The International and the European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) join its affiliate, the Sindikat Novinarjev Slovenije (SNS), together with the other signatories below, in reiterating our serious concern over the proposed amendments to Slovenia’s RTV Act. These amendments threaten to dismantle the financial and editorial independence of the country’s public service broadcaster, RTV Slovenija.
The amendments, proposed by the Ministry of Culture, would fundamentally change the governance structure of RTV Slovenija, strengthen government control, curtail employee participation in supervisory and governing bodies, and threaten institutional and editorial autonomy.
“Whenever someone attempts to alter the foundations on which the independence of a public media organisation rests, they are interfering with the constitutional rights of all citizens, not only the rights of journalists and other employees; they are interfering with the public’s right to be informed, freedom of expression and editorial autonomy. In the event of the re-politisation of public service broadcasting, this would also amount to circumventing and ignoring the democratic will of the people, clearly expressed in the referendum November 2022,” says SNS and other signatories in a statement, which can be read in its entirety below.
The IFJ and the EFJ reiterate their grave concern that these amendments would breach Article 5 of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), which guarantees the institutional and editorial independence of public service media and requires transparent, adequate and sustainable funding. A governance model that lets one government appoint six of seven supervisory board members puts RTV Slovenija’s leadership, budget and editorial line at the mercy of whoever holds office. That is a loss for every citizen who relies on independent information, not only for journalists.
Read the statement from our affiliate SNS, the Coordination of journalists unions RTV Slovenija and the Confederation of public sector unions (KSJS): here