Reform Law Fails As Voters Stay Home

Michael Hedges December 14, 2010 Follow on Twitter

As governments swing from right to left and back again, rules governing media are targets of opportunity. Every politician, it seems, has an opinion on media, public and private, old and new. Voters, though, are hard to impress.

Not even 15% of Slovenia’s eligible voters participated in a referendum (December 12) that might have changed rules for public broadcaster Radioteleviziji Slovenija (RTVS). Of those who voted, 72% rejected a new law on public broadcasting passed by the Slovene Parliament last October. For more than a decade every new government in Slovenia has kept the country’s media organizations on their toes by constant changes in rules.

Rejection of the law on public broadcasting and the low voter turnout was interpreted several ways. Some political watchers cite a growing gulf between political leaders and the public. Others suggested the proposed new law used overly technical language.

“Voter turnout is a clear message… that there are important issues which should be addressed,” former Prime Minister and current opposition politician Janez Jansa, quoted by Dnevnik (December 13), who urged the government to stop paying attention to “peripheral issues.” Jansa called for the government to resign.

The current law on public broadcasting, which remains in effect, was written and passed when Jansa was prime minister. That measure overturned in 2005 the previous media law considered at the time one of Europe’s most progressive. Widely criticized by media watchers in and out of Slovenia as well as the Council of Europe it was termed “a catastrophe” by Dr. Karol Jakubowicz, highly regarded as Europe’s preeminent expert on media law. The current law, and rejection of a measure to change it, keeps Slovenia’s public broadcaster firmly under government control. That law was also taken to a popular referendum, passing by a scant 50.2%.

Mr. Jansa has had a contentious relationship with Slovenia’s journalists, who he referred to as a left-wing media conspiracy after sustained reporting of a bribery scandal, and public broadcasters. Three weeks before Slovenian parliamentary elections in 2008 Finland’s public broadcaster YLE aired a documentary in which Jansa was accused of receiving certain sums of money from a Finnish defense contractor. The YLE documentary was widely reported in Slovenia. Jansa’s center-right Slovenian Democratic Party was defeated.  

“The people have given all of us a clear message,” said Interior Minister Katarina Kresal, who described the vote as “a manifesto of silence.” The referendum results will be officially certified after postal votes from Slovenes living abroad are counted (December 20). Voting is delayed a week in one small town inundated by local flooding. No change in the outcome is expected. 

“This is a big blow for the RTVS,” said Culture Minister Majda Sirca, whose office drafted the reform measure. “One year from now we will examine the situation.” Prime Minister Borut Pahor said he “regretted” the referendum outcome. The reform measures would have returned civil society organizations to the RTVS management and program boards.

Some suggested the law – and RTV Slovenia directly – became not just a “victim” of opposition politicians who opposed the law but broader difficulties faced by the coalition government. The referendum proves that winning is about getting people to the polls, said political analyst Peter Lah, who called RTV Slovenia “collateral damage.”

One of the more contentious parts of the law would have required RTV Slovenia to produce programming for immigrants from the former Yugoslavia living in Slovenia, more than 10% of the population. The nationalist opposition took particular issue with the terms, saying non-Slovenes have no right of special consideration.

“This is one more proof that the technical issues should not be decided in a referendum,” said RTVS director general Marko Filli, also quoted by Dnevnik. ”As a result of the referendum we cannot introduce new programs. Now the fourth thematic channel project is frozen.”

Finding a sliver lining, Mr. Filli said the referendum vote “ends an unstable period for RTVS.” Under the Slovenian Constitution a year must pass before voters can revisit a failed referendum.

“After a tumultuous year,” he added, “now comes a rather quiet period which we can devote to the creation of our services.”

See also in ftm Knowledge

Public Broadcasting - Arguments, Battles and Changes

Public broadcasters have - mostly - thrown off the musty stain of State broadcasting. And audiences for public channels are growing. But arguments and battles with politicians, publishers and commercial broadcasters threatens more changes. The ftm Knowledge file examines all sides. 64 pages PDF (January 2010)

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