Ljubljana – Commenting on what is sees as the latest attack on RTV Slovenija, the newspaper Dnevnik argues on Friday that a shakedown at the public broadcaster is getting more and more aggressive. Civil society’s petition in support of a current affairs show calls on citizens to protect the media, it adds.
“Media pundits with historical memory say there has not been such a shakedown of the public institution since the 1980s, when the party politics of the time was stomping in Kolodvorska Street,” says the commentary headlined Politics’ Target is Journalists.
In the focus of the government’s attack on RTV Slovenija is now the broadcaster’s show Tarča (Target) and its host Erika Žnidaršič, but that is just the latest in a series of targets. Many of these steps have taken place in ambiguous legal circumstances or have been declared unlawful by experts.
“The question of lawfulness therefore hangs over all the manoeuvres we have been witnessing. Such uncertainty is very threatening for the media service that will also face a multi-million financial loss this year.
“Aware of the danger, civil society has in recent days collected more than six thousand signatures in support of Tarča, Erika Žnidaršič and independent journalism. The petition sounds like a call for a people’s guard to watch over our RTV Slovenija until the elections. So that media freedom and democracy are not swept from under our feet.”
