EFJ condemns discrediting of journalists by Slovenian PM
The Slovenian Prime Minister, Janez Janša, published on 11 May, in the government’s official website, a story about his so-called “war with the media”. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined its Slovenian affiliates, the Slovenian Association of Journalists (DNS) and the Union of Slovenian Journalists (SNS), in condemning this despicable attempt to discredit journalists.
Janez Janša blames in his text the journalists in general: “The professional group in western civilisation that first declared itself the seventh power, then the fourth (unelected) branch of power and finally the moral judge of political correctness, is increasingly difficult to recognise today as a force for good, for they are neither.”
Turning specifically to Slovenian media, Janša singles out the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija referred to as a “media killer”. He accuses the country’s two main television channels to feed “an atmosphere of intolerance and hatred (…) created by a narrow circle of female editors with familial and capital ties to the pillars of the deep state”.
DNS issued a statement condemning such “an upgrade of systematic and increasingly deliberate attacks on the media and journalists”. The Prime Minister’s publication is seen by DNS as an “escalating underestimation and humiliation” of the media and journalists.
“It is worrying to see the rhetoric of a Trump or an Orban now infecting Slovenia. We call on the European Union to sanction this incitement to hatred against journalists,” said EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez.
The EFJ reported today this media freedom violation to the Council of Europe Platform for the Protection of Journalism.
