A few days ago, Jože Biščak, editor of the Slovenian conservative magazine Demokracija, told me that the Left in his country was very angry. In that, there is nothing new, despite the fact that the Left is in power as part of the government of the eco-liberal PM Robert Golob. However, in this case, the anger of the Slovenian Left was not due to the emergence of a new gender suffocated by patriarchy, but rather because a conservative Slovenian media outlet, Nova24TV (and more specifically its host, Boris Tomašič) have set a new world record by hosting the longest talk show on television, lasting 73 hours, 23 minutes and 21 seconds (the previous record was set at 72 hours and 18 minutes).
The marathon TV show began on Sunday 24 September at 18:00:00 and ended on Wednesday 27 September at 19:23:21. Throughout these 73 hours, Tomašič received seventy guests from different fields: politicians, such as SDS MP Branko Grims and former Interior Minister Aleš Hojs; journalists, such as Biščak himself and the anti-woke Tanja Brkić; historians, such as Professor Mitja Ferenc and Igor Omerza (a specialist in the crimes of the UBDA, the Yugoslav secret police); along with economists, sportsmen, judges, priests, and more besides. The result was a complete representation of Slovenian society in a programme that, in addition to being broadcast live on Nova24TV’s television channel, was broadcast on its international YouTube channel and on the websites of Nova24TV and the magazine Demokracija.
The programme was followed by a special jury and, in its final hours, by the Guinness Book of Records judge who, after the end of the programme, presented Tomašič with a plaque officially confirming the new record. “I think you have done something great,” said Tomašič to his team on achieving the record, “something that will be written in history forever, and not only in Slovenia. I think we will carry the name of Slovenia around the world. We have shown that there are no obstacles for us.”
The marathon broadcast and its recognition by the Guinness Book of Records is undoubtedly a great success for a young television station like Nova24TV, but it is a success that has been badly received by the Slovenian mainstream left-wing media. They consider Nova24TV a conservative thorn in their collective side, and consequently they have refrained from reporting on Nova24TV’s achievement.
The main obstacle for Slovenian conservative media is not lack of recognition by, or competition from, their progressive rivals; rather, it is the harassment they face from the government. Before Prime Minister Golob won the election in April 2022, he had already announced that, as the leader of the ‘Freedom Movement,’ he would shut down both the television channel Nova24TV and the magazine Demokracija. Once in power, and with the help of his allies on the Left, he has not let up, even singling out the advertisers of both media enterprises and setting up a parliamentary commission of enquiry into their funding. The Slovenian government has also set up a Council for the Prevention of Hate Speech, an Orwellian body filled with left-wing activists whose main aim is to censor the opinions of right-wing journalists and media. It is also very Orwellian that, in an expression of real-life double-speak, the promoters of this censorship call themselves the ‘Freedom Movement.’
Censorship and control of the media has also begun to impact Slovenian national television (RTVS), where an absolute purge of all right-wing and even insufficiently left-wing managers and journalists has been carried out. This purge was only possible thanks to a law, drafted by the government, which was initially suspended by the Constitutional Court pending a decision on its constitutionality. However, everything changed after the government announced its determination to carry out the dismissals with or without the court’s permission. European Commissioner Vĕra Jourová (a member of the same European liberal political group as Robert Golob) promptly visited the president of the Constitutional Court, Matej Accetto, to discuss the matter. Shortly thereafter, Accetto and three other judges decided to overturn the previous decision of the Constitutional Court and give a green light to the dismissal of journalists.
Here it is important to note that in 2021, the European Parliament voted for a resolution against Slovenia’s then-conservative government, under PM Janez Jansa,, accusing it of opposing EU values, attacking media freedom, and ‘Orbanising’ Slovenia. Now, when the attacks on freedom of the press and freedom of expression are real and indisputable, Brussels is once again demonstrating its policy of double standards and blessing the Golob government’s actions against conservative Slovenian media.
Boris Tomašič and Nova24TV should be congratulated for their marathon broadcast and for achieving a Guinness record, but their greatest achievement—shared with the rest of the Slovenian conservative media—is to have resisted government pressure and to have refused to surrender to the progressivism that, under the guise of advancing freedom and democracy, seeks only to impose censorship and authoritarianism.
