By: Domen Mezeg/ nova24tv.si
The project of “unconstructive hopeless no confidence vote” of the left opposition has failed, so they are now making use of other, more grounded approaches in order to annoy the current government. One of the latest such hits below the belt is a misleading article announced to the world public through Politico, in which the whole world is threatened by the Stalinist dictatorship of Prime Minister Janez Janša, who is suppressing freedom of speech in the Slovenian media with his hand of steel. The answers of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, published on its website, were not published by ideological colleagues from Politico in their “transparent” and “impartial” style of journalistic professionalism, and it is more than obvious why.
Their intention was to lend their brass to Slovenian colleagues, as the article is merely an uncritical imitation of what Slovenian left wing political ideologues and their central media lackey are publicising. Literally identical. The key purpose is therefore to attack the government of Janez Janša, to slander it. But international measures such as the Democracy Index make it clear that democracy has strengthened during the governments of Janša, while also levelling the considerably left wing media space, which is still in the grip of transitional economic and political centres of power that are trembling because of the danger of losing their privileges.
As has already been mentioned, the article in the world media Politico is far from any professionalism, and its only mission is to play the role of a “scarecrow” for naïve readers, as the record does not show that it is a transparent and balanced analysis of the Slovenian media landscape. Instead the intention is to manipulate with feelings or emotions of fear and thus reduce the significance of the fiasco that the left wing opposition experienced in parliament yesterday when the months-long “constructive” no confidence motion was not voted on.
If we are honest, the article was not even intended for foreign audiences, but serves as a good excuse for the heirs of the revolution, saying that foreign journalists also observe what they themselves observe, and that therefore intimidation of the mythical “prince of darkness” must certainly have some real weight, although it does not have it. However, this is nothing new, as similar exploits have been undertaken by the left wing opposition on several occasions. Namely, in some other global left wing trumpets such as the “impartial” New York Times, after which our journalists on POP TV, for example, were horrified to quote the observations of foreign journalist comrades, which they found by accident. Such irony. Of course, the feeling is different than when it comes to “criticism” in some left wing central medium, since it is a respectable foreign medium with an inappropriately large number of readers and a long tradition, right?
The article in Politico manipulates the fear of naïve readers and is far from a balanced analysis of the Slovenian media landscape
The article in Politiko bears the bombastic title “Within the Slovenian war against the media”, so that even the first impression appropriately “gives goose bumps” to the reader, like a Hollywood horror movie. And the subtitle already highlights, on the domestic political and media floor, the already completely rumoured clichés that Prime Minister Janša is “creating an atmosphere of fear with his attacks”, which, according to the media, was confirmed by journalists and so called “Watchdogs,” probably of the same national television who, years ago, vehemently resisted balancing the left-leaning state media funded from taxpayers’ money, when they “stood on their hind legs” with striking “Death to Janšism” -style posters and “Watch out, we’re biting”. All this for the faithful defence of the privileged position of their “masters”, who “let them loose”.
In the continuation of Politico’s “transparent” writing, we can read that Janša “is leading a large campaign against journalists he does not like” and that he is “constantly and publicly” attacking the central media, which are not close to him. The article also cannot avoid the use of the word “populist” in connection with the Prime Minister, wherein they probably do not even know that it really means something positive, someone who is close to the people, which Janša proves with all his positive moves in the economic and health field at the time of the corona crisis. Only in this sense can he be a “populist”. Among Janša’s “victims”, of course, they mention RTVSLO and STA, and they cannot ignore the planned changes in media legislation without explaining what it is really about. They understand it primarily as a lever that is supposed to strengthen the power of the ruling politics over certain media and weaken some others.
Due to the “almighty” Janša, certain journalists are allegedly receiving threats by phone, mail, e-mail, and on social networks.
The article also states that due to Janša’s hostility, certain journalists are allegedly receiving threatening phone calls, letters, e-mails, and messages on social networks, which are supposedly forcing journalists into self-censorship, and some even turned to the police for help. They also state that the daily work of many journalists is accompanied by constant political pressure. Janša’s influence on the media is even said to be “toxic”. The article could also not avoid allegations about alleged connections between Janša and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Janša is said to have diligently followed the example of his Hungarian schoolmaster and role model. In fact, Janša’s attitude towards the media is supposed to be created by his own “communist past”, and that he persistently resists any criticism at his own expense, and that he wants to have the media on a “leash” like dogs.
This is a flood of such claims with very little space devoted to opposing opinions, and the official responses of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia to the above-mentioned allegations were completely ignored, so we list their summaries below. The journalist was initially interested in “What is the current situation with the changes proposed for Slovenian media legislation last summer and does the government intends to continue to promote these legal changes and whether they will vote on them and if so, when.” Among other things, the government replied that “they are currently carefully assessing the comments and proposals, and at the same time further cross-sectoral coordination between the Ministry of Culture and other state ministries is underway.” The journalist was further interested in “how they respond to critics who say that the proposed legislative changes pose a threat to press freedom in Slovenia.”
