Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Slovenian Press Freedom

"The director of the International Press Institute, Johann Fritz, warned in an official statement that 'business contacts and stock ownership should not be used by the government to influence independent media into publishing positive articles.'

But Grah, the Vienna correspondent for Delo, said there are now only two papers -- Dnevnik and Mladina -- that are not subject to state influence. Those news outlets are suffering from a lack of advertising, however. Big companies have pulled their ads from the critical newspapers, costing them a significant portion of their revenues.

In order to answer the critics, the Ministry of Culture funded a study at the University of Ljubljana, on press freedom. The researchers found that the reporting in Slovenian papers was even-handed, but sociologist Matej Makarovic, who conducted the research, found that the government and other political parties had tried to influence it."

Source: Deutsche Welle

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