By: Vinko Vasle
The events in the public house RTV since its top changed are proof that we are really dealing with soft but sufficiently violent left-wing journalistic terrorism, at the core of which are journalistic activists and unions that have always had strong ideological supporters outside the house. In recent decades, these supporters have divided the public house according to their party interests, and so we have individual news programmes on both radio and television, which fall under the patronage of the Communists or social democrats, leftists, as well as the party of Marjan Šarec. Already at the time of his transition to politics, the public house should have established a professional distance from him, but in reality, it was his most determined PR. To a man who was extremely unpopular in the house because of his hysterical outbursts and inaction.
Pašek-Šetinc, or a lie as a value.
Never in these years has the fundamental principle of the autonomy and professionalism of the public media been respected, so that journalists who enter the world of politics cannot return. Thus, Ljerka Bizilj returned from the embrace of the LDS, and later also Majda Širca, who, unlike the first one, was severely ideologically and politically marked and is still like that today. According to the criteria of the Munich Declaration, this is a professional way down for every public media outlet – as well as for every media outlet in general. Some warnings that journalists of both radio and television news programmes appear from the standpoint of their own party and political “autonomy” have, of course, always been overheard. On the radio, this type of unprofessionalism and journalistic malice is represented by journalist Matej Šurc, as well as Špela Novak and the entire Val 202. Professionally, they also corrupted once a parade show Studio at 17.00, etc. A typical example on the TV page is Mojca Pašek Šetinc, whose journalistic products screamed ideological and domestic bias, but to every comment of individuals also in the programming world, assessments of her work were an attack on journalistic freedom and autonomy. Until the famous tweet of the Prime Minister took place, who quite rightly pointed out sharply what journalists can and cannot do. For example, that they must not lie. At least that. But in the trials of our judiciary, the victim was in fact convicted and not the criminal, as the following stages will show. If the court can legitimise a lie as a value, then it is not surprising that other “journalistic genres” are also used in the public house – manipulations, silence about events, serial murders of personalities, etc. It is best produced by the show Tarča, which due to severe professional slips – if I am very kind – should have been in the basement of the public house a long time ago, and some of its creators should have their licenses revoked for this type of journalism.
Štefančič’s private feud.
One of the infamous shows is Studio City, which is a private small left-wing television of Marcel Štefančič within the public television – one-sided, fun, biased and primarily a branch of the Levica party and leftism as the most gross forms of ideological confusion and brainwashing viewers. So far, no one has dared to tackle this little feud of Mladina in the public house drastically – so that the show would simply be cancelled because it has been ready for something like this for several years. The benevolence of the informative function towards viewers in the daily and Odmevi show depends on the current editor of the daily, or on the head of Odmevi show. There are known cases when the hosts did not want to respect the editor, where the now politically active “Corinthian TV nightingale” Slavko Bobovnik stood out. Not to mention Utrip show, where the shows were already reserved for “real journalists”, whereas, every accidental and erroneous mistake caused schizophrenic reactions of mujahedin ideologues of the news programme, such as the case of Jadranka Rebernik’s Utrip, and more recently Jože Možina’s Utrip, in which Špela Furlan engaged herself in the shelter of the head of the party and Udba Milan Kučan. And this with the bureaucratic remark that Možina did not equip the record of bowing to Kidrič with the day of the recording, although this was not important, because it was a symbolic pictorial point, to which every creator of Utrip has the copyright. The new ombudswoman for the rights of viewers and listeners, Marica Uršič Zupan, also knelt before this “strong argument”. Immediately after him, Utrip show was created by Mojca Pašek Šetinc, in which she dealt with the man she was prosecuting in court in the most reprehensible style of agitprop and black propaganda. Which should not have happened, because it was a typical infection of a journalist who, through external mentor Mile Šetinc, brought intolerance to the public house, including lies and manipulation. But she was allowed to do anything because Milan Kučan praised her as a documentary filmmaker about his character and work, which had even less to do with reality than the famous authorised biography written by Božo Repet.
They are more “ours” without schools.
In the past, the journalists of the public house, with the help of the unions, also won an incredible privilege – that they were automatically recognised for their education if they have worked at RTV regularly or part-time for five years. This is, of course, a remnant of the Party’s public house, which was very fond of employing cadres without proper education, as they were then very flexible and obedient. There was a period in the 1980s and 1990s when more than half of the journalists had a high school, or even lower education.
Thus, over the years, the public house has nurtured appropriate staff who were grateful to their Party bosses outside the house, as evidenced by the fact that after independence – except in one case – the programme council was led by senior Party staff. For example, Janez Kocijančič, who was even the president of the League of Communists, and there are known cases when he personally interfered in individual programmes and journalistic articles. This was a time when censorship on RTV was at the highest level and most journalists did not find this in the least controversial. Then the programme council was led by Jernej Pikalo, a typical FDV party or Bolshevik cadre, who performed his work as if it were a department of a Party cell, to be later replaced by a member of the ZKS Central Committee, Ciril Baškovič, who gave the impression of a great democrat in the Party, but in reality, he performed his ideological party duties as needed behind the scenes.
Trenches of I.E. Bergant in the info programme.
When the slightest change strikes such a sphere, all socio-political workers-journalists are immediately in the trenches because they are in mortal danger. Following Stane Dolanc – either they will be in power, or no one will be. And all these, all these strong protests, clerkships, programme diversions, rude confrontations with “inappropriate” colleagues are, of course, a reflection of the fact that, as they even say publicly, “we do not give the house”. This is no longer about self-government, but about the left-wing privatisation of RTV – what the then LDS minister Majda Širca failed to legalise (to legally push RTV into the hands of the left), “real cadres” have succeeded in the last few years. On television, the core of these rebels is within the news programme, where the leadership conductor Igor E. Bergant stands out, who is in fact their informal leader.
Rebellion of the red brigades against Pirkovič.
As for the rebels in the multimedia centre MMC, Kaja Jakopič’s red brigades are already known there. One of the worst, in my opinion, is that frustrated and unfortunate Boris Vasev. He with his vile writings, and especially with confrontations with colleagues whom he does not like ideologically, picks on the public house that does not have a good reputation anyway. What he fails with good journalism, he solves with vile writings. In protest in front of the public house over the appointment of Igor Pirkovič as acting MMC editor, he was even the main speaker. He was blaming Pirkovič for what he himself has been in fact doing more successfully and consistently. This is a man who demands the removal of the Slovenian flag from the mast in front of RTV. He is a man who compared Janez Janša to the Serbian butcher Šešelj, humiliated the director Mitja Okorn to show his Russophilia lately. Unfortunately, the RTV public house tolerates this, although the internal acts on the code of conduct do not really allow it.
Leave them on the sidewalk.
The so-called protest press conferences of RTV journalists on the sidewalk in front of the house are a public demonstration of the struggle for supremacy in the house. How will all this end depend on the perseverance and strength of the RTV leadership and especially on most of the programme council, which unfortunately responds with a delay or does not respond at all to such robbery, which borders on the info mafia organisation on RTV.
In the short term, it might not be bad if the management locked the front door at the next public demonstration in front of the RTV house…
Vinko Vasle is a long-time journalist, publicist, satirist, and writer.