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| - Slovenia's prime minister abruptly cut short a grilling on media freedom by MEPs on Friday, accusing them of "censorship" for refusing to play a video he had prepared. Janez Jansa, speaking by video link, repeatedly asked the chair of the European Parliamentary committee on civil liberties, Sophie in 't Veld, to play the video submitted just before the session started. She refused, calling the last-minute arrival of the video a "kind of ambush", but said it would be made available to committee members later. Jansa insisted that "if we're talking about free media, I would like you to defend free media as well". When met with repeated refusals, Jansa disconnected from the parliament meeting, prompting in 't Veld to say: "I guess the session was not to his liking. I am sorry he feels that way." Jansa -- a right wing nationalist leader and admirer of former US president Donald Trump -- quickly tweeted an accusation that the committee had censored his video. He posted a link to the unwatched video, which uses graphics, excerpts and a soundtrack under a narration to challenge criticism by MEPs and the European Commission that media freedoms in Slovenia have been eroded under Jansa's rule. In 't Veld, meanwhile, wrapped up the truncated session by saying there was "absolutely no reason to accuse anybody of censorship", adding: "Europe is not the adversary of the prime minister of Slovenia." MEPs voiced support for in 't Veld's handling of the incident. German MEP Katarina Barley said offering a video rather than an oral presentation was "completely unacceptable". Another, Sergey Lagodinsky, said: "We are a parliamentary sub-committee, not a movie theatre." rmb/dc
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