The mass media in Slovenia refers to mass media outlets based in Slovenia. Television, magazines, and newspapers are all operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues. The Constitution of Slovenia guarantees freedom of speech and Slovenia ranked 40th in the 2016 Press Freedom Index report compiled by Reporters Without Borders, falling by 5 places if compared to the 2015 Index.
There were 2350 registered media in the government's official Media Registry in July 2020. The gross value of the advertising market in 2008 was of 522.5 million euro, 15% more than in the previous year. The greatest share of advertising goes to television (55%), followed by print press (30%), outdoor media (7%), radio (4.4%) and online media (3.5%).Marko Milosavljević and Igor Vobič, Slovenia , EJC Press Landscapes (circa 2009)
The main media companies include three print media (Delo, Dnevnik and Večer) and two broadcast media (Radiotelevizija Slovenija and Pro Plus). The biggest remains the public service broadcaster RTV Slovenia, with a 124.7 million euro turnover (2008), of which 62.2% from subscription fees. Advertising covers from 1/3 to 1/2 of the main newspapers' budget.
In Slovenia, the print press has a wider reach (89%) than radio and television (around 66%). The individual average TV viewing time is of 3 hours.
The media considered left by the right wing politicians includes all the big five media outlets (Delo, Dnevnik, Večer, Radiotelevizija Slovenija and Pro Plus including Pop TV and Kanal A). The media considered right by the left includes smaller outlets such as weekly Reporter and Demokracija, television station Nova24, and websites Domovina.je and Casnik.si.
History
Legislative framework The Constitution of Slovenia guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The law forbids hate speech and incitement to violence and intolerance.Freedom House 2015 Report on Slovenia
Slovenia had to revamp its media legislation following independence, democratisation and economic liberalisation. Between 1991 and 1994, when the first Media Law was adopted, the allocation of the main broadcasting frequencies was done by the national authority, the Telecommunications Office, although without legal basis. The Media Law instituted a Broadcasting Council, responsible for licence allocations, which inherited an exhausted frequency fund, chaotic ownership relations, and invalid (or non-existent) programming concepts, and could this hardly influence the development of the sector. Marko Milosavljević and Igor Vobič, Slovenia #National Media Policies , EJC Press Landscapes (circa 2009)
The 2001 Media Law (Section 9) protects media plurality and diversity by restricting media concentration. According to the Media Law the publisher of a daily newspaper, or any natural or legal person, or group of related persons, who has more than a 20% share in the capital or assets of that publisher, or more than 20% of management or voting rights, may not be an owner or co-founder of a radio or television broadcaster, and may not engage in radio and television activities. Radio and television broadcasters are subject to the same restrictions concerning daily newspapers ownership.
Media Law amendments in 2006 abolished the former maximum ownership cap at 33% for any persons, foreigners included, and extended the “right to correction” available to anyone upset or offended by published information (even if truthful) and willing to present his/her opposite version of facts - to be published in the same place (front page included) and with the same or larger space of the original. This led to ample "corrections", in one case covering two pages of a magazine.
The 2003 Access to Public Information Act guarantees free access to public information. The Office of the Information Commissioner is tasked with handling access requests. Its scope was expanded in 2014 to make the act applicable also to private companies when carrying out public functions.
Differently from most countries in the region (including Western Balkan countries), defamation in Slovenia remains a criminal offense possibly leading to prison terms. Journalists can also be legally compelled to reveal their sources. Publishing classified information is a criminal offense too, since the new 2008 Penal Code. The 2008 reform of the Penal Code spurred by the Janez Janša's government cancelled the provision protecting journalists when divulgating classified information with the intent of bringing irregularities to light (whistleblowing).SLOVENIAN JUSTICE SYSTEM SANCTIONS JOURNALISTS IN CLIMATE OF POLITICAL HOSTILITY TO MEDIA, Reporters Without Borders, 19 February 2015 Several high-level cases of prosecutions against journalists have brought the issue to the fore. Journalists reporting on classified documents leaked to them by political opponents have been hit by legal actions by the targets of the leaks. Both journalists' associations have urged the government to reform the legislative framework to ensure press freedom and allow for investigative journalism.Slovenia 2014 Media Report, SEEMO A public interest protection clause finally entered into force on 20 October 2015,IFEX July 2015Ambassador Statement, 1 October 2015 though defamation still carries criminal penalties.
Status and self-regulation of journalists
Liberalisation, privatisation, and the transformation of the journalism profession from advocacy journalism of Marxist–Leninist tradition to Western-style standards of impartiality required the development of self-regulatory bodies and codes of journalistic ethics.
