STA, 23 March 2022 - All four KUL parties and the Freedom Movement issued a joint statement on Wednesday protesting against attempts to subjugate public broadcaster RTV Slovenija and supporting journalists' warnings about irregularities and pressure they experience at work. They pledged to change legislation after the elections to prevent political interference.
The new legislative framework will enable RTV Slovenija journalists to do their work professionally and independently "without politics interfering in their work or in expert management of the public media outlet", reads the statement.
It was signed by opposition LMŠ leader Marjan Šarec, SD leader Tanja Fajon, Left leader Luka Mesec, SAB leader Alenka Bratušek and Robert Golob from the non-parliamentary Freedom Movement.
They said that just like RTV Slovenija journalists, "we are shocked at the dismantling of the public broadcaster, which follows the long financial starvation of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA)."
They also warned that the attacks and subjugation of public media outlets are undermining democracy and the Slovenian statehood.
The statement highlights "the total bending of the rules and violation of regulations" in a number of appointments, including of the supervisory board and programming council, TV Slovenija director, TV Slovenija news programmes editor-in-chief, multimedia centre MMC editor or the two-time appointment of the same director general.
All this is to "intimidate journalists, destroy their independence and professional integrity, and transform RTV Slovenija into a government mouthpiece".
The statement also takes issue with "forced and rushed" changes to TV news programmes that should attract more viewers, but in reality their goal is to "abuse the public service and to fully instrumentalise by one party".
Just as was the case with the STA, the authorities are ignoring warnings from the civil society and the international professional public.
RTV Slovenija is not just a producer of news content but also one of the founding blocks of sovereignty of the Slovenian nation and a key pillar of democracy. "This is the reason why its dangerous political subjugation needs to be stopped immediately," concludes the statement.
The leadership of the public broadcaster rejected the allegations. In a written statement signed by director general Andrej Grah Whatmough, they say they strongly support journalist and editorial independence and condemn any abuse of the public service and its creators to score electoral points.
They say the leadership never exerted pressure on journalists or editors, which "is supported by the fact that none of the many organisations (trade unions and staff organisations) have ever notified the leadership of any case of pressure".
Meanwhile, the statement says that the RTV Slovenija leadership has often warned the public of unacceptable pressure from politics, organisations and other groups of public and reported some to the relevant institutions.
It also said that the Ljubljana Labour and Social Court had endorsed changes to the procedure for the appointment of the MMC editor, which the staff oppose.
Peter Gregorčič, the head of the RTV Slovenija programming council, sees the statement by KUL and Freedom Movement as political pressure on the public broadcaster.
