Leading the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) to launch an online fact-finding mission for entities related to media.

 

Media freedom in Slovenia continued to decline in 2021 under pressure from the government of Prime Minister Janez Janša. The country saw the seventh highest number of alerts on the MapMF platform with 29 alerts and 41 attacked persons or entities related to media, leading the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) to launch an online fact-finding mission in May to assess the situation. Increasing pressure on independent journalism during this time centred on the financial suffocation of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) and increasing political in‐ terference at the public broadcaster. Con‐ cerningly, many of these violations were recorded while Slovenia held the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. 

At the beginning of the year, UKOM, the Government Communications Directorate, suspended the financing of the STA for the second time in three months, in what media rights groups called an attempt to destabilise the agency through financial blackmail. The PM and leading government officials then called for the STA’s director general to step down and “be held accountable”. Pressure on the STA’s leadership increased in May when the PM smeared the director by accusing him of involvement in the “murder" of a former STA editor-in-chief more than a decade ago. Legally-mandated state funding was withheld for 312 days, causing a 10-month crisis, during which the STA narrowly avoided bankruptcy. This crisis left the agency, the lifeblood of the Slovenian media ecosystem, drained psychologically as well as financially. Some of its most experienced journalists quit to find jobs elsewhere.

 In 2021, the Slovenian public broadcaster (RTVS), also came under sustained pressure from the government, in what media associations and journalists’ groups described as part of a wider effort to solidify greater control over the broadcaster and limit critical reporting. Politicised appointments to the broadcaster’s oversight bodies continued, in moves to stack decisionmaking bodies and RTV management with government-aligned figures. In November, modifications were implemen‐ ted to RTV news programming which the overwhelming majority of staff said would reduce the broadcaster’s ability to inform the public and scrutinise power. In October, the editor-in-chief of the TV Slovenia news programme, Manica Janežič Am‐ brožič, stepped down in protest. She was followed by three other TV Slovenia editors: Dejan Ladika, Meta Dragolič, and Mitja Prek. 

According to MapMF data, individual journalists were the target of 73% of documented cases. The most frequent context was online/digital (13 alerts, 44.8%, with discreditation and denigration of media outlets by public figures a key factor. In February, the PM made headlines across Europe after he tried to discredit Politico and its journalist Lili Bayer, calling them “liars” over her report which ex‐ amined the state of media freedom in Slovenia. In April, the PM drew further criticism for accusing daily news show 24ur 30 Mapping Media Freedom | Monitoring Report – 2021 Mapping Media Freedom | Monitoring Report – 2021; 31 and its editor-in-chief of “persistently lying” about the COVID-19 pandemic and contributing significantly to the death toll in the country through its reporting. The same month, the PM accused German journalist Nikolaus Neumaier from ARD of “censorship in the style” of the Nazi pro‐ paganda outlet Der Stürmer. Coordinated smears against journalists by far-right media outlets linked to the ruling party continued. In March, independent invest‐ igative outlet Pod črto, was smeared as an “online gestapo” by far-right website Nova 24. In April, far-right online magazine Časnik.si published an article about RTV Slovenia journalist Erika Žnid‐aršič which attacked her journalistic cred‐ ibility and suggested that someone might “maliciously stab you in the ribs”, drawing widespread condemnation. 

Physical  attacks on journalists remain rare in Slovenia. In January, however, a photo‐ grapher working for the Megafon.si was physically threatened and pressured to delete photos they had taken. The per‐ petrators were later arrested. In April, Bojan Požar, a journalist from news and opinion website Požareport, was threatened with violence online. In July, freelance Slovenian journalist ErikValenčič also received death threats and insults over the phone. Female journalists in particular continue to receive the brunt of harassment. In September, Eugenija Carl, a journalist at the public broadcaster RTV Slovenia, received a third letter with a threatening handwritten note and an irritating white powder. The MapMF recor‐ ded only one case in which a journalist required medical treatment for their injury.

 Journalists also faced threats covering violent protests against COVID-19 measures. In September, one of Slovenia’s best-known photojournalists, Tone Stojko, was injured after being tear gassed in the face by a police officer. The same month, a camera operator with POP TV was punched in the head by an anti-vaccine pass protester. In October, protesters tried to forcefully enter the editorial office of N1 in Ljubljana and ended upsmashing the glass window on one of the office’s front doors. In a serious incident, in September 2021 the headquarters of the RTV Slovenija was stormed by a group of coronavirus deniers and anti-vaccina‐ tion protesters, who managed to enter the newsroom, disrupt work, and harass staff. 

Legal threats also remain relatively rare in Slovenia. However, in May the Slovenian Government Office for Development and Cohesion Policy initiated criminal proceedings against the political magazine Mladina after it published a leaked government plan for its post-COVID-19 recovery. In September, Slovenian MP Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti filed a lawsuit against the editor-in-chief of TV Slovenia, Manica J. Ambrožič. In November, three journalists running the investigative news platform Necenzurirano were reported to the National Investigation Office (NPU) and the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (FURS) by tax adviser Rok Snežič, who previously launched 39 different lawsuits against the trio.