Koper - The newspaper Primorske Novice says in Wednesday's commentary that politicians need to immediately stop editing the content of newspapers and TV shows, while it is even more important that they start salvaging the media sector, which is under threat of completely collapsing.

Taking the occasion of the news that Slovenia has slipped 18 spots in the latest World Press Freedom Index rankings, the newspaper notes the responsibility of politicians for this under the headline Freedom and Independence.

"A brief look at what has happened in the last two years alone shows that the amount of rudeness and clutter that politicians have accumulated around journalists has become unbearable."

The potential coalition partners met yesterday for the first official talks to assure the public that they will immediately change media laws and that "things will get better soon", but Primorske Novice wonders whether this will really be the case.

It notes that the Slovenian media had been in a bad shape even before the "trampling" by the government of Janez Janša.

"The fact that journalists are poorly paid temporary workers, that they are getting burned out in the shrinking editorial offices ... or are switching to other professions in search of a decent living, is a long-term problem."

Noting that "economic dependence triggers any dependence", the newspaper says that "people who work for small change and beg for pittance cannot be watchdogs".

Despite their effort, sacrifice and love of their profession, they cannot create the media that Slovenian society deserves, concludes the commentary.