“Matjaž has shown very clearly how the left works in Brussels. They want to make decisions, in a very Putin-like manner, about who can speak and who cannot. And they also want to pass resolutions and directives on media freedom. They have never been strangers to lies and discreditations. For them, there are no limits and no morals,” wrote MEP Romana Tomc. Her response refers to the shameless petition to remove Nova24TV from the list of TV channels, which was addressed to the European Parliament by Matjaž Nemec from the Social Democrats party (SD), the successor of Tanja Fajon, who until recently was expressing daily “concern” about the encroachment on media freedom in our country. Given the Slovenian left’s close affinity with the left-wing activists Sophie in’t Veld and Vera Jourova, who have in the past famously assisted in demonising Slovenia’s right-wing government, Nemec’s initiative to remove Nova24TV and add POP TV to the list of available television channels, raises the question of what is actually behind the initiative.
“Perhaps the competent services in Slovenia, like the Police of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, should check the suspicion of corruption when a Member of European Parliament Matjaž Nemec suggests including the commercial POP TV television station on the list of the programmes of the European Parliament. Payment in cash? Promises of media favours for the next campaign?” wondered one Twitter user, given the fact that Matjaž Nemec proposed that POP TV be added to the list, along with the removal of Nova24TV.
Matjaž Nemec has petitioned the relevant services of the European Parliament to remove Nova24TV from the list of TV channels available via IPTV in the European parliament. He declaredNova24TV – without a shred of evidence, of course – to be a “party machine which spreads the propaganda of one party to discredit its political opponents in an insulting and degrading manner.” On the other hand, he also wants POP TV to be added to the list of IPTC television channels. And where is Tanja Fajon now, with her concern about “interference in media freedom,” which she constantly voiced in the European Parliament during the term of the Janša government? We know that the nature of working and operating in the European institutions is such that a more liberal view of things and left-wing principles can help you climb up the career hierarchy ladder, and certainly spitting on the Slovenian right in the European Parliament won Fajon her job there, and now Nemec is continuing in her footsteps. The workings of the Slovenian left were well described by Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) MEP Romana Tomc, who wrote the following on Twitter: “Matjaž has shown very clearly how the left works in Brussels. They want to make decisions, in a very Putin-like manner, about who can speak and who cannot. And they also want to pass resolutions and directives on media freedom. They have never been strangers to lies and discreditations. For them, there are no limits and no morals.”
The two people that are at the forefront here are, of course, the left-wing activists Sophie in’t Veld and Vera Jourova, who have become Euro-Commissioners, the big stars of the Slovenian left-wing media scene, thanks to the European coalitions’ combinatorics. They have perfectly assisted in the demonisation of the Slovenian right-wing government by merely repeating uncritical lies and one-liners of the Slovenian activists, who, together with the Friday protest cyclists, fought against Janez Janša. Let us also remind you that in the past, Sophie in’t Veld apparently wanted to cover up the true state of the media in Slovenia, and Janez Janša had warned her about it, but she carried out censorship anyway. It is no wonder, then, that Nemec had the audacity to take such an aggressive initiative when he clearly has the support of the European left that stands behind him. What is surprising, however, is that he has proposed that POP TV be added to the list of IPTV television channels available in the European Parliament. “Perhaps the competent services in Slovenia, like the Police of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, should check the suspicion of corruption when a Member of European Parliament Matjaž Nemec suggests including the commercial POP TV television station on the list of the programmes of the European Parliament. Payment in cash? Promises of media favours for the next campaign?” wondered one Twitter user, and given the workings of the left-wing POP TV, the question is a pertinent one.
It should also be kept in mind that in the past, POP TV has been quite active in discrediting former Prime Minister Janez Janša. This is just a continuation of the degradation under the influence of the godfather from the background, Drago Kos, known from the Depala vas affair, in which he had already tried to morally degrade Janša, who was the Minister of Defence at the time. Today, POP TV is continuing its “mission” against Janša with Kos’s wife, Tjaša Slokar Kos, the editor-in-chief of the news programme of the largest commercial television channel, POP TV. “Freedom” really does exist, just not for “our people.” A striking example of this is the banal case of the moderation of comments on the 24ur web portal, where comments critical of current Prime Minister Golob and his politics are not acceptable, while commentators who are hostile towards Janša are generously “overlooked.”
In the past, POP TV has repeatedly proven that it is a portal that “tailors” its news in favour of the leftists, not to mention its sympathy for Golob’s government, which it constantly glorifies – unlike its reporting on the Janša government.
We have already written about the station’s reporting after the first 100 days of government and the differences between their current articles and the ones published after the first 100 days of the previous, Janša government. And every “why” has its “because.” So, too, Nemec’s initiative to include POP TV on the list of television channels available in the European Parliament will sooner or later become clearer.
Tanja Brkić
