With Jansa's Return, Slovenia's Media Landscape Is Being Reshaped

The return to power of the nationalist Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and multiple media ownership changes are combining to create one of the most turbulent media shakeups since Slovenia's independence, reigniting concerns about whether existing media freedoms can outlive the fourth cabinet of the populist Janez Jansa. The ruling right-wing coalition led by SDS stitched together a thin majority in the Slovenian parliament by relying on the pro-Kremlin Resni.ca party in May. The coalition then moved quickly to table new amendments to the bill on the public service media, which critics fear will give the government greater control over Radio Television Slovenia (RTVSlo) and limit the broadcaster's editorial independence. The amendments, tabled in August, prompted the European Federation of Journalists to issue a call to "protect the institutional and editorial independence" of RTVSlo. The public comment period on the bill changes ended already on September 9, paving way for a parliamentary vote. "Jansa is moving fast with military-like discipline," Marko Milosavljevic, media studies professor at the University of Ljubljana, tells BIRN. Jansa's ruling coalition also pressed on with calling a non-binding referendum for October 11 on abolishing the public broadcaster's license fee, which would make RTVSlo dependent on the state budget for financing. Abolishing the license fee has already been criticised by media experts – and with good cause. The Hungarian government did just that in 2004, which was followed by Viktor Orban's Fidesz government in 2011 abolishing the fees that media outlets paid to the independent news agency MTI. The result was that all outlets had become little more than government mouthpieces by the time Fidesz lost power earlier this year. Only now, after Peter Magyar's Tisza party won the general election, can the country begin restoring some semblance of independence to the public broadcasters. New legislation foresees a three-year budget for the public media effective from 2028, yet this will be also allocated by parliament. Likewise in the Czech Republic, the radical-populist cabinet of Andrej Babis is pressing on with a campaign pledge to replace all license fees with direct state budget allocations starting in 2027. Although the government argues it will reduce the burden on households and introduce "stable and predictable" funding, critics worry about increased political influence over the broadcaster. Fears about are RTVSlo's future are being further fuelled by cabinet members opting to regularly avoid speaking to the public broadcaster, playing down its relevance in line with long-term SDS party media conspiracy narratives that regard a free press, civil society and an independent judiciary as the enemy. For this, Jansa has earned the notorious sobriquet of "Prince of Darkness" as well as backing from national-conservative leaders abroad, including Orban when he was in office, US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Political commentator Aljaz Pengov Bitenc argues that the latest attacks on the public service media are part of Jansa's cabinet agenda to "target everything that made this country as liberal as it got" since the 1980s. He describes Jansa as "the last Leninist" for his Bolshevik-like iron grip on the SDS and cabinet discipline that requires unconditional loyalty. N1 television logo. Photo: Screenshot Under new management Adding to fears that this time around Jansa's rule could leave a more permanent mark on Slovenian's media landscape are the latest ownership changes among commercial outlets. On May 29, one of the leading Slovenian news channels N1 changed ownership when United Group, a telecommunications and media provider in Southeast Europe, sold its Adria News Network (ANN) to European Future Media Investments (EFMI). ANN includes the N1 channels in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other countries in the Western Balkan region, where they often serve as one of the last vestiges of independent reporting. The International Press Institute (IPI), a media freedom watchdog, wrote about the takeover in September: "Without significant safeguards in place, IPI is concerned that this deal could significantly affect the landscape for independent journalism in the Western Balkans, pose a threat to watchdog journalism, and result in the weakening of media pluralism." The takeover raised particular concerns because EFMI is backed by Alpac Capital, a Portuguese investment fund headed by Pedro Vargas David, who enjoys close ties to people around Orban and his Fidesz party. Alpac Capital previously bought the pan-European broadcaster Euronews in 2022; subsequent reporting by Le Monde and Direkt36 revealed that the acquisition was heavily financed by Hungarian state capital and companies close to the propaganda apparatus of Orban. Marko Ribac, a researcher in media ownership at the Ljubljana-based Mirovni institut (Peace Institute), highlights how concerning it is that a "non-transparent sale of media outlets critical of Aleksandar Vucic to a fund linked to Orban materialised" just before the president called a snap election for October 25. Ribac adds that "in five years of its presence, N1 Slovenija established itself as a credible and widely read online portal with a hard-working team of dedicated journalists, uncovering some important in-depth and investigative journalistic stories." The Slovenian antitrust office, the Public Agency for the Protection of Competition (AVK), has yet to approve the N1 takeover, but media analysts fear Jansa's government is determined to press on with a major shake-up of the country's media landscape. "The composition of voters behind Jansa and SDS has changed," says Pengov Bitenc, pointing out that "a quarter of SDS voters are aged 18-25", though this group of voters has not yet formed a solid base of support for the party. Pengov Bitenc argues that Jansa is "ruthless about power and will stop at nothing to get it". He thinks control and access to media content is crucial to Jansa's goal of consolidating SDS support, noting that "less regulation means more crap media content can get put on air". Slovenian PM Janez Jansa (L) and then-Hungarian PM Minister Viktor Orban (R) talk during the Bled Strategic Forum at the Festival hall in Bled, Slovenia, 31 August 2020. EPA/IGOR KUPLJENIK Opaque SDS galaxy The dust from the ANN takeover had not yet settled when Slovenian investigative outlet Necenzurirano.si reported that Alpac Capital could be in talks to also take over SDS's party channel Nova24TV. During Jansa's previous time in government, from 2020 to 2022, Nova24TV came under scrutiny by media watchdogs for disseminating far-right content, conspiracy theories, antisemitic tropes and disinformation, as well as for having been owned from 2017 to 2022 by Hungarian