By: Gašper Blažič
As a child, I started watching television reports a little more intensively in 1990, at the time of Slovenia’s independence and major changes. It was a time when I was able to remember some of the names not only of politicians but also of journalists. Also, correspondents from abroad.
Of course, Brussels was a special story, representing a rather sensitive point. From then until today, many correspondents have lined up there, such as Mirjam Aćimov Oblak, Edvard Žitnik, Gregor Krajc, Meta Dragolič, Matjaž Trošt, Igor Jurič, Mojca Širok and of course for many years also a lady who now has a strong role in Slovenian politics – Tanja Fajon (for some time also with the added surname Krautberger). At that time, she was still a young and penetrating journalist, today an Abrahamic woman, from a well-known Ljubljana family, which has always been connected with the public institution RTV Slovenia. However, even during her tenure at the RTV Slovenia correspondent’s office, it seemed to many that her heart was also on the left side in a political sense. As for the institution, which has never undergone any major reform and has maintained a negative staff selection, which was withstood only by a few, it is not really a surprise. And it has been quite a few years since the former postwoman found a new job in Brussels – she changed from a journalist to an MEP. And a few years later she rode the leading horse among the proud (legal and ideological) successors of the League of Communists of Slovenia.
Nothing special, you will say. Not for Slovenia. So far, many journalists have embarked on the path of professional assertion in politics, only a few of them belonged to “theirs” (or, as it is popularly called in Stalinist language today, “fascists”). Now, another former journalist of a similar ideological orientation, the much less penetrating Irena Joveva, is keeping company to Fajon among the Slovenian MEPs. In the past, we have seen quite a few journalists in parliamentary benches and various political positions (Ljerka Bizilj, Danica Simšič, who later became mayor of Ljubljana, Janja Klasinc, Mitja Meršol, Melita Župevc, Tamara Vonta, Majda Širca, Aleš Gulič, Mojca Drčar Murko, Bogdan Barovič, etc.; and Violeta Tomić and Eva Irgl came from show business). Of course, we did not count those who unsuccessfully ran for various positions or got well-paid PR jobs in the Party. And here we must agree with Rok Čakš (Domovina), who warned almost two years ago (HERE) that nine out of ten well-known journalists are running for left-wing parties, which says a lot about the Slovenian social climate. Judging by this, Miro Petek is one of the few journalists who has found his way into politics on the non-left, i.e., the “wrong” side.
This introduction is, of course, just to refresh the basic facts about how totally damaged our social, political and media context is. In the last week, this has proved to be particularly brutal, which is also useful in its own way, as all previous self-proclaimed media freedom fighters have finally been able to take off their masks and show their true image. Namely, after a few small staff changes on RTV Slovenia, which followed the appointment of the new director general of this institution, it first happened that Erika Žnidaršič cruelly and unprofessionally worked Franc Kangler over in the show Tarča, which unfortunately is not famous for pluralism. Even by making fun of his regional background while reading his messages. And what happened? The (mis)information that Erika is in suspension and may be fired due to guilty reasons has been circulating on the side-lines. However, none of this turned out to be true – nevertheless, this rumour provoked a terrible response from the transition-leftist community, saying that this is how the North Korean government is shaping the editorial policy of the public service broadcaster RTVS. Of course, this accusation was also made in the context of the abolition of fees for so-called TV columnists in the first-class political-propaganda show Studio City.
These rumours “tickled” all the “jenulls” hard enough that they even organised a protest rally in front of the RTVS building, because (again) it was a defence of media freedom. If you believe that. There were no protests on their part against the way show Tarča was run. Why only, since, after all, the launch of Ivan Galet into the Slovenian media and political space was made possible by this very show. So why protest the unprofessionalism in favour of the deep state defence project and its financial privileges? And it is clear that it makes sense for the whole complex of a transitional deep state to go for all or nothing, just as the Bosnian Serbs went for all or nothing in 1992 – and under the auspices of the international community got a state that now covers 49 percent of the territory of the whole of BiH (but this will obviously not be enough for them). After all, this uncompromising Manichean logic is also expressed in a fifty-year-old quote by Stane Dolanc, which we all know well and is obviously a good inspiration for modern guardians of the grail, now called the “constitutional arc”.
And who tickled the guards of the constitutional arc this time? None other than the documentary filmmaker, historian, journalist, and publicist Dr Jože Možina, author of the very well-sold monograph “Slovenski razkol”, author of numerous award-winning documentaries, including well-watched “Pričevalci” and performer of television interviews. The show Utrip under his editorial patronage was a real shock therapy, which finally took the masks off the faces of the guardians of grail (but not the ones that protect us from covid19). And not only those from KUL led by Tanja Fajon, but also all those political activists, socio-political workers and “soldiers of the revolution” who still take their journalism as a service to the invisible Party, which on the outside appears as SZDL- Jewish quasi-multipartyism. Right now, they are demanding a suspension for both Možina and acting editor of the news programme on TVS Jadranka Rebernik. Nothing new: not so long ago, the editor of Tednik, Igor Pirkovič, was sawn off in a similar way and replaced by a much more helpful person. And what was the reason? Interview with Marko Perković Thompson.
And all this comrades, who now demand nothing less in the name of media freedom (!) than the Party’s disciplining of Možina – and only because he briefly, succinctly, and understandably exposed the false myth of the Dražgoše epic, which never existed – should blush with shame and hide in a mouse hole instead of banishing evil spirits with the help of Belcebub (the chief of evil spirits). But the good side of this story is that they will show the whole public that they are not really fighters for justice and truth, but lackeys of failed ideologies and degenerate transitions, where they are mainly interested in a thick wallet as payment for their fictitious merits. And it is time to treat them that way!
Gašper Blažič is a journalist for Demokracija, editor of its daily board and editor of the Blagovest.si portal.
