US embassy cable - 05LJUBLJANA682

UNCLAS  LJUBLJANA 000682 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
UNCLASSIFIED 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PINR, ECON, SI 
SUBJECT: Slovenian Referendum on the new Law on the National 
Radio and Television, Sunday, September 25 
 
 
1.  (U) SUMMARY:  On Sunday, September 25 Slovenians will 
vote in a referendum on whether the new Law on National 
Radio and Television should be implemented. The main issue 
is whether the Parliament will have the authority to approve 
a greater proportion of the Program Council members of 
Public Radio and TV (RTV) and whether the Government (GOS) 
will also have the authority to appoint four additional 
members to the Supervisory Board, which reviews and approves 
financial operations of RTV.  The Government claims these 
changes are necessary to ensure public media are more 
representative of the diversity in Slovenia.  Opposition 
political parties, claiming that Government is seeking to 
exert control over public radio and television, initiated 
the referendum.  Public debate has been raging in all media 
with no clear conclusions or winners.  At midnight on 
September 23, all debate will stop and a period of silence 
on the issue imposed prior to the referndum.  Two days 
before the referendum, a majority of Slovenians remain 
undecided, and among those who have decided, a slightly 
greater number seem inclined to overturn the new law.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
 
Background 
---------- 
 
2. (U) The GOS initiated changes in the law and the 
Parliament approved them earlier this year based on findings 
by the Constitutional Court that the existing law was not 
fully constitutional. The GOS' stated intention was to 
improve programming and financial management, and to better 
represent the broad spectrum of views in Slovenia. The 
Opposition, however, claims that the GOS is trying to assure 
itself strong influence in public radio and television by 
stacking both the Program Council and Supervisory Board with 
members sympathetic to its policies and views. 
 
3. (U) According to the previous law, members of the Program 
Council of Radio and Television Slovenia (RTV) were 
nominated as follows: five members were nominated by the 
parliament in order to respect the proportional 
representation of parliamentary parties [deputies or other 
public officials cannot be nominated]; one member was 
nominated by the Italian minority community; one member was 
nominated by Hungarian minority community; different social 
groups [University, Academy of Sciences and Art, societies 
of writers, film workers etc] nominated fifteen members; and 
three members were elected by and from among the employees 
of RTV. 
 
 
3.  (U) The new Law on Radio and Television Slovenia 
increases the number of members of the Program Council to 
29. It also changes the process of selection of members of 
it. Italian and Hungarian minority communities will each 
nominate one member, the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Art 
will nominate one, two are to be nominated by the President 
of the Republic on the recommendation of the registered 
Religious Communities. Employees of the Radio and Television 
Slovenia nominate three among themselves through direct 
elections, the Parliament nominates five on the proposal of 
parliamentarian parties and 16 are nominated by viewers and 
listeners of Radio and Television Slovenia programs, by 
Universities, and different civil society groups. 
 
4.  (U) The Supervisory Board reviews and approves financial 
operations of RTV. Under the previous law, it consisted of 
seven members, five of whom were appointed by the Parliament 
and two by RTV employees.  The new Supervisory Board 
consists of eleven members.  Five would be appointed by the 
Parliament, four by the Government and two by the RTV 
employees. 
 
5.  (U) By comparison, EU members have various approaches to 
management of public radio and television. In Austria the 
federal government together with local governments nominate 
24 members, Workers Council nominates five, and Public 
Council [listeners and spectators] six; in Belgium the 
government nominates all members of Program Council; in 
Denmark the minister of Culture nominates all; in Finland 
the parliament nominates all; in France the President of the 
Republic nominates one third, the President of the 
Parliament one third and the President of the Senate one 
third; in Sweden employees manage the public television 
themselves. 
 
 
6.  (U) Comment: The Opposition sees the changes to the RTV 
law as a means of subordinating RTV to the Government, 
implying that the Government-dominated Supervisory Board 
will not approve of financial operations if it does not like 
the programming.  It has also pointed to recent comments by 
the Council of Europe (CoE), which indicate that the new law 
may not meet all European norms and standards as support for 
its position. Since a comparison with the previous law was 
not made, however, it is not certain that the previous law 
met CoE criteria either.  The Opposition was also initially 
hoping to make political hay with this referendum claiming 
that it was not only a referendum on the law, but on the 
Government as well.  The weeks of inconclusive wrangling to 
which the Slovene public has been subjected have ensured 
that what this all really comes down to is a lot of 
"floskula " or political hot air.   It is not clear that the 
changes proposed by this law will have a negative impact on 
freedom of the media in Slovenia, or that if defeated, it 
would negatively impact the Government's ability to rule. 
End Comment. 
 
ROBERTSON 
 
 
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 2005LJUBLJ00682 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED 


 
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