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Media Landscape - Slovenia

INTRODUCTION

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Slovenia is a member of European Union and NATO that was part of former Yugoslavia until independence in 1991. In 2004, Slovenia, with a population of 1.96 million, had a per capita GDP of €16,112 112 ("the richest ex-communist state", according to the Financial Times) and a GDP growth rate of 4.3 per cent. There are currently 877 media outlets registered in the country. The gross value (without discounts) of the advertising pie in Slovenian media of 2006 was 377 € million, the net value was an estimated 165 € million.\

After 14 years of coalitions where Liberal Democrats (LDS) played main role, a new government was formed after parliamentary elections in 2004 with only right-wing parties in the ruling coalition for the first time since 1992. This also reflected in changes of media policy and many changes in Slovenian media, ownership and editorial policy.


1. WRITTEN PRESS

There are eight daily newspapers in Slovenia with sold circulation of approximately 263,000 copies. The two dailies with the highest circulations are the broadsheet Delo (average circulation 69,000) and the tabloid Slovenske novice (average circulation 90,500) owned by the same holding company, Delo d.d..

On Sunday they publish Nedelo (circulation 52,000; format changed from broadsheet to tabloid in May 2002). Together the company Delo and its two newspapers control more than 50 per cent of the market for daily newspapers in the republic. Two other quality dailies are both regional, each controlling about 20 % of the market: in the capital Ljubljana there is Dnevnik and Večer in the northeastern town of Maribor.

In 2000, the four existing dailies were first joined by two new dailies, both specialized: the sports bi-daily newspaper Ekipa and the business newspaper Finance in 2001. Then on 1 October 2004, the regional bi-daily Primorske novice was re-launched as a daily newspaper. After the fall of socialism in the beginning of 1990’s foreign investors were not present on the Slovenian market for almost a decade. After 2000 important foreign media actors on Slovenian market are Bonnier AG, Dagens Industri (Sweden), Styria Verlag, Leykam (Austria) and Burda (Germany).


2. AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA

Television

There are four domestic public service broadcast channels (Slovenia 1, Slovenia 2, Television Koper and Television Maribor) and 35 domestic commercial television channels, owned by 31 television stations in Slovenia. TV Slovenia is the largest television station and most important in terms of diversity and quantity of its production. There are five television channels, private and public, out of 39 that can be seen by more than 75 % of the Slovene population: Pop TV, Slovenia 1, Kanal A, Slovenia 2, POP TV, and TV 3.

Unlike print market, foreign media owners play an important role in Slovenian commercial television. Three of the largest commercial channels are owned by foreign companies: Pop TV, Kanal A (Central European Media Enterprises) and TV3 (Modern Times Group MTG AB). On average, 11 per cent of the population (or 221,500 people) watched television every day in 2004. Each viewer watched television for an average of 249 minutes per day.

Television had a 54.6 per cent share of advertising pie in first half of 2006. There are no reliable estimates for radio for listeners’ consumption and advertising revenue.

Radio

In Slovenia there are 81 radio channels in total (eight are part of the public broadcaster Radio-television Slovenia; 73 are in private ownership). No foreign investor is at the moment present in Slovenian radio broadcasting, at least not publicly, while a number of stations are owned by the same or connected persons or companies, thus making it highly possible that in the future they could merge and form common programmes with nation-wide reach. Public stations derive their revenue mainly from licence fees, but with an important share of advertising income.

The digitalization of radio (DALET) started in 1998, and the gradual digitalization of television began in 1999, however there are no digital platforms available in Slovenia and there are no plans for such platforms in near future.


3. DIGITAL SERVICES

As of yet there are no digital services. The digitalization of radio (DALET) started in 1998, and the gradual digitalization of television began in 1999, however there are no digital platforms available in Slovenia and there are no plans for such platforms in near future. Slovenian public broadcaster RTV Slovenia received its first digital frequencies at the end of April 2006 from Broadcasting Council.


4. NEWS AGENCIES

There is one main news agency in Slovenia – Slovenska tiskovna agencija (STA), which is almost completely owned by the state. STA is important source of information for smaller media, especially radio stations.


5. ONLINE MEDIA

The percentage of households that have access to the Internet reached 54 % in 2006, which is slightly above the EU average. All Slovenian daily newspapers have their websites, as well as two most important television channels RTV Slovenia and Pop TV. The public service broadcaster is expanding its online offer to include real time transmission of radio and television programmes and a range of additional services. RTV Slovenia and Pop TV short news is also available through mobile phones with WAP technology.


6. MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS

There are two main organizations in Slovenian journalistic landscape: The Slovenian Union of Journalists (more than 650 members) and The Association of Slovene Journalists (more than 1,550 members). There is National Chamber of Advertisers (Slovenska oglaševalska zbornica) and Association of PR Practitioners, are not particularly active, because there are almost no cases of unethical practice in advertising or public relations exposed or sanctioned by these organizations.


7. NATIONAL MEDIA POLICIES

The main broadcasting regulatory bodies today are the Ministry of Culture – including the Media Inspector, and the Ministry’s special Directorate for Media (established in autumn 2004); the Agency for Post and Electronic Communication (APEK); and the Broadcasting Council (SRDF).

