After this week’s interview of the leader of the Slovenian opposition party, Janez Janša, on the Odmevi show, which has upset left-wing politicians, it can be expected that the controversy over the disciplining at the biggest Slovenian public institution will again be excited by the removal of editor-in-chief Jadranka Rebernik. On Thursday, RTV Slovenia announced that Rebernik had received the decision on her removal. The debate that RTV is not obedient enough had been launched publicly by an important deputy of the Modern Centre Party (SMC), Jani Möderndorfer.
WHEN RATINGS GO UP, WE REMOVE THE EDITOR!
Since the formation of a new programme and supervisory council at RTVS (last year the current government coalition ensured that it had a large majority in the council, and last week its representatives were also elected by employees), the director general, Igor Kadunc, had been trying to remove the editor-in-chief, Jadranka Rebernik, who is not a leftist. In his first attempt in August of last year, he failed to remove Rebernik herself; at the time, he proposed to the programme council to remove the director of the broadcaster, Ljerka Bizilj, because she refused to facilitate the removal of Rebernik. Last year, Rebernik achieved quite remarkable results with regards to the ratings of the main news show.
The improvement is evident in the most important news show at 7 p.m., where the ratings improved drastically. But the ratings of the Odmevi show, which is the second noteworthy show, are still dropping. That Kadunc would attempt to remove Rebernik was clear from the moment he had been elected. The reason is that Rebernik is considered to be a rather moderate and definitely not a left-wing editor, which is not a good solution for the Slovenian left, which has been and will control the programme and supervisory council of RTV in the election year.
Peter Jančič