“The protests and strikes are an attempt to destabilise a public media outlet that has always had problems,” Dr Jože Možina stated, who believes that the national media outlet RTV has always had its problems, which will not be solved by the expressly adopted law, which is not really justified by anything. On the show on RTV, various guests talked about the sensibility of the law as something that would depoliticise public television, which is almost laughable given that the trade union of journalists, which is currently on strike, is asking politicians to sort this out and depoliticise the media outlet.
The government has submitted a proposal for amendments to the Radio-Television Slovenia Act to the National Assembly and has proposed that it be considered under the urgent procedure to avoid irreparable consequences. Instead of the current Programme and Supervisory Boards, the leading, management and supervision of the institution would be left to a single RTV Council with 17 members – representatives of employees and the civil society. The government’s amendments aim to ensure the institutional and programme autonomy of RTV and to protect journalistic or editorial independence. The National Assembly will decide on the amendments this week, and different opinions were shared by guests on the show “RTV, danes in jutri” (“RTV, Today and Tomorrow”).
“The proposed law comprehensively regulates the withdrawal of politics from public institutions,” said Asta Vrečko, the Minister of Culture. Her words sound logical, but in the next part of the interview, the host of the show, Vida Petrovčič, asked her an important question, namely, how they will be able to ensure that the next managers and members, whether they have the status of a non-governmental organisation or not, will not bring politics into the media space. The Minister seemed to have gotten a little “lost” in her answer, as she struggled to construct an answer, which was that they would select, through other institutions, by public tenders, persons with a high degree of authority and a high degree of knowledge of the various fields and of the public media, who, in her opinion, would be best able to manage and pursue the public interest.
“We do not want politics to interfere, but politics is the proposer”
And yet, the next answer of the Minister of Culture to the presenter’s question of whether she will change her stance, given that she also speaks with the principles of one political option on the one hand, and on the other hand, speaks of withdrawal and depoliticisation, which is ironic, if not absurd, to which the Minister responded by saying: “I do not understand this question, of course we are political, politics is the founder of the institution, and politics is proposing to change the law, and I am speaking on behalf of the government that proposed this law.” Is it just us who feel like Asta Vrečko is contradicting herself with every single word she says?
The substantive part of the proposed amendment is also unacceptable, stressed Tom Zalaznik, President of the Slovenian Broadcasting Workers’ Trade Union, who has been working at RTVS for several decades now. “We are taking a step back with this law, to the basis from the 1990s, when the legislator’s intention may even have been noble, but we, as a society and a country, have ‘failed the exam’ by implementing the law. However, a broader societal debate on this is necessary, at least in the manner and form that we had undertaken during the time when the ministry was headed by Minister Širca. Honestly and sincerely, of course, without the subsequent political undercurrents in the final form that led to the law’s demise.”
“So, how will you ensure independence from the politics that is currently helping you?” Was the question the tv show host asked the President of the Coordination of the Journalists’ Unions of RTV Slovenia, Helena Milinković, who answered sharply, which is something she is good at, saying that they had already called for depoliticisation and that the employees themselves would be deciding who would take the leading positions. She also listed, among other things, the fact that, as a result of the “rationalisation,” employees are doing work other than that for which they were being paid, and that they are now on strike because they were being deprived of their autonomy and decision-making power. Milinković’s answer was not an actual answer to the presenter’s question, but Milinković more than obviously did not want to answer the actual question, even though she already knew the answer – RTV Slovenia will actually not be independent.
The proposed law is a cuckoo’s egg
Dr Jože Možina continued the debate, saying that this was demagogy and misleading, arguing that there have always been certain problems, but that, despite all this, the viewership is the same and RTV is doing well. “It is essential who runs this institution, and the same was true during the times of right-wing politics,” Možina said. “RTV was operating well, viewership went up, the later teams always complained about the lack of money, demanded an increase in the RTV mandatory contribution, which is not the main issue, as it has become evident with the current management.”