Slovenia: Record-breaking TV Show Faces Censorship
A few days ago, Jože Biščak, editor of the Slovenian conservative magazine Demokracija, told me that the Left in his country was very angry. In that, there is nothing new, despite the fact that the Left is in power as part of the government of the eco-liberal PM Robert Golob. However, in this case, the anger of the Slovenian Left was not due to the emergence of a new gender suffocated by patriarchy, but rather because a conservative Slovenian media outlet, Nova24TV (and more specifically its host, Boris Tomašič) have set a new world record by hosting the longest talk show on television, lasting 73 hours, 23 minutes and 21 seconds (the previous record was set at 72 hours and 18 minutes).
The marathon TV show began on Sunday 24 September at 18:00:00 and ended on Wednesday 27 September at 19:23:21. Throughout these 73 hours, Tomašič received seventy guests from different fields: politicians, such as SDS MP Branko Grims and former Interior Minister Aleš Hojs; journalists, such as Biščak himself and the anti-woke Tanja Brkić; historians, such as Professor Mitja Ferenc and Igor Omerza (a specialist in the crimes of the UBDA, the Yugoslav secret police); along with economists, sportsmen, judges, priests, and more besides. The result was a complete representation of Slovenian society in a programme that, in addition to being broadcast live on Nova24TV’s television channel, was broadcast on its international YouTube channel and on the websites of Nova24TV and the magazine Demokracija.
The programme was followed by a special jury and, in its final hours, by the Guinness Book of Records judge who, after the end of the programme, presented Tomašič with a plaque officially confirming the new record. “I think you have done something great,” said Tomašič to his team on achieving the record, “something that will be written in history forever, and not only in Slovenia. I think we will carry the name of Slovenia around the world. We have shown that there are no obstacles for us.”
The marathon broadcast and its recognition by the Guinness Book of Records is undoubtedly a great success for a young television station like Nova24TV, but it is a success that has been badly received by the Slovenian mainstream left-wing media. They consider Nova24TV a conservative thorn in their collective side, and consequently they have refrained from reporting on Nova24TV’s achievement.
The main obstacle for Slovenian conservative media is not lack of recognition by, or competition from, their progressive rivals; rather, it is the harassment they face from the government. Before Prime Minister Golob won the election in April 2022, he had already announced that, as the leader of the ‘Freedom Movement,’ he would shut down both the television channel Nova24TV and the magazine Demokracija. Once in power, and with the help of his allies on the Left, he has not let up, even singling out the advertisers of both media enterprises and setting up a parliamentary commission of enquiry into their funding. The Slovenian government has also set up a Council for the Prevention of Hate Speech, an Orwellian body filled with left-wing activists whose main aim is to censor the opinions of right-wing journalists and media. It is also very Orwellian that, in an expression of real-life double-speak, the promoters of this censorship call themselves the ‘Freedom Movement.’
Censorship and control of the media has also begun to impact Slovenian national television (RTVS), where an absolute purge of all right-wing and even insufficiently left-wing managers and journalists has been carried out. This purge was only possible thanks to a law, drafted by the government, which was initially suspended by the Constitutional Court pending a decision on its constitutionality. However, everything changed after the government announced its determination to carry out the dismissals with or without the court’s permission. European Commissioner Vĕra Jourová (a member of the same European liberal political group as Robert Golob) promptly visited the president of the Constitutional Court, Matej Accetto, to discuss the matter. Shortly thereafter, Accetto and three other judges decided to overturn the previous decision of the Constitutional Court and give a green light to the dismissal of journalists.
Here it is important to note that in 2021, the European Parliament voted for a resolution against Slovenia’s then-conservative government, under PM Janez Jansa,, accusing it of opposing EU values, attacking media freedom, and ‘Orbanising’ Slovenia. Now, when the attacks on freedom of the press and freedom of expression are real and indisputable, Brussels is once again demonstrating its policy of double standards and blessing the Golob government’s actions against conservative Slovenian media.
Boris Tomašič and Nova24TV should be congratulated for their marathon broadcast and for achieving a Guinness record, but their greatest achievement—shared with the rest of the Slovenian conservative media—is to have resisted government pressure and to have refused to surrender to the progressivism that, under the guise of advancing freedom and democracy, seeks only to impose censorship and authoritarianism.
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