Slovenian Member of the European Parliament, Romana Tomc, spoke up at this week’s plenary session in Strasbourg, addressing those present and, in particular, Commissioner Věra Jourová, regarding the new Media Freedom Act. MEP Tomc refused to support the Act because her experience so far shows that even good solutions can be abused for the settling of political scores.
At the recent plenary session in Strasbourg, MEP Romana Tomc also addressed the audience on the Media Freedom Act. She said she could not support it, even though “it is supposed to bring a lot of positive things in terms of protection for journalists, a ban on political interference in public media and greater transparency of ownership.”
Namely, in her opinion, all of the past experience she has had with the European Commission so far shows that even good solutions can be used for the settling of political scores. She pointed to the behaviour of Commissioner Věra Jourová in the political takeover of the national media outlet, Radio-Television Slovenia (RTVS), which illustrates this very point. The functioning of the European Board for Media Services is also particularly unclear and questionable, as it is not known who will make up the Board and how it will function.
“Commissioner Jourova, I do not trust you! You say one thing, but then you do something completely different. You ask for transparency, and yet you yourself are very non-transparent. Since the far left came to power in Slovenia, I have been informing you on a weekly basis about what is happening with the public media,” MEP Tomc was clear in her speech. As she then added, from now on, RTV is being completely politicised, journalists are being harassed, employees are being let go because of their supposed political beliefs, and ownership is being concentrated. She then asked Commissioner Jourová what she had done for media freedom and the protection of journalists in Slovenia.
MEP Tomc believes that Commissioner Jourová has done absolutely nothing to try and better the terrible situation in terms of the Slovenian national media outlet. And what is more, she has even allowed the Golobo government to operate in the way it does, as it is politically close to her. MEP Tomc therefore does not believe Jourová and also has doubts that the new European media legislation will achieve its purpose. It may instead become just another political weapon to persecute those who think differently than the ruling coalitions. It should be noted that Commissioner Jourová also attacked the X social network after it was taken over by Elon Musk. She is also known to have close links with the financial speculator George Soros.
Domen Mezeg
