Few countries in Europe have experienced such a swift downturn in press and media freedom after a new government came to power than in Slovenia under veteran Prime Minister Janez Janša, IPI Advocacy Officer Jamie Wiseman writes.

In the last six months, the outspoken PM, who took office in March 2020 and previously governed the country on two prior occasions, has immediately renewed long-standing grievances with the press and denigrated critical media outlets.

Going far beyond reasonable criticism, experts say, Janša has launched a series of vitriolic attacks on reporters on Twitter, enabling a wider increase in digital harassment from online trolls and contributing to an increasingly hostile climate for watchdog journalism.

Janša’s inflammatory attacks and his willingness to denounce critical reporting as FakeNews have also drawn uncomfortable parallels with other leaders and brought Slovenia to the attention of press freedom groups, the OSCE and top EU bodies.

But the attacks on journalists do not end with social media abuse. Janša’s right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) has again begun to try and exert greater influence over the country’s small media market as part of what it claims is an effort to promote greater media pluralism.

In addition to the introduction of legislation aimed at defunding the public broadcaster, Janša has also attempted to personally amplify his party’s pro-government media system, much of which are funded by Hungarian media linked to Viktor Orbán, who has dismantled media freedom and pluralism in Hungary over the past 10 years by pioneering a system of media capture inside the EU. These developments raise red flags about the possible export of the Orbán system of media control to Slovenia.

Taken together, this has culminated in a worrying decline in press freedom in a very short space of time in a country previously considered a relative safe haven for independent journalism , sending up further warning signs about deteriorating media freedom in Central Europe.

For many Slovenian journalists, however, the overriding feeling is one of déjà vu. As one of the most prominent figures within Slovenian politics in the last three decades, this is certainly not the first time 61-year-old Janša has courted criticism for undermining press freedom.
After serving as defence minister in Slovenia’s first democratic government following independence, he then went on to lead two administrations from 2004 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2013 before spending almost a year in prison on corruption charges, until his conviction was unanimously overturned by the Constitutional Court in 2015.
Throughout this turbulent career, he has been accused of censorship, abuse of state advertising, and faced an ongoing criminal case for calling two female journalists “washed-up prostitutes”. Propelled to office again in mid-March as the Covid-19 pandemic began, he and his administration have wasted little time in taking on perceived enemies in the media.

“History is repeating itself in Slovenia”, Anuška Delić a Slovenia-based journalist and founder of Oštro, a centre for investigative journalism in the region, told IPI. “Except this time around, SDS have taken the gloves off.”

“From the moment they took power, literally within days and during one of the worst crises we’ve faced, they started verbally attacking members of the media”, Nataša Briški, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Meta’s list and a former journalist at Slovenian outlet POP TV, told IPI. “The viciousness of the attacks is hard to comprehend and the number of attacks is growing, not decreasing.”

“What’s new is the extreme level of public bashing and smears”, Primož Cirman, founder and editor-in-chief of Slovenian investigative news website Necenzurirano, added. “Previous governments would of course be angry at coverage and there would be some level of criticism. But press freedom was respected. You didn’t have a situation where there are personal attacks on critical journalists.”

None are more aware of this than those journalists working for the public broadcaster, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO). A long opponent of the broadcaster and its license fee, Janša wasted little time in renewing his attacks on the broadcaster after re-entering office. Weeks into the new administration, Janša set the tone when he accused the public broadcaster of spreading lies about the government and issued a veiled threat over its funding.

“Do not spread lies. We pay you to inform, but not to mislead the public during these times. Obviously, you are overpaid and well paid”, Janša posted on Twitter, garnering a strong response from RTVSLO Director General Igor Kadunc and criticism from the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.

In early July, the government announced a package of draft amendments to three media laws which would overhaul the financing of the public broadcaster and allow greater government control over the executive body of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA).

According to RTVSLO’s Director General, if approved this would result in an overall annual budget reduction of approximately €13 million, leaving the broadcaster in a precarious fiscal position. To offset these losses, it would be forced to cut budgets to staff and production costs, which according to trade unions could result in up to 400 job losses.

Equally as concerning are changes to the law regarding the Press Agency which would hand the government greater powers to select the agency‘s supervisors and dismiss its director. In response, the Media Freedom Rapid Response raised serious concerns that the amendments appear politically motivated and could potentially pave the way for further interference over the institution’s executive body and editorial policy.

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