Ljubljana - Demokracija writes in its latest editorial about the "media pogrom and attack of the ruling coalition on the private TV channel Nova24TV and the leadership of the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija", saying that the pre-election promise by PM Robet Golob is being realised.

The weekly notes that Golob said at a public debate in mid-April that the "key thing is to get hatred out of the public space and to simply abolish the media that are party-owned and are financed by capital of unknown origin."

Demokracija says that the prime minister probably had Nova24TV, which "significantly contributes to media pluralism in Slovenia with its reporting", in mind, which is why a parliamentary inquiry commission on financing of the media has been established.

The commission that is expected to investigate the "financing of political propaganda in the media" has been established, according to the weekly, primarily to deal with Nova24TV, which "interferes with the monopoly of the transition left".

"At the same time, the media or newsletters that operate according to their dictate directly call on certain state institutions to ban the broadcasting by Nova24TV," the weekly adds under the headline Freedom Movement Going After Media Freedom.

Another thing that the coalition wants to achieve is the "complete takeover of RTV Slovenija" by means of a new law on the public broadcaster in a fast-track procedure, to protect the right of public to be informed as the first condition for democracy.

"This would be if RTV Slovenija was truly plural, and not such as imagined by the ruling coalition, which wants political single-mindedness, like in the 1970s," Demokracija says, adding that it actually only wants to replace the leadership it does not like.

The weekly says that under the new law on the public broadcaster, members of the new, single and "depoliticised" council of RTV Slovenija would be appointed by employees and representatives of civil society, who are "fully in hands of the transition left."

"If we fail to stop this government madness with a referendum, the cultural hegemony of the left in Slovenia will be even greater than it is now, when democracy and media freedom in the country is truly under threat," concludes the editorial.