The development of the media and various social networks has also enabled public discourse on various topics. However, this has also brought with it more forms of hostility and fake news, which are mainly pushed to the fore by alternative media. But this is not the case in Slovenia, according to the international media Algemeiner, which notes that in our country, it is the national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia (RTVS) which is spreading hostility to the public.
“However, in the Republic of Slovenia, a small Central European country with just two million citizens, it is sadly the country’s state-sponsored broadcasting agency that has been spreading this hate,” the Algemeiner writes. That this is the case is proven, among other things, by the fact that some employees of the national television even publicly and proudly justify the actions of a terrorist organisation – we are, of course, talking about the notorious Boris Vasev. This is because he unashamedly justifies the actions of the Hamas terrorists, and in the past, according to the media, he has repeatedly expressed his intolerance of Jews through his statements.
Algemeiner, an international independent media outlet covering the Middle East and Israel, singled out Slovenia, or Slovenian state television, as a standout country. And not in a positive way. “The state agency, named Radiotelevizija Slovenija (‘Radio-Television Slovenia’) or RTV Slovenija, has been spreading anti-semitism, fake news, extremism, hate-mongering, xenophobia, anti-Israeli defamation, conspiracy theories, the worship of political and religious extremism, and praise of violence, terrorism, authoritarianism, and more. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has already issued an alert about the problem,” they wrote, noting that the country’s official media outlet has been funded out of taxpayers’ pockets for most of its history and continues to be funded in the same manner to this day.
The key person who played a crucial role in spreading hatred
Given that the free independence of the media and the (in)autonomy of the journalists working there have also received attention on the floor of the European Parliament, it is not surprising that Algemeiner has also drawn attention to the many political disagreements, torturous debates, and public controversies about the role of RTV Slovenia and the content driven by only a single idea that the political left would force on the public. “Despite this, almost nobody seemed willing to pay attention to the concerning rise of evidently inappropriate content, including hate speech, fake news, biased content, anti-semitism, and anti-Israeli defamation,” they wrote, also singling out the person responsible, who they say, “has played a crucial role in the process of conceiving, writing, and publishing the articles with such horrific content”.
They are referring to Boris Vasev, a notorious long-time RTV Slovenia employee. Since the beginning of his career as a journalist, Vasev has held extremist political positions, and he often uses his free time to hurl insults at different individuals on social media, and recently, according to the authors, he has positioned himself as an “expert” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is worth pointing out that Vasev lacks both the academic credentials to report on such content and, judging by his well-known bias and pronounced partiality, he is a person who is incapable of giving an objective opinion. As Algemeiner puts it: “His reporting is frequently distorted, biased, historically inaccurate, hateful, and clearly one-sided, with a strong tendency of sowing division and hatred against Israel. Slovenia’s state media outlets are supposed to be non-partisan and ideologically balanced, but Vasev has abused that trust and used it to smear and defame the Jewish state.”
Vasev’s sympathy for Hamas was also evident in his Bachelor’s thesis
Vasev’s hostility towards Israel and even his sympathy for the terrorist organisation Hamas was also expressed in his Bachelor’s thesis on the subject, where he concluded that “Hamas is primarily a national-liberation movement which, in the spirit of the tradition of moderate political Islam, uses religious language to articulate and spread its political ideas”. How ‘moderate’ Hamas is has been demonstrated by the fact that on the 7th of October, it violently massacred civilians at a festival and took many hostages. It is also worth noting that Vasev has recently said the following on the social network X (formerly Twitter): “How should the struggle against the occupier be conducted?” he asked rhetorically and continued: “Through online petitions, seminars, workshops, maybe flash mobs on the streets of Gaza?” Judging by his words, he was trying to justify the massacre of Israeli civilians with his rhetorical question.
In the continuation of the article, Algemeiner goes on to accuse Vasev of slandering the State of Israel with derogatory terms, such as “apartheid regime of Jewish supremacy,” “the project of Jewish settler colonialism,” “a country that found inspiration in the South Africa`s apartheid policies,” alongside such disgusting statements as “Jewish people [do] not have a right of self-determination and their sovereign statehood,” and that “anti-semitism and Zionism had the same goal, that was, [ethnically] cleanse Europe of the Jews.” The media outlet was also disturbed by his statement that “the 1972 Olympic games massacre has been one of the greatest achievements of the Palestinian people … and a 100 percent success from a propaganda point of view…”, and the fact that Vasev even presented the ridiculous claim that “Hamas`s main foreign policy principles have been non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, independence in decision-making, finding common points, avoiding conflicting alliances and inciting hostility towards others … [in order to maintain] the Palestine as a model of coexistence, tolerance, and civilisational development.”
The state television should take action
Algemeiner believes that Vasev, through his shameful articles and offensive social media posts, is propagating a painful phenomenon commonly known as “the new anti-Semitism,” which should be strongly criticised and rejected by the public, however, they have noticed the contrary – Vasev has even been praised by some in Slovenian society. They did not name anyone, but they were horrified by some people who supported him on social networks. On the basis of the above, they argue that the national media outlet RTV Slovenia should take all necessary measures to permanently eliminate anti-Semitism, glorification of violence and hate speech on its official channels. “Vasev and his clique might be a relatively powerless fringe minority but, as the recent horrifying events in Serbia clearly showed, any brainwashed, angry, hate-filled, or frustrated individual with the possibility of obtaining weapons has the ability to cause immense harm and bloodshed. We shouldn’t let that happen here,” they concluded.
T. B.