“It is absurd to call for depoliticisation but then appeal to politicians to sort out the problem, especially since the current government politicians came to power with the help of public television,” Možina said, adding that RTV has never had a more non-political director than the current one, and stressed that the biggest issue is actually the plurality of content. He also said that during his term in office, they provided all topics for the people to watch, and they talked about all kinds of issues, while now, the media space is pretty closed up. “People miss pluralism because they are not addressed in the same way as others, and I find it unacceptable to hide information from Slovenian history, which is common and important for everyone.”
Such an approach will not solve anything
The next person who was given the floor was Tom Zalaznik, the President of the Slovenian Broadcasting Workers’ Trade Union, who also noted how Milinković had avoided the actual question and commented on her arrogant approach, telling her that they could have learned by now that such an approach will achieve nothing. He, too, would like to see RTV Slovenia depoliticised, but he does not believe that the current approach will solve things. It is funny that the leftists keep talking about depoliticisation, and then Asta Vrečko says that it is the politicians, as the founders of public institutions, who wanted to sort this out urgently, and the rest of the guests laugh because it is all comical – the dodging of question and the bluff instead of actual answers. According to the Minister, there is no need for a public debate, as this is something that has already been discussed a lot, and she also mentioned an article from a law that supposedly allows for this to happen, even though it has been said many times that the situation, in this case, is not comparable. Andrej Grah Whatmough, the Director-General of RTV Slovenia, commented on the claim that public debate about this problem had actually taken place, saying that this was “lots of faking ignorance.”
Dr Sandra Bašič Hrvatin from the Faculty of Humanities said that it is primarily the responsibility of each individual journalist to decide whether or not politics will make it into the media. She said for herself that it bothers her very much that the Programme Council is made up of people who use hate speech and are intolerant of certain groups, which was obviously directed at the current Programme Council, and yet Bešič Hrvatin did not ask herself who it is that has been spreading hate speech for the last two years.
There is no reason for the law to be passed so quickly
“A working group has been set up, which includes the representatives of RTV employees,” said the Director-General of RTV, who believes it is right that they should be given the opportunity to say what it is that they want. He believes that the key problem lies in the source of funding and technological development, rather than in the management of the media house, which is what is being discussed. A commentator from Mladina magazine, Dr Bernard Nežmah, believes that the idea of getting politics out of the media is revolutionary, as politics and the media have always been intertwined. “One question is whether this law will really be an exception, and it could be. The idea of a civil society which will sort it all out reminds me of a child of socialism – civil society is not only non-governmental organisations but also those who are not yet part of NGOs, and what bothers me is that there has been no discussion about this.” Nežmah said that he really did not see any reason for such a law to be passed so quickly.
“I think this is a misrepresentation because Grims’s law has long since ceased to have any effect,” said the Secretary-General of the Slovene Association of Journalists, Špela Stare, who believes that the new proposed law will be no different from others and that it will only allow access to the media “through the other door,” but she did point out that there is a big problem of communication between employees and management, which is supposedly also what caused the strikes and protests.
The protests and the strikes are an attempt to destabilise the public media outlet, which has always had problems, said Možina, who also publicly pointed out the pressure being exerted on “that minority,” which Marcel Štefančič had already previously mentioned on the public tribune, saying “there are very few of them and we know exactly who they are,” while Milinković cynically smiled. All this would be understandable if we were actually in a state of emergency, but we are not. “We are not at war – if we were, our Prime Minister would be in a bunker and not at the seaside; this is actually about the beheading of the management and a brutal interference of politics in the media,” said Možina, who sees the key problem in the distinct imbalance. “The dominant media are creating a fake reality in favour of the left-wing parties, and the whole thing has fallen so far off the axis that discernment and judgment are at stake. Despite the expectations that democratic development would continue in society and also in the media, the situation is taking a turn for the worse. The professional level of journalistic work is also declining. There are rampant abuses of media power happening, which are in stark contrast to our fundamental mission. We are far from independence, pluralism or objectivity.”
Tanja Brkić