The Slovenian Association of Journalists drafted in 1988 a first new code of journalistic ethics, in which the role of the journalist shifted from a “socio-political worker” to a communicator “primarily responsible to the public”. The code was later amended in 1991 and 2002, with the publication of today's Kodeks novinarjev Slovenije (“Code of Slovenian Journalists”).
The Novinarsko častno razsodišče (“Ethics Commission of Journalists”, NČR) was established in 1997 by the same Slovenian Association of Journalists in 1997, with 9 journalists or editors as members, and the aim to strengthen ethical and professional standards and ensure that journalistic authors respect the standards written in the Code of Slovenian Journalists. Anyone can file complaints to the NČR for violations of the Code standards. Proceedings are public and can lead to a declaration, a statement of infringement, or a settlement - and even to the exclusion of a journalist from the Association or the Journalists' Union, in extreme cases. However, no such extreme case has happened yet, and other cases rarely trigger reconsideration. NČR decisions maintain a private character and have no public officiality.
On paper the Mass Media Act 2006 grants journalistic autonomy, but it does not establish to which degree, stipulating instead that this is up to the statute of the publishers. Also, the law does not establish any procedure for conflict resolution between journalists and management or between journalists themselves, leaving it up to the publisher. The Slovenian Journalists Association (DNS) has said that the media law should be modernized.
While not specifically for journalists, the Employment Relationship Act has been used against them. In particular it "stipulates that the worker is obliged to refrain from all actions that in view of the nature of work which he or she does could cause material or moral damage or harm the business interests of the employer" and it "prohibits a worker from exploiting for his private use or from disclosing to a third person an employer's commercial confidentialities as defined by the employer that were either entrusted to the worker or that were learned in any other way"
The Varuh pravic poslušalcev in gledalcev (“Listener and Viewer Ombudsman”) of RTV Slovenia was appointed for the first time in 2008, according to art.16 of the RTV Slovenia Law, to "address the comments and suggestions of viewers and listeners" and "give instructions to the director-general regarding changes that must be effected on channels.”
The full-time employment of journalists in Slovenia decreased in after the 2008 financial crisis. In April 2014, the Slovenian news agency STA reported that public broadcaster RV had hired 85 journalists in 2012-2015, while only 25 were hired by the private media in the same period. The use of part-time contracts and other forms of free-lance collaboration also increased, leading to a degradation of journalists' social rights.
Public broadcaster The 1994 Law on RTV Slovenia regulates public broadcasting. RTV Slovenia has a Programming Council and a Supervisory Board; RTV is required by law to be independent and autonomous, to respect human integrity and dignity in its programs, to observe the principle of impartiality, and to ensure the truthfulness of information and the pluralism of opinions and religious beliefs. The law also requires the public broadcaster to provide radio and TV programs for the Italian and Hungarian minorities in Slovenia.
After EU accession, the new 2005 Law on RTV Slovenia reintroduced a dominant role of the state and the executive in the appointment of RTV's governing bodies, excluding civil society institutions (e.g. universities, association of writers, and sports organisations) which were previously involved. The draft law raised several domestic and international criticisms, including from the International Federation of Journalists and the Council of Europe, but the Slovenian institutions dismissed most of themthe Slovenian government refused to accept any important changes, refused the opinion of the Council of Europe as “legally incorrect, wrong and politologically missed from the start”, while Karol Jakubowicz, the chairman of the Steering Committee on the Media and New Communications Services of the Council of Europe, who said that the draft law is “a catastrophe”, was labeled by Slovenian Ministry for Culture as “a third-rate public servant from Poland”. and went along with adopting the new law in November 2005, which was later narrowly confirmed by 50.7% of voters in a special referendum.
The current governance system of RTV Slovenia allows control over almost all managerial bodies and over the appointment of all key editors to the governmental majority. Majority parties also control the majority of the new Programming Council and Supervisory Board of RTVS, thus being also able to appoint RTVS' Director General, who will in turn appoint and manage the directors of radio and TV, the editors-in-chief, and the senior management. This governance system is deemed a threat to the independence and credibility, trust, and respect with the public of RTV Slovenia by the European Journalism Centre. The following period indeed saw a host of cases of political interference in the editorial and journalistic work of the Slovenian public broadcaster, whose public credibility (particularly for the TV) fell dramatically.
The decisions concerning appointments dismissal of several journalists from RTV Slovenia in 2015 have ignited a debate within the broadcaster, giving rise also to claims that procedures were not followed properly by the management. The Slovenian Association of Journalists expressed its concerns Does a democratic Slovenia secure the right to objective and pluralist information? by MITJA STEFANCIC, Open Democracy, 28 September 2015
Media outlets More than 1,300 media outlets are registered in Slovenia, of which around 1,000 printed ones.