RTVS journalists will persist until they reach their goals

STA

23. 5. 2023, 22.23

Updated: 23/05/2023, 22:26

The public tribune under the title Solidarity and action, not competition and silence was prepared by the Journalists’ Union of Slovenia and the Coordination of Journalists’ Unions of Radiotelevision Slovenia (RTVS) in the company of the strike movement for independent public RTV. They led the tribune Tatjana Pirc with Radio Slovenia and Igor E. Bergant from Television Slovenia (TVS).

The trade union and strike coordination committee organized four strike days during the year of the strike and supported the referendum campaign and the referendum on the amendment to the Act on Broadcasting, in which the majority of voters supported the amendment. As they point out, during the one-year strike, they felt increasing pressure on journalistic autonomy and the escalation of interventions in the program and content, which they assessed as arbitrary and unprofessional.

They were also critical of the continued violation of programming and professional standards, as well as opaque staffing and the financial exhaustion of the medium. Even the negotiations with the management have not brought the expected results so far. Nevertheless, they are the president of the coordination Helena Milinković and union president Alenka Potočnik assured that they would not relent.

It will be necessary to “fight hard”

Journalist at TVS and host of Odmev Tanja Starič the worst thing seems to be that no one watches national television anymore. If the amendment to the Act on RTVS, which envisages the depoliticization of the institution, comes into force, they will have to, according to its announcement “fight hard”in order to regain the trust of the audience and at the same time also reach young people.

Employee representative in the supervisory board of RTVS Luka Zebec but he announced that the institute would “undoubtedly plunged into a financial crisis within a few months”. The reason is, among other things, the sale of Eutelsat shares at a lower price than planned, and in addition, they were sold at the beginning of the year, but not at the end, so that the institute could get dividends, said Zebec, who was also elected by the employees as a member of the institute’s new council in in accordance with the amendment to the Act on RTVS.

They also performed on the stand Marko Milosavljević from the Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences and a representative of the Legal Network for the Protection of Democracy Bforest Rajgeljwho in the future, for example, want a functioning Ministry of Culture and the Government, which will take action and remove from the program board those members who, according to them, advocated harmful behavior and thereby caused business damage to the institution.

RTVS journalists were also supported today by several colleagues from other European countries.