Slovenian central media are under the influence of left wing tycoons, so the idea of Janša’s influence on them is ridiculous
In response to the allegations in the question, the government responded, among other things: “The proposed media legislation does not in any way threaten the freedom of the press. In fact, it seeks to address the current problems with media concentrations, which hinder competition and thus harm media pluralism. Legal experts in this field have thoroughly studied how tycoons such as Martin Odlazek, Stojan Petrić, Bojan Petrič and others, as well as a large international organisation such as Pro Plus (which owns the two largest commercial TV stations), abuse the current Law on media to oust smaller actors on the market. The Ministry of Culture has already presented the measures to combat media concentration to EC Vice President Vera Jourova, who agrees that this is a major problem for the Slovenian media landscape that requires action.”
The Government of the Republic of Slovenia further states that all these efforts are often overlooked because the eyes of the public are focused on the introduction of a new way of financing national television, where it is clearly emphasised that the fear that the renewed way of financing RTVSLO will destroy this medium is completely unfounded. It is true, however, that with the new law a part of the RTV contribution would be redirected to some other media, but the purpose of the law is only “modernisation and rationalisation of RTV Slovenia”. The purpose is also to ensure greater plurality of the Slovenian media space. At the same time, it intends to compensate for the lost income for RTV Slovenia. In fact, the new media law is supposed to enable national television to earn at least 11 million euros more annually, by giving RTV Slovenia more advertising opportunities.
STA director Bojan Veselinovič turned the financing of this agency into a political issue, which of course it is not!
When asked “How do they respond to critics who claim that the suspension of STA funding was a form of political pressure on the public media”, the government explained the following: “The government or its Communications Office (UKOM) has never exerted editorial pressure on STA in any form. There was a widespread misconception in the Slovenian media (which was then exported abroad) that the government would finance STA only if it agreed to report positively on the government’s activities. That was never true.” As they further wrote, the contract between the government and the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) was signed by the previous government. It also makes it clear that the STA is obliged to submit all documentation that will enable the government to assess the funds which it will allocate to the project. The amount of taxpayers’ money earmarked for financing the STA must be proportionate and reasonable, while the previous government’s contract stipulates that payments can be stopped, and even that the government can legally demand repayment of amounts already paid if the agency does not provide documents on its financial operations.
“As the director of STA did not want to hand over any documentation, the Government Communication Office simply complied with the provision in the contract.” The director of the STA, of course, turned the matter into a political issue, which of course it is not. In her last question, the journalist stated that “many journalists have accused Prime Minister Janša of inciting hatred against public media house, and that they say that the Prime Minister’s rhetoric, as well as the rhetoric of some of his allies, is a threat, and some journalists also claim that such pressures lead to self-censorship in the public media.” The government responded to the allegations as follows: “Slovenian media are mostly in the hands of private entities, which have been associated with left wing centres of political power for many years. In fact, they are organised as a cartel, which hinders competition and, as already mentioned, media pluralism.” The government further states that the Vice President of the European Commission Vera Jourova also notices this in the report on the state of the rule of law from 2020, which shows an unfavourable picture of the Slovenian media landscape.
The mainstream media encourage death threats to the Prime Minister himself and create national heroes from violators of the rules to curb the epidemic
And if the media are predominantly connected to the left centres of power, it is completely understandable that there is no self-censorship in our media. At the same time, they state that “attacks on the government are something common, whether they are justified or not.” Moreover, these same media have been constantly promoting illegal anti-government protests and death threats to the Prime Minister, while honouring individuals who publicly and shamelessly violate government measures to curb the epidemic as national heroes. Janša never demanded editorial corrections from the media, while former Prime Minister Marjan Šarec publicly demanded from the state media not to advertise in the right wing media. In is further stated that Slovenia has ranked highest on the international scale of media freedom published by the organisation Journalists without Borders during the first government of Janša, between 2004 and 2008, and slipped all the way to 32nd place during government of Šarec, while in 2005 and 2006 it was in 9th and 10th place.
Since the beginning of the government of Janša, we have been able to listen on a daily basis, once from the one side and other times from the other side how we are supposed to live in an undemocratic system where there is no freedom of speech. Given that the left wing controls most of the central media, it is of course not surprising that there are no such accusations during the time of left wing governments. At the expense of such media coverage, the impression is created that we live in a country where democracy is supposed to be grossly encroached upon. In any case, the Democratic Index for Slovenia, which can be seen from the respected newspaper The Economist, says otherwise. Namely, it reveals that the Democratic Index in Slovenia was the highest or on the rise when Janša’s governments were in power.