“As the current Acting President of the Management Board of RTV, Gorščak has all the programme levers and can thus exert a significant influence on decision-makers and public opinion at the time of the selection process. In my opinion, she has, in fact, taken advantage of this by ordering or allowing the publication of a documentary programme entitled ‘The World of the Only Children’ (Svet edincev) on the 29th of August. In this respect, I perceive a painful desire on her part to be visible and ambitious, and the associated danger of privatising the public. She is not even trying to hide her ambition, because my husband tells me that Gorščak’s daughter was already saying as a five-year-old that she was going to be the wife of the President of America,” said an insider, even before Gorščak’s election as the new chairwoman of the President of the Management Board of the national media outlet, Radio-Television Slovenia (RTVS).
On Tuesday, the Council of Radio-Television Slovenia (RTVS) appointed the President of the Management Board of RTVS at an extraordinary meeting. The post was expectedly filled by the system’s Natalija Gorščak, and as a consequence, we can expect that everything will (more or less) go on as before and that the RTV Titanic will continue to sink. Can it really be expected that someone who has already been in charge of a system in decline will improve things significantly this time? The following people responded to the public call for applications for the position of President of the Management Board: the Acting President of the Management Board of RTVS – Gorščak; Director of Radio Slovenia – Mirko Štular, and Director of Nova24TV and Guinness World Record holder for the longest marathon television talk show – Boris Tomašič. The deadline for applications closed on Tuesday, the 20th of August, 2024. It should be pointed out that the competition between the candidates was not entirely fair.
In his presentation, Tomašič highlighted some key points that distinguish him from the other two candidates. They are part of the system and, as such, part of the problem. He decided to run because he is concerned about the state of the public media outlet. He also pointed out that the public service is not sufficiently development-oriented, that it is technologically lagging behind, and that relations among the staff are very poor. He believes that he could have been the one to do things differently, as he is not part of the system and, therefore, not part of the problem. He would devote the first 60 days of his tenure to a detailed analysis of the “guts” of RTV, after which the administration would draw up concrete plans with specific dates. For him, financial rehabilitation is also crucial, and increasing the subscription fee alone will not solve the problem. He would also strengthen production in the field of Slovenian culture.
He believes that there are enough staff within the service to do this. There are, however, too many staff employed at RTV for the current production. Tomašič: “With this team, much more could be done!” He added: “Creativity has died in this house because of ideology and internal disputes. I am interested in professionalism, loyalty to the institution, not in which party someone came from. I can bring freshness to this institution, no matter where you know me from. I am a man of dialogue and can work with anyone.” However, if he did not have people around him who would operationalise the programme that would be approved here, things wouldn’t work because he wouldn’t be able to implement his plan.
A likeable show as a disguised promotion for a prestigious position?
In the following, we will focus on Gorščak, who, as the Acting President of the Management Board of RTV Slovenia, has instrumentalised the public media for her own self-promotion. A confidential source has warned us that the unhealthily ambitious Gorščak is abusing the public media outlet for her own appetites. In light of this, a 50-minute documentary entitled The World of the Only Children was screened on the 29th of August 2024. Between the 33rd and 48th minute of the movie, the life story of the Gorščak family is presented, full of sympathetic moments that make the viewer’s heart grow fonder. The members of the family are shown, among other things, as a cute little family with an only child – a girl.
We can see how they eat and spend their free time together, learn about the strengths and weaknesses of only having one child, etc. You can watch the full programme (in Slovenian) here: https://365.rtvslo.si/arhiv/dokumentarci-kulturno-umetniski/174406121. It would make sense to watch it before it is (possibly) removed from the archives. Of course, the issue is seen in a completely different light when it is placed in the temporal context of the selection of the new President of the Management Board of RTV Slovenia. In this light, it is seen as an instrument to win public favour, which is unfair to the other candidates. As our interlocutor pointed out to us, Gorščak has misused the public media for her own ambition – to occupy a prominent position in the public media. We are publishing our interlocutor’s comment in its entirety below.
Comment by an expert on the situation at RTV Slovenia:
“As Acting Director-General, Gorščak (perhaps with the help of someone who is up her arse) managed to organise a rerun of a movie called ‘The World of the Only Children’ on the 29th of August at noon on Television Slovenia’s Channel 1. The programme will still be available for viewing on Wednesday and on Thursday (as a rewatch). The programme was made when Gorščak was Assistant Director of TV Slovenia (to then-Director Ljerka Bizilj). It is logical that she successfully lobbied for her family’s appearance even at that time and neutralised any doubts and resistance of the scriptwriter and director as an important member of TV Slovenia’s board.
I will not judge the show itself. But the fact is that her whole family (herself, her husband, her daughter, her mother) appear in a rather sympathetic light in the documentary, which is in itself questionable (TV decision-makers include personal stories), and what is even more questionable is the fact that the documentary was repeated at the time of her candidacy for the post of Director-General of RTV. What will RTV Slovenia do if Gorščak wins? Will she be the new Herta Kosmina that we watch night and day on TV Slovenia?
As the current Acting President of the Management Board of RTV, Gorščak has all the programme levers and can thus exert a significant influence on decision-makers and public opinion at the time of the selection process. In my opinion, she has, in
fact, taken advantage of this by ordering or allowing the rerun of the documentary in question on the 29th of August. In this respect, I perceive a painful desire on her part to be visible and ambitious, and the associated danger of privatising the public. I have based my claim on the fact that the show was originally produced in 2015.
I think that even the rerun of this programme at the time of her candidacy for President of the Management Board happened because of purely personal interests. Gorščak and her family are portrayed as a likeable and thoughtful multinational family (the main part is between the 37th and the 48th minute), chatting amiably and sympathetically over beef soup. They don’t even hide their ambition, as the husband tells us that his daughter has been saying since she was five years old that she was going to be the wife of the President of America.”
Domen Mezeg
