The 3-Line Summary
- Slovenia's third national IGF, SloIGF 2018, met on 23 October 2018 at Hotel Slon in Ljubljana — a focused half-day of two roundtables, and the last SloIGF documented on the official site.
- It tackled the two hottest European questions of the moment: do Internet openness and freedoms threaten democracy, and will the new EU copyright rules for the digital market curb free expression and access to information?
- Its citizen-level scrutiny of the EU copyright directive — before the 'upload filter' Article 17 was adopted — remains a valuable record of how small-country stakeholders read a big EU law.
Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on SloIGF 2018 (Slovenian Internet Governance Forum) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.
Conference at a Glance (from official records)
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Official name | SloIGF 2018 (Slovenian Internet Governance Forum) |
| Edition | Third edition — the last meeting documented on the official site |
| Dates | 23 October 2018 |
| Venue | Best Western Premier Hotel Slon, Kavarna II hall, Slovenska cesta 34, Ljubljana, Slovenia |
| Theme | Regional governance themes |
| Host | Inštitut Digitas and Arnes (Slovenia's academic and research network) |
(See the source list at the end of this article.)
Discussion Digest — from the Session Records
Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.
1. Do Internet Openness and Freedoms Threaten Democracy?
Sessions: Roundtable 1, 9:15–10:45 (moderator: Dr Ali Žerdin, Delo)
- Dr Pavel Gantar (Forum for a Digital Society), Benjamin Žnidaršič (ARS Viva) and Peter Sterle (education ministry) debated under the moderation of Dr Ali Žerdin of the daily Delo, with Dr Jan Jona Javoršek (Jožef Stefan Institute) as rapporteur [1][2][3]
- The roundtable probed the tension between online openness and democracy in the era of disinformation and platform power, from policy, civil-society and media angles [1][2][3]
2. The EU Copyright Directive — A Threat to Free Expression and Access?
Sessions: Roundtable 2, 11:15–12:45 (moderator: Dr Maja Bogataj Jančič, Institute for Intellectual Property)
- Dr Vesna Čopič (government), Aljoša Domijan (IT firm Gambit), librarian-side voice Mitja V. Iskrić and publisher Rok Zavrtanik (Sanje) examined the then-pending EU Digital Single Market copyright directive [1][2][4]
- Framed as 'will new copyright legislation for the digital market limit freedom of expression and access to information?', the roundtable weighed rightsholder protection against user freedoms across government, publishing, education and IT [1][2][4]
3. Can Libraries Survive the New Copyright Rules? — Five Concerns from the Field
Sessions: Issues from Roundtable 2, elaborated afterwards by panelist Mitja V. Iskrić on the library blog Biblioblog
- The draft directive named only 'research organisations' in its text-and-data-mining exception, raising fears that libraries would be left out — and the education exception was similarly limited to educational institutions [4]
- Librarians flagged five concerns in all: TDM exclusion, the education-use gap, possible fees even for bibliographic titles and abstracts, the burden of continuously policing user-generated content, and vaguely defined repository exemptions [4]
Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered
Q. So what did the meeting decide?
A. Nothing binding — it was Slovenia's third annual multistakeholder forum, condensed into a half day around two roundtables: Internet openness versus democracy, and the EU copyright overhaul.
Q. What was the most contentious point?
A. The EU copyright directive. Panelists clashed over whether its platform-monitoring logic — later famous as Article 17's 'upload filters' — would squeeze free expression, libraries and education.
Q. Why should I care?
A. The balance between protecting rightsholders and preserving access to information is a universal fight, and the EU directive debated here now shapes how platforms operate far beyond Europe.
What Is Slovenia IGF? (for first-time readers)
Slovenia IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.
Why It Matters to You
What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2018 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.
Sources & References
- SloIGF（公式サイト・トップページ、"third annual forum" 2018-10-23の記録） — SloIGF（公式サイト sloigf.si） (accessed 2026-07-11)
- Program 2018（第3回SloIGFプログラム） — SloIGF（公式サイト sloigf.si） (accessed 2026-07-11)
- Vabljeni na Slovenski forum o upravljanju interneta 2018（SloIGF 2018開催案内） — Arnes（スロベニア学術研究ネットワーク） (accessed 2026-07-11)
- Okrogla miza v sklopu SloIGF: Ali bo nova avtorska zakonodaja za digitalni trg omejila svobodo izražanja in dostop do informacij?（SloIGF円卓討論の事後報告） — Biblioblog（スロベニア図書館ブログ、執筆者は登壇者のMitja V. Iskrić氏） (accessed 2026-07-11)
Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.
Related links
- IGF official (NRI list): https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives
- Japan IGF: https://japanigf.jp/
- Yuki Nakazawa's blog: https://nkzw.jp/category/igf/
Revision History
Rev. 1 — published 19 June 2018, 09:00 (Article published)
Rev. 2 — updated 17 July 2026, 12:32 (Fully revised into the in-depth edition: added the 3-line summary, minutes digest, short talk, source list and diagrams (all quotes verified against the listed sources))
— 中澤祐樹
