Last week during the TV show Faktor on TV3, the political marketing consultant Sebastjan Jeretič said something very interesting about the “independence” of the Slovenian media. He revealed that before the 2008 parliamentary elections, when it was becoming clear that the SDS party might win the elections, the journalists got involved and started asking members of the SD party’s election headquarters what they could do to prevent this from happening. Most of the media, of course, kept silent about this, as ever since the vote of no confidence failed, they have been trying to sell Politico’s story about how Janez Janša is supposedly the person who is attacking the media.
On Monday, the web portal Požareport revealed the incredible servility of the media and the journalists towards the left. The former head of the Social Democrats’ public relations, Sebastjan Jeretič, revealed in the show Faktor (factor) how the journalists called the party and asked for advice on how to bring down Janez Janša, as the results of the polls showed that he would win the elections. “In Janez Janša’s first term, the journalists were the happiest when they got the chance to try and overthrow his government. One week before the 2008 elections, the polls indicated that Janša would most likely win, and so the phones started ringing. The journalists were calling, asking about what they can do to help bring Janša down in the last week before the elections. However, they still did it in a slightly more subtle way, compared to what they are doing today,” Jeretič said. Let us remind you that in 2008, they actually succeeded, as the Social Democrats, with Borut Pahor as their president at the time, won the elections by a hair’s breadth and then formed a left-wing government with Zares, LDS and DeSUS.
According to Jeretič, the situation in Slovenia is completely unacceptable. “What the journalists have been doing this past year,” has crossed all boundaries of good taste. Today, according to Jeretič, when you look at what those who consider themselves to be journalists are writing on Twitter, you can see that this has reached completely new dimensions. “They want to play football, but you cannot even try to take their ball. If you get close to them or shout something, that is already considered to be a foul,” he said critically.
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“The media is no longer a separate branch of power that controls the politics in the name of public interest. Lately, the media have become an integral part of politics; the journalists have entered the political floor. These people can no longer be considered journalists.” According to Jeretič, we only have a handful of journalists in Slovenia, which are what journalists used to be. “Today, the strategy of ‘I will try to explain something to the journalist, and I will prove to him that he is wrong by using facts,’ no longer helps you. The only thing you can do is let your audience know that a war with media is currently going on so that when they follow the media, they know that this is not objective and correct reporting, but malicious actions.”
Ever since the misleading article was published, which was launched to the world public through Politico after the failed vote of no confidence, in which they are trying to scare the whole world with the idea of a “dictatorship” of Prime Minister Janez Janša, who is supposedly stifling the freedom of speech in the Slovenian media with his iron fist, the mainstream media cannot stop talking about how this supposedly led to a huge affair. With this kind of reporting, the media are trying to create the impression of being the victims of an attack; the reason for it is that they “dare to report critically.” However, if we follow the reporting in sufficient detail, especially since the beginning of the term of the current government, we can see that the reality is very different. Namely, their reporting is clearly one-sided and politically oriented – to the left. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be even a trace of any professionalism there.
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Jeretič’s statement only further proves the unprofessionalism of the mainstream media. Declaring yourself an independent journalist out loud, but then deciding just before the elections, when you see that things are not looking so good for your favourite candidate, to call to the headquarters of a party and ask if you can help bring the opponent down, is completely at odds with common sense. By doing so, you prove that deep down, you are only a political activist and nothing more. It is, of course, perfectly clear why this news did not reach a wider audience. Just like it is very clear why some people are not at all happy about Janša’s proposal regarding the monitoring of the media in Slovenia. Namely, many indecencies would be revealed, which they want to keep hidden.
Nina Žoher
