EXCLUSIVE, NATASA PIRC MUSAR: How I became Melania Trump's attorney, and we never met!

From the moment when Donald Trump became president of the United States, the media is constantly interested in the private life of his beautiful wife Melania. The First Lady reacted to certain headlines, and she filed a lawsuit against some media because they wrote slanders about her. That is when Melania Trump hired Natasa Pirc Musar, a lawyer from Slovenia, who is successfully handling the cases like this. She is highly respected in her industry, so it is no wonder that the wife of the US president chose her own compatriot to represent her in disputes against media that publish various unverified information about her.

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Natasa has a very impressive career. Before she dedicated herself to law, she worked as a reporter for home and foreign media houses. She was Director of the Center for Communication and Training with the Supreme Court of Slovenia, but also the President of the Joint Supervisory Body for Europol.

In the exclusive interview for Telegraf.rs, she talked about her success and work, but also about her cooperation with the First Lady of the USA, Melania Trump. 

• Your career is very impressive. You graduated law, but you started your career as a journalist. Tell us something about that experience.

Journalism was my first love and information is since then part of all my professional life. In journalism, I was eager to get relevant ones for the story, as the information commissioner I had to decide what can be public and when to deny access to public information. Now as an attorney at law I follow

Now as an attorney at law I follow the (sad) development of the media, where journalists think that on behalf of freedom of expression they can write everything that comes into their mind and everything they hear on streets. My job today is to persuade a judge that freedom of expression is limited by the rights of others, especially by the right of privacy.

Foto: Ana Gregorič

• You are one of the most respected lawyers in Slovenia. How you managed to go straight to the top in such short time? What motivated you to change your work and to leave media?

The first 12 years of my career were indeed in journalism. I was the youngest anchor at the national TV and gained experience also abroad (was a reporter for the CNN World Report). After few years, I moved to the largest commercial TV in Slovenia. It was interesting to see how the same job was done for other reasons. My professor at Salford University in Manchester UK once said that public TV gets the money to make the program, while the commercial TV makes the program to get the money. Journalism was my first love as a profession as I said, but still, I graduated at law school and while working as a journalist I also passed the bar exam. And human rights are my passion. After a year in corporate communication at the biggest private financial institution at that

After a year in corporate communication at the biggest private financial institution at that time, I became director of Training and Communication Centre at the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia moving closer to law. It was a challenge and a joy when President Drnovšek nominated me for the post of Information Commissioner of Slovenia where I spent 10 very interesting years. We were building

We were building two human rights, access to public information and personal data protection. Interesting times… Snowden… Europol (I was a president of Joint Supervisory Body for Europol in charge of supervising all data filling systems at Europol) …WikiLeaks, the rapid development of modern technologies …

Foto: Ana Gregorič

• The right polical wing in Slovenia does not support you and in the past, they managed to get you fired. You sued them and you won. Tell us what happened there and how that experience changed you.

Just to let you know also left political wing does not like me, since being the Information Commissioner for 10 years, I was a person to overview transparency of 3 governments. Government (left or right) was not always pleased with my decisions, while every opposition was applauding me (being left or right). I never let any politicians have any influence over my decisions, and that is not welcome on the right and on the left. When I was elected General Director of the national TV both sides cooperated to “correct the mistake”.

As they could not do it legally, they did it against the law (left being more eager to do so), but I was prevented from taking the position. Yes, after two years I won. But in that time, I already started my legal practice and I had no interest of leaving it, my clients or my wonderful co-workers. There are challenges ahead, for example … the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which will be put into force in May 2018. We are establishing an international network of privacy professionals in countries of former Yugoslavia to cope with the demands of the EU regulation. Slovenia and Croatia must implement it by May 2018, and other countries are expected to move in the same direction very soon as well.

Foto: Ana Gregorič

• How your collaboration with Melania Trump started?

I was hired in august 2016 after the magazine called Suzy published false allegations that she was working as an escort.

Foto: Tanjug/AP

• Why did you accept to represent her and was that job a challenge for you?

I strongly believe that nobody could be expected to tolerate lies and every person on this Planet has a right to privacy. Nobody can be without it, nobody should live as a golden fish in the aquarium. I believe in the rule of law and I believe that media should take its job more seriously, even the gossiping ones.

• Is trial with magazine Suzy finished and what was Melania's major request about that case?

You will understand that the relationship between a client and an attorney is confidential, and I cannot disclose details about that. But let me remind you about the slander which appeared last summer about Mrs. Trump. It should be understood that anyone about whom such vicious lies are told would try to defend himself. And the origin of those lies was a Slovenian tabloid. Whether they fabricated the allegations about modeling years of Mrs. Trump to sell more newspapers or for some political gain is irrelevant. Such personal attacks should not be tolerated. A wife of a presidential candidate has a lower expectation of privacy, of course, but that does not give anyone a right to speak lies about her.

Foto: Tanjug/AP

I am disappointed at the behavior of Slovenian tabloids, Suzy in particular. While other foreign press which reprinted, the lies originating in Slovenia apologized and paid damages to Mrs. Trump, magazine Suzy did not have the decency to do so. The judicial system in Slovenia is not very fast, the trial is still ongoing. I am confident that it will end with the conviction of the guilty ones for slander, which should at least make it clear that lies should not be published.

Foto: Tanjug/AP

• Did you meet her and how would you describe her as person?

I did not meet Mrs. Trump in person, but we were in contact throughout the process. I must say that I admire Mrs. Trump for her calm and gentle determination. She is one of the most organized persons I worked with, and always really well informed about the issues we needed to discuss.

• How you managed to stop a few people in Slovenia to exploit the name of the First Lady of the USA? Will your collaboration with her is going to continue in the future and what message does she want to send to people in Slovenia who want to use her name and earn some money from it?

The principle of using other people’s name and image is simple: you must not do it without that person’s consent. It is a general principle which applies to everyone. In most cases when improper use of Mrs. Trump’s name of image was attempted a stern warning was quite enough. No legal action was needed until now. 

Foto: Tanjug/ AP/ Evan Vucci

• Could you tell us what was the first reaction of the First Lady of USA when the American Institute in Zagreb published the billboards with her image with the message "Yust imagine how far you can go with a little bit of English?" What she angered by the slogan used on the poster or was she angered by the fact that they used her photo?

The First Lady is very well acquainted with the law in the field of personal rights violations. Many behave as if she is some public good in the case of Melania Trump. No one has the right to use someone else's face, a photo of the person for commercial purposes unless they have the consent of the person. That is the point of the entire story. It's sometimes different in journalism. The freedom of speech is used there, but there are protections for the persons. But, the situation is much clearer in marketing and there is no doubt. That is why her reaction was calm and quick.

Foto: Facebook/Američki Institut

• After the American Institute removed those controversial billboards, does the First Lady of the United States still intends to sue them for that? What are the further steps regarding this case?

The case is still not over, we are working on a peaceful solution to the dispute. We all know that the American Institute and the marketing agency who did the campaign made a big mistake. The girl who is allegedly some kind of marketing guru didn't read the codex of Croatian advertisers, and she never read the Croatian law about obligatory relations in her life. Everybody wants to be professionally engaged in marketing business has to read those two things, and this woman didn't do it.

(Telegraf.co.uk / A.Taskovic - a.taskovic@telegraf.rs)