Slovenia's quality press is struggling to stay afloat financially, but the times when it was subject to problematic influence by the political leadership seem to be over. And new online players could boost media diversity.
Slovenia: light at the end of the tunnel?
Blatant interference under Janša
Not only the print media have faced hard times in recent years, however. The right-wing conservative politician Janez Janša, who was prime minister for the third time between 2020 and 2022, repeatedly and openly attacked domestic and foreign media companies and individual journalists. And in the case of the state-owned media, Janša went even further: he tried to destroy the editorial independence of public broadcaster RTV Slovenija by cutting its funding and appointing his own people and journalists to top positions and the supervisory boards. Janša even called the news agency STA's reporting a "national disgrace" and summarily withdrew all its funding; its director Bojan Veselinovič resigned under the financial pressure. It was only thanks to fundraising campaigns that the agency was able to survive this period. Under the left-wing liberal government led by Robert Golob which took office in 2022, the STA is receiving state funding once more.
Some of the journalists taken on by RTV Slovenija under Janša have been assigned to different tasks, but almost all of them are still employed at the public broadcaster. However, steps have been taken to prevent this kind of interference from happening again: at the end of 2022 a referendum was held in which more than 62 percent of Slovenians voted in favour of a bill proposed by the new government that aims to drastically restrict political influence on RTV Slovenija. It is no longer mainly the government and parliament but civil society and employee organisations that decide who is appointed to the broadcaster's supervisory bodies.
According to a survey conducted every year since 2012, trust in RTV Slovenija promptly increased in 2023, although trust in the media and politics in general remained at an all-time low. However, RTV faces major financial challenges and has been ordered to present concrete restructuring plans.
Signs of growing pluralism?
Two major international online platforms have established themselves in Slovenia in recent years. The N1 platform, whose Slovenian offshoot was launched in 2021, is a multimedia information platform that is updated 24/7 thanks to an exclusive editorial and financial partnership with CNN. It has other production centres located in Belgrade, Sarajevo and Zagreb. Its operator Adria News belongs to United Media, the leading media conglomerate in South East Europe.
In addition, the US-based Bloomberg Media Group and the media and telecommunications service provider Mtel Swiss launched the Bloomberg Adria web portal in 2022. With a focus on business news and analyses, it mainly targets the business community.
However, it would be an exaggeration to talk of an increase in the diversity of published opinions. On the contrary, the Association of Journalists and Commentators (ZNP) – the more conservative of the two Slovenian journalists' associations – has pointed to a decline in pluralism in the media landscape and sees warning signs of attempts to exert influence on media outlets under the left-liberal government, too.
World Press Freedom Index (Reporters Without Borders):
Rank 50 (2023)
