By: Nina Žoher / Nova24tv
Public RTV Slovenia, which all Slovenian households are forced to pay, pompously reports on the assessment of the International Civil Society Association Civicus, which came to the realisation that Slovenia, in addition to Colombia, Ethiopia, Chad and Myanmar, is on the list of countries that perceive a decline in respect for fundamental civil liberties. In this connection, they do not state at all which fundamental rights are restricted, and in doing so they use absurd arguments about the protests.
As reported by RTV Slovenia, the online platform Monitor Civicus, which monitors the situation in the field of civil liberties in 196 countries, including freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, has also included Slovenia on its list of countries. According to them, the government of Janez Janša used the covid-19 pandemic as a pretext to try to take measures that affect fundamental human rights.
Among other things, the Monitor Civicus platform critically points out that civil society organisations have experienced a reduction in funding. This only proves that it is obviously not clear to some that these are the only necessary means of limiting the epidemic and mitigating the consequences, but they are not falling from the sky. According to them, it is also critical that during the pandemic, when we recorded dozens of deaths at the expense of covid-19 per day, the right to peaceful assembly was threatened. “Since Janša took office, people have been organising anti-government protests every Friday, but the protesters have been subjected to illegal and disproportionate sanctions, including fines of up to 10,000 euros,” they said. Yes, Jaša Jenull and Zlatan Čordić – Zlatko, who often violated the regulations in their anti-government rage, have accumulated a lot of fines, which is just proof that the regulations are respected and not abused.
Is the Prime Minister’s tweet a restriction of freedoms?
However, when one pokes their nose into the government he cannot do it without criticising the Prime Minister, it is not surprising that he was mentioned this time as well. They criticised his Twitter communication and compared it to the style of former US President Donald Trump. What this has to do with the human rights situation in the country has not been clarified. However, free expression is the foundation of a free state, so opponents of free expression are those who are a threat to fundamental human rights. They also did not forget to mention the dispute over the financing of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) and stated that by stopping the financing, the government has allegedly put pressure on its leadership and tried to destroy it. Of course, they completely “accidentally” ignored the fact that there are funding problems because the director of STA, as required by law, simply does not want to sign a new contract and hand over the required documentation. This request is understandable, as it would be downright irresponsible for the money of Slovenian taxpayers to be distributed on the basis of words.
Unprofessional journalism for our money
In all this, a report of an insignificant organisation is the least important if it were not exposed on the portal of public RTV. So this is another uncritical rush of anti-government rage for our money. Namely, nothing concrete was mentioned in the platform, which was allegedly violated. It is just a repetition of the same chewed clichés that the left political option has been exporting abroad for a long time. This is then summarised by their friendly media and exported back to Slovenia. This is an attempt to create the impression that the world is incredibly concerned about what is happening in Slovenia. However, since many people are already tired of them selling the story of how a dictatorship supposedly rules in Slovenia, even though the reality is completely different, it all falls on deaf ears all the more.
Article 5 of the Radio and Television Slovenia Act (ZRTVS-1) is clear and states that journalists and editors of RTV Slovenia must, in their work, respect, inter alia, the principle of truthfulness, impartiality and integrity of information; political balance and worldview pluralism; to ensure impartial and comprehensive information so that citizens have the opportunity to express their views freely; respect the principle of political independence and autonomy of journalists; to enforce the professional ethics of reporters, the consistent differentiation of information and comments in journalistic articles. Therefore, one rightly expects more criticism and objectivity from RTV Slovenia, which is not the case with the aforementioned reporting. Can a day really not pass without the government on the wallpaper? If they continue to do so, of course, they cannot help wondering why the number of people who oppose the payment of the mandatory RTV fee is growing day by day.