirming in their official statement that Frelih's news coverage did not violate journalists' code of ethics.[13] Shortly after, Frelih's name and personal details appeared on the Myrotvorets website where she was called an "enemy of Ukraine". Slovenia's president Borut Pahor voiced concerns over journalists safety during his talks with ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.[14]

In 2016 Frelih briefly headed the Slovene edition of Russia's foreign-language news agency Russia Beyond.[15] Frelih stated that she wanted Russian views to be heard and considered in the West.

In 2015 Frelih published a lengthy interview with Russia's prime minister Dmitri Medvedev which she took during Medvedev's visit to Slovenia.[16] Frelih also interviewed several high-ranking officials from the Commonwealth of Independent States, including Belarusian and Armenian foreign ministers.

Having abandoned political journalism altogether, Frelih currently works as an independent consultant. She occasionally publishes her travel reports at GEA magazine in Slovenia.

For her article on Belarus youth struggling under the leadership of Alexander Lukashenko, Frelih received an award from Belarusian opposition organisation Belarus in Focus.[17] She was named the best speaker of the World Schools Debating Championship 1998, held in Bukarest, Romania.