The Human Rights Ombudsman, Dr Zdenka Čebašek-Travnik, took part in a ceremonial press conference held by TV Slovenia presenting an important innovation in TV Slovenia programmes, which the Ombudsman had been committed to achieve for a long time.

As of 15 December 2009 and for the first time in the history of Slovenian national television, a specific group of sensory impaired, more precisely, deaf and hard of hearing viewers, will be able to follow the main “TV Dnevnik” news in sign language in all aspects and on an equal footing with the population with hearing. TV Dnevnik news will be broadcast in sign language every day at 7.00 p.m. on the 3rd RTVSLO channel.

On this occasion, the Ombudsman expressed her satisfaction that progress in technological development and a change in the thinking of responsible persons enabled this innovation, which will make it possible for the deaf to enforce their rights to a greater extent. The Ombudsman stressed that progress in implementing other rights is too slow and expressed her expectation that, in the coming year, she would also witness other examples of good practice in the protection of rights.