At the national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia (RTVS), there seems to be no end in sight to the transfers of journalists who are not among those that there are “f*cking more of,” and the refreshing of certain shows is not finished yet either. After announcing that there would be no more room for presenters Igor Pirkovič and Vida Petrovčič on the show Arena, it seems that they have now decided that there will also not be enough room anymore for Pirkovič on one of the most watched weekly commentary programmes, the show Utrip (Pulse), which was produced by different journalists on a rotating basis.
In the second half of last month, journalist Igor Pirkovič learned that he would no longer have a place in the Arena programme, which was a kind of space for confrontation of opinions and views on the current political and social situation every Monday, and the response from the public service broadcaster was that this was the case because the programme would be refreshed in the sense that it would now have a clear focus under a new name – “Arena, looking ahead,” and the show would now highlight one of the problem areas of dealing with the consequences of the recent weather-related disasters each week. And it seems that changes have also been envisaged in the case of the creation of the show Pulse.
Pirkovič was scheduled to co-create the Saturday episode of the show Arena
“The “refreshed” Arena. The Pulse has also been “refreshed”. I’ve been removed from the list for next Saturday, even though I was already preparing for the episode in question,” Pirkovič announced via social network X, adding that he himself did not know the reason for this. “They were among the most watched and most talked about, and it was all true,” he stressed, noting that many viewers were disappointed by the recent changes. “Contact the new leadership if you miss a different perspective,” Pirkovič urged.
According to the national media outlet, the show Pulse is considered to be the longest-running news programme. “It was established in 1988 as a regular weekly review of domestic political, economic, social and cultural events in the country,” they said, adding that the programme was “a platform for alternative political reflections, information and pictorial material that had not yet seen the light of day in other programmes of the then-news programme.” Since the Pulse is an original programme, which allows the creator to give the viewers a subjective view of current events, in light of the recent news, many people rightly thought that Pirkovič’s replacement was due to the fact that the “liberated” Radio-Television Slovenia has a clearly defined content policy, which does not want to deviate in terms of criticism of the ruling authorities, who, after all, made the so-called “liberation” possible.
As we are curious about the reason behind the decision to no longer allow Pirkovič to host the show Pulse, we have decided to address a journalistic question to RTV Slovenia. We will publish a reply at a later date – when we receive it. And what the people who fund the compulsory RTV contribution think about all this is very clear from the comments we found online: “The reason is that it is ideologically flawed”; “Sorry, unfortunately, this slimy #NorthKoreaTV has simply become unwatchable. Before liberation, though, we could hardly wait for it.”; “I don’t watch RTV, I don’t pay for it. But before, I always followed the show Arena, as long as the truth was conveyed through your show.”; “They know what they are doing, Radio-Television Slovenia has always been politically activated and always will be!”
Ž. N.
