By: C.R.
Igor Pirkovič and Jože Možina, journalists and editors at Televizija Slovenija, wrote in the call and request for a time when lives are at stake, that we have unfortunately entered a period that is the most difficult test in recent decades in terms of protecting lives.
Due to the topicality, their statement is published in full below:
“It is a question of whether we will preserve more Slovene people through responsible behaviour, connected and in solidarity, or whether we will spread the cataclysm that threatens us and is actually already here, according to the warnings of overburdened health workers.
The virus is in a relentless swing and is severely degrading public health and consequently other spheres of social life. The number of seriously ill and dead is among the highest in the world per capita and the prospects are not promising either. Twenty-one of our citizens lost their lives yesterday alone. Covid19 is a threat to everyone. The media have a very responsible role to play in this, and in such situations when lives are at stake, there is also a great deal of moral responsibility. They have the influence and power to direct their efforts to unite their efforts to minimise the consequences of the virus.
Recognising and fearing that some influential media workers are not sufficiently aware of this responsibility and prefer politicisation, we suggest, in fact, ask that, for God’s sake, they stop doing so for at least a few weeks. In the war with the virus, every human being is on the same page, we are all vulnerable and powerless. Each of us has a relative, neighbour, friend who has lost a battle with covid or has major health problems after infection. Let us be at least a little sympathetic and imagine the looming distress of the weary health workers, who tomorrow will have neither bed nor staff for the new covid patient who is gasping for air and fighting for his life. Maybe this will be a dear person to me or you, everyone is precious and everyone would like to live. All together and each of us will have a clear conscience if we do everything in our power, but really everything to keep new patients to a minimum.
Part of the responsible conduct of the media should also be a clear condemnation and not the promotion of all activities that mean a departure from efforts to overcome the virus or non-compliance with prescribed health measures. Solidarity, not disruptiveness, should come to the fore. Now is not the time for media sponsorship of mass gatherings, at which it is practically impossible to provide security measures, now is not the time to harass and look for holes in a multitude of counterproductive regulations. And now is not the time to undermine and oppose the instructions of the medical profession or potentiate doubts about the usefulness of vaccination. Individual irresponsible behaviour can have the most severe consequences for fellow citizens and prolong the time of transition to a state of normalcy.
Let’s be honest, irresponsible actions, especially in the media, instilling doubts and exposing harmful examples – lead to non-compliance with protective measures, lower vaccinations and, in the end, to even more grief and unhappiness, which none of us wants.”