In the past week, we have followed the political purge of journalists, which four Constitutional Court judges – Matej Accetto, Rajko Knez, Katja Šugman Stubbs and Špelca Mežnar – allowed to happen by overriding the decision that five Constitutional Court judges came to beforehand. In order to force the resignation of the now-former Editor-In-Chief of TV Slovenia, Jadranka Rebernik, as soon as possible, the new head of the national media outlet RTV Slovenia’s Management Board, Zvezdan Martič, and the interim director of RTVS, Andraž Pöschl, who was appointed without a public tender, carried out a political purge of journalists in the editorial office of Television Slovenia, the likes of which we have never seen before in the history of our country. Not even under communism. Robert Golob is an effective ruler when it comes to subordinating state subsystems and the media to his party and the ruling coalition.
The new acting Editor-in-Chief of Television Slovenia, Polona Fijavž, removed Vida Petrovčič, Luka Svetina, Jaka Elikan, Valentina Plaskan, Igor Pirkovič and others from their positions and from the screens practically overnight… And thus dispelled any doubt that the Constitutional Court’s decision would not result in a political purge of the editorial staff of TV Slovenia. In March, after the implementation of the amendments to the Radio-Television Slovenia Act had been halted by the Constitutional Court, the liberal European Commissioner Vĕra Jourová, came to the President of the Constitutional Court, Matej Accetto, to discuss the matter. She had previously supported the dismissal of the entire RTVS management so that the party of Robert Golob from her political group could set up its own staff at the national media outlet. And its own editors, too. And journalists. After Jourová’s visit and the coalition’s announcements in Parliament that they would be firing people even if the Court forbade them to do so, the aforementioned four Constitutional Court judges provided the turning point.
The Mass Media Act requires every editorial office to have an editor-in-chief and specifies how he or she must be appointed. By obtaining the opinion of the editorial board. Owners and directors in private media often cheat in this respect and appoint some kind of acting editor. For RTVS, a separate law lays down even stricter conditions.
Polona Fijavž is an acting Editor-in-Chief in the most important editorial position in the most important public media outlet. But to get her there, they cheated the system. The new top brass is in such a hurry to complete the personnel purge that the ruling politicians have demanded of them that they disregard the legal regime. They dare to do this because the authorities are behind them: the parties of Robert Golob, Tanja Fajon and Asta Vrečko.
As far as such changes are concerned, at least Telekom’s President of the Management Board, Boštjan Košak, and member of the Board, Irma Gubanec, acted legally when they dismissed me as Editor-in-Chief of Siol.net last year because of the interests of Robert Golob and Vesna Vuković. They accepted my warning that the political change they had to make should not result in the editorial office being led by an editor who was not elected in accordance with the law. The argument was that we should not create an illegal situation with an acting editor, because I will not die or lose my capacity in the meantime, which would justify an interim editor bypassing the law. Jadranka Rebernik did not die or lose her capacity this week either.
But nevertheless, Fijavž still became acting Editor-in-Chief.
That political changes at the top of editorial boards can be handled differently was demonstrated because the process of electing Mihael Šuštaršič was handled by Gubanec (with the tacit help of Vesna Vuković from the background) in such a way that I was able to hand over the editorial business to the legally elected Editor-in-Chief. It is true that otherwise, I would not have participated in the “procedures”, and there would have been problems and repercussions, which they did not want. However, at RTVS, the new management, led by Zvezdan Martič, has decided to take a quicker route, which is a violation of the law. And also, quite embarrassing for the top of RTVS, the four Constitutional Court judges who allowed this course of action, and also for Polona Fijavž, who agreed to take over the editorship in an illegal way and, even before choosing a legally appointed editor-in-chief, to carry out a political purge of TV Slovenia journalists and presenters.
I don’t have the best opinion of Šuštaršič, who took over after me as editor of the Siol.net web portal, because he immediately censored the texts and the column in which I had criticised Robert Golob in the past and the politically activist journalists like Vesna Vuković, who put Golob in power and who were financed by him in the past from the Gen-I energy company.
But Šuštaršič was elected legitimately, and when he came in, he did not first hit out at junior editors and journalists, as Fijavž is now doing, thus showing us what short-sighted vindictiveness of incompetent leaders is all about.
Fijavž, as well as Šušteršič, were among the 571 activists against Janša
I even understood when last year, Šuštaršič, as a signatory of the petition of 571 media workers who in 2007 opposed Janez Janša (Slovenian democratic party – Slovenska demokratksa stranka: SDS) holding the EU presidency as Prime Minister, also used censorship to get at me. He had to. In doing so, he demonstrated the so-called anti-Janšism that is a prerequisite for top positions in the state-owned media under the rule of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda).
By the way, Polona Fijavž is also among the signatories of the petition of the 571 journalists. Surely, nobody is surprised by that, right? At a time when the left is in power, the political activism of journalists against Janša from the past is considered beneficial. Meanwhile, others are accused of being politically connected.
