On Saturday, the Slovenian government led by Prime Minister Janez Jansa of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) will mark the first year in office, having succeeding the cabinet of Marjan Sarec after his resignation in March 2020.

The first year of Jansa’s cabinet term has been marked by more and more frequent accusations by the opposition that it has exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to exert fierce pressure on the media and judiciary, which is why it has also found itself under scrutiny by European institutions.

“The sooner this government steps down, the better,” is the only comment of representatives of the List of Marjan Sarec, whose left-liberal government lasted for a year and a half.

The Jansa government was appointment by the parliament after Sarec cabinet’s collapse.

The attempt by the opposition to form a new parliamentary majority in February failed. In mid-February, the Jansa cabinet survived a no-confidence vote, while the opposition motion to appoint Karl Erjavec prime minister-designate did not pass.

The no-confidence vote was moved after Erjavec’s DESUS party had left the ruling majority. Currently, the survival of the Jansa government depends on the support of the National Party of Zmago Jelincic, two lawmakers representing ethnic minorities, as well as those who may cross the floor.

Criticisim of media

Since the start of the term, Jansa has been waging verbal war against local mainstream media outlets, accusing them of bias and of disseminating “fake news” to the benefit of the “far-left” opposition.

He has also criticised those outlets for having supported rallies against anti-epidemic measures.

The RTV public broadcaster and the Slovenian News Agency (STA) have particularly been targeted by Jansa. The pressure against them is believed to have been mounted to make them change their editorial policies.

The make-up of the RTV broadcaster’s programming council has been changed, and as a result, director Igor Kadunc was replaced by Andrej Grah Whatmough.

The few past months have been also marked by a tug of war between Jansa and the STA.

On Tuesday, Jansa called on STA director Bojan Veselinovic to step down, saying that under his leadership the news agency had become biased towards opposition parties.

“It is time for the director of STA, as a political tool of the far left, to resign and be brought to account for his unlawful actions. In that way he will allow the normal functioning and development of the agency,” Jansa wrote on Twitter.

Jansa’s call for resignation came after months of conflict between the STA leadership and the government over the agency’s financing. Under the agreement with the government, STA receives half of the necessary funds from the government to keep the domestic and foreign public informed of events in the country, while obtaining the remainder of funds from other sources.

The STA management and journalists have been warning in recent months that the government is refusing to renew the agreement, bringing into question the agency’s survival.

They expressed suspicion that, by exerting pressure, the ruling coalition was trying to control the agency’s editorial policy and content and replace senior staff with government loyalists. The Government Communication Office (UKOM), headed by former STA editor Uros Urbanija, is refusing to fund STA, arguing that the agency’s management is denying them access to the business documentation, making further funding conditional on the presentation of the documentation.

STA’s leadership and journalists have been supported by local journalists’ organisations as well as by the international Press Institute and the European Association of News Agencies.

These developments have prompted foreign media outlets to brand Jansa as a ‘right populist leader with authoritarian tendencies’.

MEPs express concern over attacks on media in Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia

On Wednesday, the European Parliament debated the state of affairs in media in Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia, as proposed by MEPs from the Liberal groups.

MEPs also called on the Commission and Council to defend media freedom vigorously.

In the debate on Wednesday with the Commissioner for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourova, and Portuguese Secretary of State Zacarias, “most MEPs highlighted the importance of free media for democracy and democratic societies and insisted that their independence from political interference must be guaranteed. They called on the Commission to do more to protect journalists in Europe and stop governments acting with impunity, and on the Council to conclude the Article 7 procedures in relation to Hungary and Poland. Some also affirmed that the rule of law conditionality mechanism should be activated,” the EP said on its website.

“Several MEPs dismissed the debate as politically biased and lacking in information regarding the situation in the member states concerned, arguing that some were showing intolerance towards views different to their own,” the EP said.