The Role of the State in the Media Sector in Slovenia Authors: Sandra B
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
You Call This a Media Market? You isbn 978-961-6455-49-7 9 789616 455497 YOU CALL THIS A MEDIA MARKET? The Role of the State in the Media Sector in Slovenia sandra b. hrvatin 12,00 eur brankica petkoviæ oovitekvitek aang.inddng.indd 1 55.. 22.. 22008008 111:39:311:39:31 . aang.inddng.indd 1 55.. 22.. 22008008 111:37:551:37:55 peace institute metelkova 6 si-1000 ljubljana e: [email protected] <http://www.mirovni-institut.si> published by: peace institute edition: mediawatch <http://mediawatch.mirovni-institut.si> editor: brankica petkoviæ you call this a media market? The Role of the State in the Media Sector in Slovenia authors: sandra b. hrvatin, brankica petkoviæ translation: olga vukoviæ design: id studio, cover: karlo medjugorac typography: goudy & goudy sans, itc print: tiskarna hren print-run: 250 copies, first edition © 2008 mirovni inštitut The publishing of this book was made possible by the Open Society Institute. cip - Kataloþni zapis o publikaciji Narodna in univerzitetna knjiþnica, Ljubljana 316.774 659.37.4 bašiæ-hrvatin, sandra you call this a media market? : The Role of the State in the Media Sector in Slovenia / Sandra B. Hrvatin, Brankica Petkoviæ ; [translation Olga Vukoviæ]. - Ljubljana : Peace Institute, 200o. - (Edition Mediawatch) Prevod dela: In temu pravite medijski trg? isbn 978-961-6455-49-7 1. Petkoviæ, Brankica 237344768 . aang.inddng.indd 2 55.. 22.. 22008008 111:37:551:37:55 YOU CALL THIS A MEDIA MARKET? The Role of the State in the Media Sector in Slovenia sandra b. hrvatin, Faculty of Social Sciences, Ljubljana e: [email protected] brankica petkoviæ, Peace Institute, Ljubljana e: [email protected] . aang.inddng.indd 3 55.. 22.. 22008008 111:37:551:37:55 . aang.inddng.indd 4 55.. 22.. 22008008 111:37:551:37:55 CONTENTS why have we chosen to explore the role of the state in the media sector in slovenia? 9 media ownership 15 media in the hands of society – society in the hands of politics 18 media privatization: who are the winners and who the losers? 24 delo – from “billions in loss” to “billions in profit” 31 devnik – a newspaper owned by a “publisher” that invests primarily in tourism and other businesses 48 veèer – why did small shareholders sell their stakes? 52 primorske novice – a newspaper controlled by local companies and politicians 56 politics as good business 58 the mandarins of communications 63 media as a “national interest” 69 foreign owners of the slovenian media 71 advertising 75 the worth of advertising and the influence of the government 77 the finance daily 84 a look back at the 1990s 86 the case of mladina 86 the case of mag 87 the struggle between dnevnik and delo for state advertising 89 . aang.inddng.indd 5 55.. 22.. 22008008 111:37:551:37:55 recent examples 92 the case of demokracija 92 the case of mladina 94 the case of dnevnik 98 media buyers 101 conclusion 103 state aid for the media 105 the public call for applications 2006 – which criteria? 114 public call for applications 2007 – plenty of money, scant pluralism 116 pluralism tailored to the needs of politics 122 control over broadcasting 125 tv 3 – from the struggle to obtain the broadcasting license to the failure of the project 130 pop tv – from a trademark to a television station 133 accidental and apparent diversity of radio and television programs 135 independent regulator – independent from whom? 138 ambiguous legal status of the broadcasting council 139 the absence of media policy 139 conflict of interest within the broadcasting council 139 financial independence of the broadcasting council 140 . aang.inddng.indd 6 55.. 22.. 22008008 111:37:551:37:55 the development of the broadcasting segment in the absence of development policy and under the influence of political decisions 141 rtv slovenija 143 legislation 144 management 145 funding 150 program 153 journalists 156 conclusion 158 audiovisual culture 161 2007: a critical year 163 historical context 165 financial indicators of state involvement in film production 168 other levers of influence 173 recent developments 174 announced changes 176 conclusion 180 the roman catholic church, the media, the state 183 the print media 186 radio, television and the internet 189 conclusion 193 why are the slovenian media as they are? 195 . aang.inddng.indd 7 55.. 22.. 