Slovenia is currently experiencing a post-truth media reality. How else could we explain the fact that most of the dominant media outlets are unable to point out the simple fact that the MP who proposed the amendment to the Radio-Television Slovenia Act is Mojca Šetinc Pašek, who until recently worked at the national media outlet RTV, presenting herself as an independent journalist, and she will likely return to her post after the end of her mandate? The depoliticisation of RTV is just one big bluff, as Alenka Jeraj said at the SDS press conference. And she was right.
The amendment to the Radio-Television Slovenia Act supposedly follows the law that has already been submitted by the Freedom Movement (Gibanje Svoboda) MP, Mojca Šetinc Pašek, who worked as a journalist at the national media outlet, RTV, until recently. The same person had also proposed that the RTV law be adopted under the fast-track procedure, and it is obvious that the left is in an extraordinary hurry to take over the whole of public television without any ethical reservations whatsoever. That ethical reservations are not a problem for the former RTV journalist is also obvious from the fact that her “independent journalist” position on public television will wait for her to return to after her mandate ends.
Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokrastka stranka -SDS) MP Jeraj said that the decision of the National Assembly to adopt the Radio-Television Slovenia Act under the urgent procedure was an abuse of the rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, which stipulate that a bill shall be considered under the urgent procedure “in order to protect the interests of security or defence of the State, to remedy the consequences of natural disasters, or to prevent the occurrence of consequences that are difficult to remedy for the protection of the State.” And none of the three options mentioned above applies to the Radio-Television Slovenia Act.
Despite the fact that the current Prime Minister, Robert Golob, made it clear during the election campaign that “the government will adopt a new law on RTV, but not in order to replace ‘their’ members with ‘ours’,” that is exactly what they are doing now, according to MP Jeraj, because just last week, the Mandate and Electoral Commission supposedly adopted a decision to appoint Alenka Sivka, who was a candidate on the Freedom Movement’s list, to the RTV Programme Council, due to the resignation of two of its members. The MP also added that the talk of depoliticising RTV is actually just a way to mislead people, but she believes that the current composition of the RTV Programme Council is the most balanced, as in the second part of the previous mandate, the coalition was made up of both left-wing and right-wing parties, while today’s coalition is made up of only left-wing parties.
The question of ethics in the very actions of the left-wing government is not surprising given the alleged unethical behaviours of the members of the coalition themselves. As mentioned above, one of the sponsors and first signatories of the new RTV Slovenia bill, which will be discussed under the urgent procedure, is the Freedom Movement MP Mojca Šetinc Pašek, who is also a former self-proclaimed independent journalist from RTV Slovenia, and who, according to the web portal Siol, will have her job waiting for her after her mandate ends. There are certain criteria when it comes to conflict of interest of government officials and thus preventing the emergence of such conflicts. Siol checked with the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption whether there was a conflict of interest in the specific case of Šetinc Pašek.
Before Šetinc Pašek was a candidate on Golob’s list, and before she was elected as a Member of Parliament, she was employed at the national television, and her previous job will be waiting for her after the end of her term of office. The former journalist turned MP now wants to introduce changes at the public RTV in favour of the left. There is no doubt that she can expect her quasi-journalistic job back (especially in the event of a complete takeover of RTV by the left).
The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption also commented on whether Šetinc Pašek’s decision-making might be a case of a conflict of interest, telling Siol that each case should be well clarified and defined. However, it is the duty of officials to anticipate in advance the circumstances of a conflict of interest and to strictly observe the duty to avoid such circumstances in accordance with the Prevention of Conflict of Interest Act. “Avoiding or limiting conflicts of interest in the performance of public duties constitutes one of the key pillars of the rule of law, trust in democratic institutions, transparency, equality and objectivity in decision-making in public affairs and in the disposition of public funds,” they wrote, according to Siol.
Tanja Brkić
