Medijski watch dog

Odlomek iz intervjuja enega od pobudnikov peticije novinarjev Blaža Zgage za Kontakt:

You complain about the pressure exerted by politics on Slovenia’s media. What exactly has happened in the last few months in this sector?

Since 2004, that is since Prime Minister Janez Janša has been in power, almost all Slovene media have been under pressure. In 2005 the Slovene Parliament passed a law that increased state influence on the two public television and three radio stations. Of the 29 members of the programme commission, which is extremely influential, 21 are selected by parliament - and naturally only those who toe the party line were nominated. The result is a decline in the quality of the public media, a number of well-known journalists have left the broadcasters. They have been replaced by young journalists with little experience. In addition, the Slovene press agency is headed by Jansa’s former press officer. Along with her journalists from the SDS party newspaper obtained important positions. The agency is very important for Slovenia’s daily newspapers. Censorship, manipulation and professional mistakes are frequent. The private newspaper market is also strongly influenced by the government. In 2005 the government bought the daily newspapers “Delo” and “Večer” through the “Laško” beer company. In 2007 this cooperation was ended. And in “Primorske Novice” the editor-in-chief was replaced, under pressure from three members of the board of directors who are shareholders in the paper and close to the government. The business manager refused to carry out the change of staff and was subsequently fired. Independent newspapers suffer due to the cancelling of advertisements by companies close to the state. The daily newspaper “Dnevik” has lost about one million euro a year.