22008008 111:37:551:37:55 You Call This a Media Market? WHY HAVE WE CHOSEN TO EXPLORE THE ROLE OF THE STATE IN THE MEDIA SECTOR IN SLOVENIA? Our decision to explore the State’s role in the media sector in Slovenia was motivated by enduring conflicts be- tween the media and the political sphere, with the change of government in 2004 only aggravating the situation. Furthermore, the studies conducted as part of the Me- dia Watch project, which is now in its tenth year, and par- ticularly the analysis of the situation of the public service broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija and media ownership, called for a more thorough examination that would take us to the sources of the powerful influence of the State and political elites on the Slovenian media. We sought to determine whether the situation of the Slovenian media and journalists and the relationship be- tween the State (the political sphere) and the media could be explained with the help of concepts such as political parallelism, political clientelism and political instrumen- talization, as utilized by Daniel C. Hallin and Stylianos Papathanassopoulos in an article entitled »Political clien- telism and the media: Southern Europe and Latin America in comparative perspective«, and by Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini in the book »Comparing Media Systems – Three Models of Media and Politics.«1 The presence of political parallelism in the media can be established by exploring the extent and the nature of links between the media and political groups, and the extent to which the media system reflects the dominant political di- visions within society. These find expression in media con- tent, priority of political preferences when recruiting media employees, and in organizational links between the media and political groups.2 According to Hallin and Mancini, political parallelism is also manifested as the domination of advocacy journal- ism characterized by journalists acting more as commenta- tors than reporters. 1 Daniel C. Hallin and Stylianos Papathanassopoulos, »Political clientelism and the media: Southern Europe and Latin America in comparative perspective«, Media, Culture & Society, 24(2), 2002, pp. 175–95. Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini, Comparing Media Systems – Three Models of Media and Politics, Cambridge Uni- versity Press, 2004, Cambridge. 2 Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini, Comparing Media Systems – Three Models of Media and Politics, Cambridge University Press, 2004, Cambridge p. 28. 9 aang.inddng.indd 9 55.. 22.. 22008008 111:37:561:37:56 You Call This a Media Market? Comparison of the media systems in Europe and North America showed that a high level of political parallelism in the media is especially characteristic of Mediterranean states, so Hallin and Mancini called this set of circumstances the Mediterranean or polarized pluralist model. The other typical features of this model include the late introduction of press and commercial media freedom, a strong role for the State as owner, regulator, founder and co-funder of the media, and the politicization of the media with their in- strumentalization in political conflicts also being frequent in the past.3 Political clientelism, as Hallin and Mancini explain, produces a special status for regulatory and supervisory in- stitutions within the media field. These are politicized, ex- posed to various pressures and not independent. For exam- ple, when assigning the key posts within these institutions it is political loyalty rather than professional competence that decides the choice; media owners need political links to secure favorable treatment when competing for projects or running their businesses, so they use the media as a trump card when negotiating with other elites or to intervene in politics. Moreover, political intervention is frequently the sole motive for media ownership.4 In Hallin and Mancini’s layout, professionalism of jour- nalists stands at one pole with its opposites being political instrumentalization, clientelism and parallelism. However, such professionalism can gain ground only in circumstances that allow journalism to evolve into an autonomous activ- ity independent from other social and political factors. Of key importance is that journalists serve the interest of the public instead of serving particular interests, that their work be guided by professional criteria instead of being driven by goals imposed from outside, and that they avoid identifi- cation with particular views. The Mediterranean or polar- ized pluralist model is, in the words of Hallin and Mancini, characterized by weak professionalism, the absence of a strict division line between political activism and journalism, lim- ited autonomy of journalism and an open conflict when it comes to promotion of journalistic autonomy. Our aim was to establish whether the Slovenian media system includes some features of the Mediterranean model as presented by Hallin and Mancini. To be able to do this, we examined state (and political) influence on the media 3 Ibid., pp. 67–68 and 73. 4 Ibid., p. 58. 10 aang.inddng.indd 1100 55.. 22.. 22008008 111:37:561:37:56 Why have we chosen to explore the role of the State in the media sector in Slovenia? sector using several indicators – media ownership, advertis- ing, subsidies i.e. state aid to the media, allocation of broad- casting frequencies, the operation of supervisory bodies con- trolling the broadcasting field, the operation of the public service broadcaster rtv Slovenija, the situation of audio- visual culture and the links between the Roman Catholic Church and the State within the media field.