By: Domen Mezeg
The saga of “attacks on the Slovenian media” – which is exported abroad by transitional socio-political workers for domestic political needs, and their foreign colleagues are showing “dog’s” loyalty – is gaining new dimensions. The events in Slovenia were also noticed in Poland, where they highlighted the recent article of the German-speaking ARD journalist Nikolaus Neumaier, who prepared an article in this field and who, as expected, followed the well-established transitional rhetoric of his Slovenian colleagues. The Polish media Tysol.pl pointed out that Neumaier’s article was far from impartial, due to the harsh censorship of the independent journalist Bojan Požar and the manipulation of the opinion of the director of Demokracija, Jože Biščak. In addition, they pointed out that Prime Minister Janša compared the reporting of the already mentioned German public television with the propaganda of the Nazi “Der Stürmer”.
As they pointed out on the Polish portal Tysol.pl, the German television ARD summed up the already well-known left wing bullying that the head of the Slovenian government, Janez Janša, is following in the footsteps of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. They also stated that Slovenia would begin its presidency of the EU Council in three months. The German media is also said to have reported that the Slovenian Prime Minister is attacking the media, especially journalists, and at the same time uses hate speech as well as vulgar attacks. The Polish article is entitled “Shame”. The Slovenian Prime Minister compared the coverage of German public television with the propaganda of “Der Stürmer”. At the same time, the Polish media are wondering whether the ARD media reporter Nikolaus Neumaier also asked for the opinion of a conservative journalist, editor, or media.
As they point out, no one has contacted Demokracija magazine, even though it is the largest conservative weekly. German colleagues were also asked whether they relied solely on what the leftists had to say when reporting, meanwhile, they actually summarised the questions of the editor-in-chief of the aforementioned weekly, Jože Biščak, and adding that he did not receive answers to the questions. They also stated that in Slovenia we have just witnessed the incident of an “attack on the free media”, which, as they did some time ago in Poland, are largely left-liberal. In an ARD article broadcasted to the public on March 31st, Slovenian RTV journalists claimed that Prime Minister Janša was using Twitter in a similar way to former US President Donald Trump, and that he was attacking non-pro-government media.
The director of TV SLO, Natalija Gorščak, expressed concern that the Prime Minister is trying to transform an independent television broadcaster into a state one. The Polish portal recalled Janša’s tweet, in which the Prime Minister pointed out the fact that Neumaier censored in the style of “Pravda” or “Der Stürmer”. They also stated that they excluded almost everyone who was not in line with the journalist’s biased agenda from the reporting, and that this is a shame for ARD. They also touched upon the posts of prominent commentators on Twitter, the censorship of journalist Bojan Požar, and the deliberate spreading of misinformation, which can be easily detected if we spend only five minutes browsing Google. They also cite the manipulation of the statements of a journalist who represented opposing views. Some of the statements made by the director of UKOM, Uroš Urbanija, are said to be reported completely out of context.
We have already written that many foreign journalists only prepare articles that confirm what some politically engaged Slovenian journalists write abroad. According to Bojan Požar, the conversation with the journalist of the German ARD lasted half an hour, and in the four-minute article, Neumaier did not include anything of what was said. The journalist was interested in the situation of the media in Slovenia, but he also wanted an opinion on how Prime Minister Janša’s alleged pressure on the work of the media is exerted. Požar was most fascinated by the fact that the journalist kept giving the impression that he did not believe his answers. It seems that the German media also do not want to hear or present the truth, wherein the most ironic thing is that they mentioned the director of TV SLO, who put pressure on journalists Igor Pirkovič and Jože Možina.