MEPs rebuke Slovenian government over attacks on media
The European parliament has rebuked Slovenia’s government for “attacks, smear campaigns and slander” against journalists and critics, in a vote that underlines rising alarm about the threat to media freedom.
MEPs backed a resolution condemning the Slovenian government for a “climate of hostility, distrust and deep polarisation” and seeking to weaken independent prosecutors and interfere with state-funded media.
The resolution did not name Slovenia’s prime minister, Janez Janša, but is clearly aimed at the rightwing nationalist politician, who has called journalists liars and “presstitutes”, attacked investigative reporters and promoted conspiracy theories.
While the resolution is non-binding, it shines an uncomfortable spotlight on Slovenia in the final weeks of its six months holding the EU’s rotating presidency. MEPs from the parliament’s centreright European People’s Party, which counts Janša as a member, largely voted against the text, although a handful abstained.
The resolution was passed with 356 votes in favour, 284 against and 40 abstentions, having secured the backing of the centre-left, liberal, radical left and green groups. An amendment drafted by a Belgian nationalist MEP congratulating Slovenia for a “successful” presidency of the EU council and noting that its institutions function well failed to win support.
The parliament’s investigation was triggered by Slovenia’s delay in nominating prosecutors to the European public prosecutor’s office, a new body tasked with investigating fraud against the EU budget. Two people were nominated in November, but the government has since described these as temporary and sought to change the rules on the appointment of public prosecutors, meaning they could be dismissed.
Slovenia’s emergency Covid rules have also come under scrutiny, with MEPs voicing concerns about the “continuing practice of rule by decree” without parliamentary scrutiny.
One of the strongest concerns was freedom of the press, after government pressure on the Slovenia News Agency (STA). Janša’s government withheld the legally mandated state subsidy for most of 2021, bringing the agency to the point of bankruptcy. Most of the money has since been paid, but at least €507,000 remains outstanding, according to the European parliament.
Similarly, MEPs called for Slovenia’s government to secure “sufficient funding” and “cease all political interference
and pressure” on the public television network RTV Slovenia.
Following the model of Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary, Janša has sought to curb the independence of publicly funded media. He has called the Slovenian news agency a national disgrace and tried to remove its director general. On Twitter he accused an RTV
Slovenia journalist of lying when they compared health spending with military spending.
Unnamed Slovenian public figures and members of the government also stand accused by the European parliament of smear campaigns, slander against critics and using lawsuits to suppress public interest journalism.
Slovenia is ranked 36th in the World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters
Without Borders, down four places on its 2020 ranking. The NGO has raised concern about the criminalisation of defamation and “slanderous verbal attacks” from politicians, a trend it says worsened after Janša became prime minister in March 2020.
Janša, who was in Brussels on Thursday for a summit of EU leaders, has yet to respond to the vote. When MEPs visited Ljubljana on a fact-finding mission in October, Janša described some as “Soros puppets”, in a tweet referring to the Hungarian philanthropist George Soros that fits into antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The image embedded in the tweet, later deleted, was said to have come from a radical hate blog, and pictured several prominent MEPs from the Netherlands including Sophie in ‘t Veld, who led the parliament’s fact-finding mission. The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, condemned the tweet “in the strongest possible terms” and the Slovenian ambassador was summoned to hear the same message.
Janša responded by calling on Rutte and In ‘t Veld to “protect your journalists from being killed in the streets”, an apparent reference to the crime reporter Peter de Vries who was fatally shot in central Amsterdam in July.