[1][3] Mladina has served as a hub for investigative journalism in Slovenia since the 1980s, when its pioneering "muckraking" reporting and critical (and then highly controversial) sociopolitical coverage helped spark the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
[1] Mladina has cycled through many iterations through its history spanning nearly a century, at times alternately operating under party or state control, or functioning as an independent-minded watchdog publication.
Famous figures such as poet Srečko Kosovel (who also briefly served as editor[8][9]), writer Ludvik Mrzel, and historian France Klopčič published in the magazine.
[2][13] Thus, the magazine evolved into an "avant-garde, oppositional weekly", and by the late 1980s Mladina's main focus was promoting democratic transformation through its unrestrained political criticism.
[13] Mladina's colourful covers typically featured iconic satirical and provocative designs which came to symbolise the Yugoslavian civil reform and resistance movement.
During late 1980s, Mladina contributor Janez Janša provided the magazine's editor Franci Zavrl with a transcript of a LCY party meeting.
The transcript revealed the Yugoslav federal authorities were pressuring SR Slovenia president Milan Kučan to clamp down on the increasingly irreverent and adversarial Mladina, and accused the magazine of being backed by the CIA.
[2][19] The subsequent trial proceedings, held in Ljubljana, were conducted in Serbo-Croatian language rather than Slovene, causing fierce public discontent within SR Slovenia.
[12] Mladina's advocacy of "political pluralism, a tolerant, modern society, and a curbing of ethnic violence made it an important player in the establishment of an independent Slovene nation-state".
[13] With the democratic transition, Mladina focused its coverage on holding the newly established political elite accountable, including its former contributor and increasingly controversial fledgling right-wing politician, Janez Janša, who owed his rise to national prominence to his work with the magazine.
Mladina reported that state-owned enterprises selectively and punitively ceased advertising in these publications, instead redirecting advert purchases to more friendly media.
[13][23][24] In response to the government attacks on its independence, Mladina found safe haven after being acquired by an Italian holding company established by Slovenian expatriate businessmen.
[28] In 2011, Mladina published a satirical rubric comparing a family photo of the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and that of Branko Grims, a Slovenian Democratic Party politician.
Members of the Grims family filed three separate libel suits against Mladina (in one case also suing for damages due to the plaintiff's alleged emotional distress).
[29] A parliamentary commission investigating alleged improprieties in stent distribution and procurement (headed by Slovenian Democratic Party MP Jelka Godec) called Mladina editor-in-chief, Grega Repovž, to testify; the Italian company KB 1909, which owned a majority share of Mladina via one of its subsidiaries, also owned a subsidiary involved in medical supplies distribution that was accused of illicit business practices.
Repovž also said he had not experienced any editorial interference from the parent, despite Mladina's adversarial coverage of odious business practices in the Slovenian healthcare system.
[32] The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats also asked Mladina political reporter Borut Mekina to testify before the committee to present an alternate view on the matter.
In closing, he accused SDS of fomenting an apparent state of national emergency by appealing to transnational institutions (which, in contrast to domestic ones, would take the party's assertions at face value), all in search of political and electoral gain.
[46] Hungary's request was condemned by the Slovenian Journalists' Association,[41] multiple MPs of Slovenia's governing coalition, the president, prime minister, and other prominent politicians.
Mladina also periodically publishes longer-running longer special issues containing a series of interviews or dedicated coverage on a particular topic (often involving religion, history, or politics; past subjects have included fascism,[51] Jesus,[52] the Bible,[53] Karl Marx,[54] Vladimir Putin,[55] Islam,[56] WWII in Slovenia,[57] the October Revolution,[58] and Angela Merkel[59]).
[64] Many of Slovenia's Muslims are first or second generation descendants of immigrant workers from other former Yugoslav regions (mostly Bosniaks and Albanians) and several chauvinist and right-wing groups have opposed the building of a mosque in Ljubljana, while Mladina fully supports its construction.
[64] Mladina was subsequently criticised for its decision to publish the image, including by president Janez Drnovšek who blamed the magazine for a cancellation of a planned visit by a Sudanese delegation for scheduled peace negotiations to take place in Slovenia.
They include: sociologist and musician Gregor Tomc, journalist and politician Janez Janša, philosopher Slavoj Žižek, philosopher and literary theorist Rastko Močnik, political theorist Tomaž Mastnak and Vlasta Jalušič, journalist Jurij Gustinčič, sociologist and publicist Bernard Nežmah, film critic Marcel Štefančič Jr., jurist and human rights activist Matevž Krivic, cartoonist Tomaž Lavrič, the arts collective Neue Slowenische Kunst,[67] and many others.