Debates about Public Broadcaster Bill as Heated as Ever

Ljubljana, 12 May

The controversial bill on public broadcaster RTV Slovenija continued last week, pegging opponents of the bill against those who decry the institution as biased and politically motivated.

A public debate in the parliament showed that journalists are still worried that the government wishes to influence staffing and programming policy at the public broadcaster despite promises to the contrary. Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti said the government wants to ensure transparency of operations and management at RTV Slovenija, and has no intention of making the broadcaster a politically-run institution. Unions, workers at RTV Slovenija and other journalists expressed doubt about the sincerity of the government's intentions. Politics has been and will continue to be involved in RTV Slovenija, the only question is whether it will do so credibly and responsibly or through wheeling and dealing, unionist Rajko Geric said. The debate at the right-leaning Assembly for the Republic had a different undertone, with the new bill received more approvingly. Speakers agreed that the existing law on the national broadcaster needs to be replaced, but had different views on the new government-sponsored bill. Providing an outsider's perspective, Karol Jakubowicz, the chairman of the Council of Europe's Steering Committee on the Mass Media, has said that the government-sponsored bill on the Slovenian public broadcaster is potentially a recipe for disaster. There is a danger that the proposal could mean a step backwards, Jakubowicz said. In his opinion all facts indicate that RTV Slovenija will be just an extension of the parliamentary majority. The International Press Institute (IPI) also stepped in with a letter addressed to President Janez Drnovsek and PM Janez Jansa. According to the IPI, the current Slovenian law is "considered on the of most advanced within the new EU member states". The organisation is worried that "amendments might harm this reputation".

Debates about Public Broadcaster Bill as Heated as Ever

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