businessman Peter Schatz, which served as a backdoor for Fidesz influence in Slovenia. "I cannot understand how any of it can be profitable," Pengov Bitenc says of Nova24TV, adding that "if it was not for Viktor Orban, it would have been run into the ground [already]." Despite SDS's historical links to Fidesz and its party-linked oligarchs, Slovenian media and politics watchers are wary of speculating about the potential for Hungarian influence in the latest media changes that are occurring. "It is too soon to observe anything," Ribac says when asked about the lingering influence of Fidesz, though adds that official "data still shows Hungarian companies close to Orban in the ownership structures of two SDS media companies", in reference to companies Hespereia, Ridikul and R-post-R in the SDS-linked Nova Hisa and Nova24TV ownership structures. Pengov Bitenc agrees, saying that the "opaqueness of the SDS galaxy" is an important factor when trying to consider SDS's links to Orban and other nationalist-populist leaders, adding that when it comes to the party and the media, "everything can be denied until proven otherwise". Slovenian Foreign Minister Tone Kajzer (R) and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar (L) speak during a press conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 09 September 2026. EPA/ANTONIO BAT Chokehold could tighten even without Orban Milosavljevic says it would only be "a wild guess what could happen next". He points to other important actors on the Slovenian and wider regional market, which recently included United Group deals with the Czech investment group PPF, resulting in the pushing down of N1 and Nova S outlets in the Serbian cable line-ups after PPF sold these to state-owned Telekom Srbija. Moreover, in 2024, the United Arab Emirates technology and investment group e& acquired a controlling stake in PPF's telecom assets in Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia, paving the way for the UAE's historic entry into EU and EU candidate markets. With his close ties to the UAE, there is speculation that Vucic himself could be "behind the UAE links". PPF also received negative publicity for scaling down critical news reporting on Markiza, the largest commercial TV channel in Slovakia, shortly after the populist Robert Fico rebranded himself as a pro-Kremlin nationalist and Orban ally, and then made an improbable return to power in 2023. "PPF Group might be interested in taking over Telemach, one of Slovenia's four internet providers," Ribac says, repeating speculation reported in the Slovenian media in September. At the same time, he says, the group "might be ready to relinquish its ownership of production company Pro Plus in exchange for control of Telemach." One of the richest Slovenes, Dari Juzna, is reported to be interested in buying Pro Plus, the largest media house in Slovenia. Pro Plus is part of Central European Media Enterprises, which PPF acquired in 2020 from Time Warner. At the time, the IPI and other press associations raised concerns with PPF's owner, the late Petr Kellner, regarding media ownership and editorial independence. "A group of wealthy individuals close to current Prime Minister Jansa might conversely be interested in taking over Pro Plus, as it produces the most popular commercial television channel POPTV and the most visited news website in the country 24.com," Ribac explains. This fits with Jansa's desire to keep a primary focus on Slovenia while maintaining ties with like-minded politicians and businessmen abroad. "Jansa alone has no designs to influence Croatia or other countries near abroad," Pengov Bitenc tells BIRN, but adds that even if Jansa's main focus remains domestic, it won't stop him continuing to make use of the existing network of nationalist leaders abroad to boost his credibility. Jansa is "now indebted to Netanyahu", Pengov Bitenc tells BIRN, referring to the involvement of the Israeli Mossad-linked company Black Cube in Slovenia's election campaign. He argues that Jansa is much more likely to return favours to the sitting Israeli prime minister than to Orban, "who is out of power and the money flows have been turned off". Indeed, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar visited Slovenia in September, when he opened Israel's permanent embassy in Ljubljana and heralded the country's shift from being one of the most outspoken critics of Israel's campaign in Gaza and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank to one of its staunchest backers. The RTV Slovenija building in Ljubljana was designed by Franc Rihtar and built in 1975. Photo: Mateus2019 / Wikimedia Commons Fears for independent media For Pengov Bitenc, what is really at stake for Jansa is the prospect of gaining influence over RTVSlo and POP TV, the two television stations with the most influential coverage in the country. The changes to RTVSlo in the bill drafted by Jansa's government are alarming, Ribac says: "The new law eliminates key safeguards for the institutional and financial independence of RTVSlo and transfers key decision-making regarding its operations under the decisive influence of the government." The legislation would also end the current RTVSlo Council mandates and establish a new seven-member Supervisory Council, six of whom would be appointed by the government, Ribac highlights, as did the European Federation of Journalists. "The Programme Council is not only losing a significant part of its powers, organisations from the human rights field, media and journalistic organizations etc. are disappearing from representation, while the law directly designates selected organisations from the fields of culture, science, economy consumer businesses," Ribac explains. Milosavljevic struggles to see any positive signs for the prospects of independent journalism in the current situation and regrets that the previous centre-left cabinet of Robert Golob couldn't adopt legislation to stabilise the public broadcaster's finances and secure its editorial independence more effectively during its time in office. Pengov Bitenc says that Anze Logar, leader of the centre-right Democrats, had a chance to step out of Jansa's shadow and form a cabinet with Golob's Freedom Movement in what seemed to be "a unique opportunity for Slovenia" after the latter narrowly beat SDS in the election earlier this year. "Unfortunately, Logar proved he is not capable of doing politics without being bossed around by Jansa," Pengov Bitenc laments. Of some comfort, he says, is that the toxic Resni.ca could collapse under the weight of its own scandals involving the party leader Zoran Stevanovic before the end of the current parliamentary term, which would effectively deny Jansa his majority. Pengov Bitenc also expects journalists to put up a fight when faced with shrinking editorial freedom. "It's not like Slovenian journalism is going to die out [overnight]," he says.