Slovenia

http://www.freemedia.at/wpfr/slovenia.htm 

By Howard Jarvis

 As Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia stabilize their democracies, their more fortunate former Yugoslav neighbour Slovenia today resembles any open and prosperous country of Western Europe.

 The Slovenian media prepared for October’s parliamentary elections in a responsible manner. The Electoral Campaign Act states that the media must publish the rules for the use of newspaper space and broadcasting time by political parties 45 days before election day. Equal treatment of candidates was therefore guaranteed. Fair programme time was also allotted for deputy candidates of both the Italian and Hungarian ethnic minorities.

 Appraisal of the media’s election performance was offered at a free-of-charge seminar for journalists on 13 November, partly sponsored by the EU and with the French journalist Thomas Schreiber in attendance. Slovenia’s PR and Media Office works closely with the EU in advising journalists on the quality of the provision of information to the public, particularly on issues of concern such as agriculture and regional development.

 Slovenia’s media laws still need to be brought into line with the EU acquis in audio-visual policy. A new media law is currently being assessed by the government and should be passed early in 2001. Indeed, a merger between two popular commercial television stations went ahead successfully in November after an analysis by the Anti-Monopoly Office. The company Super Plus, which runs POP TV, bought a majority of shares in the TV network Kanal A. POP TV is by far Slovenia’s leading commercial station, with 941,000 regular viewers.

 It was announced that both channels, which would adjust foreign and domestic shows to offer greater diversity and a regulated system of advertising, would offer a wider selection of programmes.

 A new code of ethics was adopted by the state-owned radio and television RTV in May. According to this, journalists are not obliged to reveal sources, not even to their editors. A provision outlining the occasions when journalists are allowed to tape secret conversations was erased from the code. This would have made investigative journalism difficult to manage. The new code has not been imposed on commercial broadcasting.

 A survey of students and journalists carried out by the Faculty of Social Sciences in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana rated RTV and the second most popular daily, Delo as being the most objective and reliable media in the country. Delo is read by 222,000 people. The tabloid-style Slovenske novice daily, which boasts Slovenia’s highest readership of 300,000, or 18 per cent of the population, came at the bottom of the list.

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