Position of the Association of Journalists and Publicists (ZNP) regarding the official government dispatch on the state of affairs in the Slovenian media space and the assessment of the situation of the media in Slovenia

The official government letter of explanation about the state of affairs in the Slovenian media space, published on the Council of Europe's online Platform for Freedom of Expression 1in response to alarming reports of the present government’s pressures on journalists - has provoked a strong backlash from dominant media and some policymakers. However, regardless of the political (in)appropriateness of such an approach of the government, the content of the government’s dispatch is, according to an assessment of ZNP, accurate. It highlights certain key problems of the Slovenian media space to which ZNP has often warned in its reports.

The Association of Journalists and Publicists of Slovenia is hereby informing the international public that the Slovenian government is planning to drastically intervene in the freedom of speech and independence of the media by amending the Slovenian Media Legislation.
 
Just before summer 2019, the Ministry of Culture submitted a Draft on Media Legislation, which among other novelties introduces the establishment of so-called media inspectors who would have the powers to prohibit the publication of a content classified by them as hate speech. The judgment on what hate speech is will be solemnly left to personal judgments of the inspectors. Submitting the power to so-called inspectors who are, according to the Draft, journalists and will be chosen by the Ministry of Culture, could very likely provoke a trend that the journalists who are the supporters of a certain political option will be favored.

We are writing to you from the Association of Journalists and Commentators (ZNP), one of the largest journalist organizations in Slovenia. We would like to bring to your attention one of the greatest political pressures on Slovenian journalists and the media in the past few years. On 23 November 2018, Prime Minister Marjan Šarec published a call on the government’s website, where he discouraged businesses that are partially or majority-owned by the state to cease all advertising in the media that are allegedly spreading hate speech.