“Yes, the Radio-Television Slovenia strike is necessary. Because a lot of recent actions are worrying. However, not all means should be used to draw attention to requirements or deviations that we do not like. Among the least acceptable are the tactics of falsely and hypocritically slandering your co-workers,” said Andreja Gregorič, the head of the new news block on RTV Slovenia. She also shared some of the derogatory comments and insults she has heard being made at her expense. Some of her colleagues responded to her post in the comments – however, instead of supporting her, they accused her of discrediting RTV’s Monday protest and everything she and her colleagues are fighting for. She was also accused of (oh, the horror!) agreeing with Igor Pirkovič. That is practically the worst thing a journalist in a public and “independent” media outlet can do.
Andreja Gregorič is a long-time RTV journalist who will be the host of the new news show, Panorama. Recently, she has received a lot of criticism, including from colleagues from the same media house. “A convenient starting point for ridicule and contempt, waves of insults and offensive words that I have been the target of for about four months now. Misleading interpretations and devaluing comments are often added. I am a traitor, a bitch, I am stupid, naïve, corrupt… and more. I would rather not write down some other, juicier labels that have been said to me,” she wrote, among other things, in her Facebook post.
The team of journalists that works on the show Panorama has thus been called an easily manipulated team that will spread stories which are to the liking of a certain political option – namely; there are students involved in the team as well. They are also being accused of getting paid for not actually doing any work. “I get paid for not doing anything?” the journalist wondered, appalled. It is also being said that the news programme is being divided into two – the left-wing and right-wing part. “I was never left nor right. And I will not let anyone place me anywhere. That is nothing but nasty imputation. I was not born yesterday. If there is ever even a hint of a political connotation, I will not participate in that,” Gregorič said and added that there are certainly lots of people who can hardly wait for the project to fail. “They even want to do everything in their power to make it fail. Perhaps, there is a real chance of it succeeding, and some people do not like the idea of that,” she added.
“I understand the concerns – if they are supported with arguments – and I even agree with some of them. However, I cannot understand slander or imputations,” the journalist admitted, who went on to say that she cannot understand why someone would stoop so low. “I have my views, I have my opinions, which I strictly separate from my work. And that is how it will be in the future as well,” she stressed. Regarding the strike, she wrote that it is absolutely needed on RTV because lots of the recent moves are worrying. “However, not all means should be used to draw attention to requirements or deviations that we do not like. Among the least acceptable are the tactics of falsely and hypocritically slandering your co-workers,” she pointed out.
Some of Gregorič’s colleagues apparently recognised themselves in her writing. Namely, Vanja Kovač commented, among other things, that she finds it completely understandable that Gregorič decided to take on a challenge that can help her career, “but this post is discrediting our yesterday’s protest and everything that your colleagues are fighting for. As if we would ever dream of a planned division into groups of left-wing and right-wing journalists, as if we would ever dream of the public television being taken over by the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), of the pressures or censorship, and as if we would ever be malicious towards our younger colleagues with less experience.” According to Kovač, RTV journalists were shown in a bad light in Gregorič’s post, and she also accused her colleagues of throwing money out the window with the show Panorama – while just a few sentences before that, she claimed she was happy for Gregorič. Kovač also accused her colleague of writing a post that seems very similar to the writings of Igor Pirkovič. “You are agreeing with him, you are confirming his words about an aggressive group, the SDS members talked about the feminist mujahedeen, and your post is in line with the management’s claims of a ‘dictatorship and political pressure from the trade union,’ which is a complete lie and relativisation of our fight for independent journalism.”
Marko Štor also commented on Gregorič’s post, writing: “Andreja, do you think that setting up the show Panorama and a parallel second programme which will, intentionally or unintentionally, compete with the first programme, is one of the moves that are a cause for concern? Especially considering how dilettantish its implementation has been from the very beginning?” he asked cynically. Eugenija Carl wrote that she felt it was a pity that some, otherwise good journalists, had sold themselves for a higher salary grade. “This is not a career advancement, this is opportunism,” she assessed. “I don’t even want to mention those who filled up the editorial board, or the editor-in-chief of the news programme. I call them the assistants in the destruction of TVS,” she added.
We could find no colleagues who expressed support for the journalist in the comments, but Vesna Deržek Sovinek did write: “A group of people that keeps on getting larger and larger has been using any and all means necessary for its attacks (for a long time now). I am experiencing a similar thing as you are. Luck favours the brave; keep your head up!” She was then also attacked by Kovač and Carl’s comments, who wanted to find out who specifically was attacking Deržek and why she removed her name from the final list of the people who worked on the shows Odmevi and Dnevnik recently.
“So, the fact that I have to read and hear the things I wrote about is not worth fighting back for? There is no sense of collegiality when it comes to this? I should just quietly accept everything, while some can make accusations at my expense without taking any responsibility for it? Publicly? I am not talking about my career choices but about personal discrediting. I can initiate proceedings indefinitely, while on the other hand, I have to watch constructs being created? And me being placed in them? This could easily be understood as relativisation,” Andreja Gregorič responded to her colleagues’ criticism with disappointment.
Sara Kovač