This week, the ruling party has continued with similar policies in other areas, as the four Constitutional Court judges allowed them to purge RTVS. The Legislative and Legal Service of the National Assembly warned them about a whole raft of laws that violate the Constitution in the way they are adopted and in their content. It did not help. Most recently, they enacted reimbursement of fines and compensation for the misery that their activists suffered at protests against government measures when people were dying in overcrowded hospitals because of Covid-19, while they called en masse for the deaths of Janez Janša and supporters around Ljubljana during the height of the health crisis, and who thus helped in Golob’s march to power. The government has also cut the co-financing of contributions for priests (but not for the more numerous cultural workers who were among the activist protesters), the church has been stripped of its status as an organisation of general interest, and NGOs have been empowered to spy on and report animal breeders and owners because veterinarians are incapable of ensuring order. Meanwhile, the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry decided this week to “depoliticise” the veterinary profession, after they saw the recent success of “depoliticisation” in the media.
Two interesting responses to this development we saw on online networks read as follows: “On the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Communist Regime, the holiday was cancelled during the event honouring the victims (!). At the same time, huge sums of money were announced for “government” NGOs in the wake of the floods. Alongside erasing the covid fines, they also hit the priests.”
“The street wing of the regime is exempt from the covid fines. The two archetypal enemies, the farmer and the priest, have been slapped on the wrist, practically in one fell swoop. Everything else, especially the media, is also under control.”
Jadranka Rebernik had no other sensible option than to resign as Editor-in-Chief of TV Slovenia. The alternative was that the same thing would happen to her as it did to Borut Meško, who was dismissed by then-director Bojan Veselinovič when a similar takeover of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) took place, and Meško was later even wrongly dismissed as a journalist. Fired. Before that, Veselinovič was doing to him what the new RTVS top brass has been doing to Rebernik in recent weeks. Shortly after he was sacked, Meško died of rapidly progressing cancer. This time, the takeover is more extensive but similarly brutal. We know that the parties on the left, along with the prestige of at least four constitutional judges, have invested almost all of their international connections and influence in it, and this was also evident in the warning of Romana Tomc, the SDS MEP, who wrote the following: “After the complete political takeover of RTV Slovenia, for which you, Věra Jourová, Sophie in’t Veld, and Dunja Mijatović are also responsible, because you knew about what was going on but still did not act, the thorough political cleansing continues as planned. Directors, editors and journalists who are not firmly on the line of the extreme left and the current government are being let go. So far, the following people have been swiftly removed from their posts: Director-General of RTVS, Director of TV Slovenia, editor-in-chief of the news programme, editor-in-chief of the internal policy, editor-in-chief of the foreign policy, editor-in-chief of the daily news programmes, editor-in-chief of the RTV’s web portal MMC. Announcements are then followed by cancellations of programmes critical of the work of the government, as well as programmes that expose the crimes of communism. How will you protect the freedom of the media you talk so much about? Will you keep quiet this time, too?” Tomc added, tagging the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe in her post on the social media X.
For the politicians in power, taking over and subjugating the media is important. This ensures a better chance for them in future elections. It reduces the chances of competitors. For journalists and editors, however, the dilemmas are brutal. The result is that a journalist is professionally and personally ruined. Family included. I myself was lucky last year because I had already established my own media outlet a few years earlier, to which I was able to return when I was hit by retaliation for critical articles about illegal bonuses given to Robert Golob at Gen-I, a strange account in Romania, censored transfers from Gen-I to Vesna Vuković’s parallel company… Since my media outlet Spletni časopis (Online Newspaper) was supported by voluntary contributions from many readers when I returned to it, I can now continue to work freely. But power is not omnipotent. Even though those in power are trying to silence all of their critics. As they did for the church this week, some time ago, they found that I was “not in the public interest”, thus making it impossible for people to contribute part of their income tax to investigative journalism and those of us being critical of the government.
Of course, the quick turnover at Siol.net and this week’s developments at RTVS were a message to everyone in the media that they should not dare criticise Golob and the ruling parties more seriously. The only criticism that is still permissible is one that actually provides good publicity for Golob. For example, criticism of his PR campaign with Ana Roš, the winner of the third Michelin Star, who, in the clip, tells her friend Golob that she supports him in everything he is doing.
But if anyone dares to do much more than that, they will sooner or later be forced to write a message similar to that recently posted by Igor Pirkovič: “Dear viewers, sometimes the Arena show also broadcasts certain things that are slightly embarrassing for the current authorities and left-wing activists. We invited everyone we talked about to the show, helped people in need and opened up the media space. With facts and footage. However, I hear that Monday was the last time I was on screen. Take care, and thank you.”
Peter Jančič, Spletni časopis
