Friday, April 9th, 2021
Comparison with Nazi propaganda sheet
Slovenia’s prime minister attacks ARD reporters
The Slovenian Prime Minister Jansa compares the report of an ARD journalist with a National Socialist weekly. This is not the first time that the head of state has messed with the media – local broadcasters are already making comparisons with former US President Trump.
The Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa has accused the ARD correspondent Nikolaus Neumaier of censorship in the style of the Nazi propaganda paper “Der Stürmer” because of a report on the threat to media freedom in Slovenia. The editor-in-chief of Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Christian Nitsche, rejected Jansa’s statements as “maliciously defamatory”.
On March 31st, the ARD “Tagesthemen” broadcast a report by Neumeier about freedom of the press in Slovenia. In it, journalists from the Slovenian public broadcaster RTV stated that Jansa uses Twitter in a manner similar to that of the former US President Donald Trump and that he is attacking non-governmental media.
The RTV director Natalija Gorscak expressed the fear that Jansa wanted to turn the independent broadcaster into a state broadcaster. Jansa then tweeted on Wednesday: “Mr. @NikNeumaier, you have unfortunately done a censorship in the style of #PRAVDA or # DerStürmer. Literally. By excluding almost everyone from your report who did not agree with your one-sided agenda.” The “Pravda” was the central organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the “Stürmer” was an anti-Jewish, National Socialist oriented weekly newspaper.
However, Jansa’s government spokesman Uros Urbanija himself had a say in the “Issues of the Day” contribution. He had rejected the critical statements and stated that 90 percent of the Slovenian media were “left and against the government”. When a journalist asserts false facts “we need to act urgently”. BR editor-in-chief Nitsche called Jansa’s allegations “completely unfounded”. “The unacceptable comparison of history is also an attempt to discredit independent journalism,” he said.
Jansa has quarreled with journalists several times. Because of his numerous tweets, he was nicknamed “Marsal Tweeto”. The play on words is reminiscent of the ruler Josip Broz Tito, who ruled socialist Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1980 and in 1943 assumed the rank of marshal as leader of the partisans.
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