Slovene readers and viewers reacted sharply to the biased reporting of the German media ZDF, which took into account the biased opinions of some left-wing media workers or experts as the basis for its short articles on the political and media situation. In doing so, the German media also published propaganda articles that best fit the biased views advocated by our left-wing political options. However, the media has already taken note of the criticism of Slovenian readers and in its letter tried to explain why the biased reporting took place. In their reporting, they take into account journalistic standards, but impartiality applies to the program as a whole, and not necessarily to individual broadcasts or contributions. For shorter contributions, due to time constraints, it is difficult to cover a specific topic comprehensively enough, so they are focused on priorities. They try to present different topics from different perspectives.
On German television ZDF, they had an article about Slovenia yesterday at 17.00, which was 2 minutes and 20 seconds long. The center-right Slovenian government was compared to Viktor Orban, and they mainly talked about the alleged suffering and persecution of fair journalists. They broadcast a short excerpt of Janez Janša‘s statement, which was 13 seconds long, with three main speakers: the director of Radio Slovenia Mirko Štular, publicist and student of Soros University in Budapest Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič, and media “expert” Marko Milosavljević.
Štular told ZDF reporters that the decentralisation of the redistribution of money to the Slovenian media would mean the loss of many contents important to the “public” and cause a drastic change in the Slovenian media landscape for the worse. Milosavljević “confided” to German journalists that decentralisation would bring the most benefits to media and television stations close to the “government”. Lisjak Gabrijelčič, who has a special “dot” on him due to Viktor Orban‘s attitude towards Soros University, was used to “explain” that Orban works in Slovenia similarly to what he had done in Northern Macedonia. A trefoil of the endangered, biased and offended.
RTV Slovenia has not been giving the appearance of impartiality and objectivity with its reporting lately. (Photo: STA)
The show was also noticed online by many Slovenians. Immediately after the broadcast, viewer Ana Hmelak sent a critical letter and emphasized the journalist’s ignorance in the production of the article. “Be ashamed of your reports and comments on the political situation in Slovenia at 17.00 today. I don’t know if ZDF has a journalist in Slovenia who at least understands the Slovene language and knows at least something about our current government,” Ana Hmelak wrote in a letter to the ZDF editorial board, adding: “Slovene journalists who provide you with such information and were probably once communists, and are now, for example, liberal socialists, are not capable and also not willing to give you real and true information about our government.” The show on ZDF is entitled “Currently in Europe”.
The government wants to give people who pay contributions only the opportunity to decide for themselves which medium they want to use
Some other Slovenes who follow events in the German media also responded to the biased reporting of the already mentioned German television. One of the readers sent a message to the German media in which he said that he had to complain about the unprofessional and biased article entitled “Slovenian government against the media” in which it is tried to present that the current government was trying to redistribute public money to the media, that are close to it. However, this is not in line with the objective truth, as the government merely wants to allow those who pay contributions to decide for themselves which medium they want to target.
Janša’s government is under fire from left-wing national television. (Photo: Nova24tv)
At the same time, the reader also asks the media to correct the article accordingly. The reader also states that when reading the article, he was shocked by the author’s ignorance of the media and political situation in our country, and that it is a gross violation of the norms of good, neutral, and objective journalism. He particularly emphasized national television, given Slovenia’s extremely influential media, which is paid for by all Slovene households, but its news programme shows obvious political activism, which intensified even more with the appointment of the new Janša government. This is definitely directed against the latter, thus severely violating the official guidelines and mission of this television. This is not surprising, however, if we know that the national employees are representatives of former governments who insist on continuity and resist democratic political change.
Left-wing media question government measures to curb epidemic, which is why Slovenia is at the top of Europe in the number of infections
Particularly scandalous for him are the charlatan news, which convinces us that Covid-19 is no worse than the flu, and that wearing masks and social distancing is more harmful than not, and the government is only trying to follow citizens with the help of a tracking app. At the same time, “artists” are invited on television, posing in front of the cameras with damaged masks on their faces, and as a result, Slovenia is at the very top in terms of the number of infections in Europe. The reader also urges the media to offer the floor to different opinions as an objective medium and urges them to choose their sources of information more carefully in the future in order to create a more objective image.
The hard-left opposition parties are completely non-state-building, Matej Lahovnik believes in the face of new left-wing harassment. (Photo: Nova24tv Archive)
Another reader wrote in his letter that what he saw this time on the already mentioned media, about the Slovenian government, was just a simple mess and it was pure left-wing extremist propaganda. Media such as RTV, POP TV, A Kanal, Mladina, Večer, etc., are left-wing media supported by far-left parties such as Levica, SD, SAB and LMŠ, and the German media reported exactly as these left extremists ordered without creating their own image. The reader also urges them to come to Slovenia and create their own idea of the actual situation in our country, and adds that they should be ashamed.
The German media have already announced that they have included criticism of their report “Slovenian Government Against the Media” in their daily assessment of the public reaction and forwarded to the relevant editorial board and a wider circle of recipients within their company, including management, and that it is noted in internal discussions of the programme. At ZDF, they also report that journalistic standards are taken into account when designing their programme, however, impartiality applies to the programme as a whole, and not necessarily to individual broadcasts or contributions. In short articles, namely in news or magazine articles, not all aspects can be presented comprehensively enough due to time constraints, so they often focus on priorities. In addition, they believe that classifications and assessments of political events, for example by commentary, are part of a common repertoire of journalistic forms of reporting. Time and time again, they tackle different topics from different perspectives and try to present a diverse picture of current socio-political issues.