Prime Minister Marjan Šarec responded to debates on whether it is appropriate for companies that are partly or mostly owned by the state to advertise in media that spread hostile content. He believes that their readers can understand such advertising as active support of the content and called to consider if “the desire for profit really justifies the tolerance of intolerance”.
On the government’s website it says that Šarec’s Cabinet has been receiving quite a lot of appeals recently to publicly take a side in the debate about the disputability of advertising by state companies in the media that spreads hostile content.
Šarec states in his response that he respects the independence and autonomy of the companies, and that he understands that they strive for market success and competitiveness, as well as that their marketing departments are focused on efficiency and try to reach as wide a range of target groups as possible.
“Yet with the wide range of ways of advertising, especially given the fact that you are presented as ‘socially responsible’ companies committed to ‘ethical codes’, you should consider what the message of your advertising is in media that does not distance itself from intolerance, does not deny hate speech and does not condemn it, on the contrary, it even spreads or helps it,” he wrote.
Šarec further says that the companies that are being talked about, may not wish to identify with the content on which their ads appear. “However, that is the wrong attitude, because readers can also understand your behavior as active support for what is written. Moreover, you give legitimacy to hostile content. That, I believe, is not your intention, however your advertising can also be understood in this way,” he wrote.
In the end, he called the companies, partly or mostly owned by the state, to reflect on whether “the desire for profit really justifies the tolerance of intolerance”.
It is clear that if state companies advertise in left-wing media, this is appropriate for the leftists. However, if they accidentally advertise in alternative or opposition media, this is suddenly not appropriate. To them, this means ‘help’ in spreading the so-called hate speech.
It is also known that the extreme leftist Domen Savič calls on state-owned companies not to advertise on Nova24TV and the Demokracija Magazine, a topic we have already covered in our magazine and our website. Savič is even assisted by state-owned RTV Slovenia, which is paid by all Slovenian taxpayers…
In short, the President of the LMŠ Party and Prime Minister Marjan Šarec faithfully follows the directives of the last head of the CK ZKS (the League of Communists of Slovenia, TN), Milan Kučan, who had already advocated the restriction of so-called hate speech. Naturally, it is the left-wingers who decide what hate speech is… Now, for example, even Slovenian patriotism is being labeled as “hate speech”!