In accordance with the Mass Media Act 2001 (Article 59), owners can be involved in either radio or television broadcasting, and not in both. The owner of a radio or television channel can control up to 20 per cent of a daily newspaper and vice versa (Article 56). There are no limits regarding cross-media ownership of magazines and radio or television channels. Advertising agencies cannot own or control more than 20 per cent of radio or television channel. Telecommunications companies cannot own a radio or television channel. Public broadcasting is regulated by the Law on RTV Slovenia.

RTV Slovenia is governed by its Programming Council, while its financial operations are controlled by a Supervisory Board. Commercial television broadcasting is regulated by the Mass Media Act, adopted in 2006, and pursuant to the Law on Electronic Communication, adopted in 2004.

Slovenian television stations, both public and commercial, will have a problem to adhere to the obligations determined in the EU TWF Directive. Already there is a problem meeting Slovenian quotas, especially when it comes to domestic audiovisual works, which is in relatively short supply.


8. ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEMS

Freedom of expression is guaranteed in the Slovenia Constitution, which prohibits all kinds of censorship. Slovenia is also a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights. The media is subject to assorted general legislation, such as anti-defamation laws, copyright laws etc.

In addition to the Law on RTV Slovenia and the Mass Media Act, there are also two codes of ethics: the Code of Practice for Slovenian Journalists (2002) and the RTV Slovenia’s in-house code of ethics (2000). Two types of sanctions can be used against journalists for not upholding professional standards: public warning issued by the Journalistic Court of Honor, an internal committee that discusses particular cases; a civil court case and demand financial compensation.

However, since this is a self-regulatory system adopted by journalists and not accepted by all publishers (or all journalists), it is not binding. Some media do not publish the decisions of the Court of Honor or at least not those related to themselves.


9. REFERENCES

  • Agency for Post and Electronic Communication (2005): Annual Report for 2004. Ljubljana.

  • Agency for Telecommunications, Radio Diffusion and the G. P. O. (2004): Annual Report for 2003, Ljubljana.

  • Bašić Hrvatin, Sandra/Lenart J. Kučić (2004): Report on Slovenia. In Brankica Petković (ed.), Media Ownership and its Impact on Media Independence and Pluralism. Ljubljana: SEENPM and Peace Institute. http://www.mirovni-institut.si/media_ownership/pdf/slovenia.pdf (accessed 22 June 2005).

  • Bašić Hrvatin, Sandra/Marko Milosavljevič (2001): Media Policy in Slovenia in the 1990’s. Ljubljana: Peace Institute.

  • Broadcasting Council (2002): Annual Report 2001/2002, Ljubljana.

  • Broadcasting Council (2001), Radio and TV Programmes in Slovenia. Ljubljana: Broadcasting Council.

  • Central European Media Enterprises (2004): Annual Report 2003. http://www.sec.gov/edgar/data/925645/000101540204000664, 12 March 2005.

  • European Council (1989): Television without Frontiers Directive”: Council Directive of 3 October 1989 on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities, 89/552/EEC, OJ L 298 of 17 October 1989, as amended by European Parliament Directive of June 1997, 97/36/EC, OJ L 202 60 of 30 July 1997, consolidated text available on the European Commission website at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/consleg/pdf/1989/en1989L0552do_001.pdf.

  • Jakubowicz, Karol (2005): Katastrofa. In: Delo, 11 June 2005, Ljubljana, p. 11.

  • Kmet Stare/Bučar Zupanič (2004): Slovenia - On The Way To The Information Society. Office for Macro-economic Analysis and Development, Ljubljana, June 2004.

  • Media Services AGB (2005): Research on 2004. Ljubljana.

  • Ministry of Culture (2004): Poročilo Ministrstva za kulturo Republike Slovenije za leto 2003 (Annual report of Ministry of Culture 2003), Ljubljana.

  • Nacionalna raziskava branosti (2004): National research of readership, Data for 3rd quarter of 2004, Ljubljana.

  • Research Institute of Slovenia (Raziskovalni inštitut Slovenije – RIS) (2004): Uporaba interneta v gospodinjstvih v letu 2003, (Report on The Use of Internet in Households for the year 2003). Ljubljana: RIS.

  • RTV Slovenia (2004): Annual Report 2003. Ljubljana.

  • RTV Slovenia (2004): Dopolnitve dolgoročne strategije razvoja RTV Slovenija 2004-2010 (Annex to the long-term development strategy of RTV Slovenia 2004-2010). Ljubljana: RTV Slovenia.

  • RTV Slovenia (2005): Delovno gradivo za letno poročilo za leto 2004 (Working material for the Annual Report of RTV Slovenia for 2004). Ljubljana: RTV Slovenia.

  • Slovenska oglasevalska zbornica, http://www.soz.si/projektisoz/preglednicarevidiranihprodanihnaklad

  • Jančič, Maja: »Dnevniki lovijo televizijo«. Marketing magazin, Ljubljana (2007, issue 1, page 17-18).

  • Setinšek, Irena: »Tiskani mediji so svoj delež povečali kar za 16 odstotkov«. Marketing magazin, Ljubljana (2007, issue 1, page 19-20)


10. AUTHOR

Marko Milosavljevič, phd. is an associate professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at University of Ljubljana.


11. MEDIA RESOURCES

Newspapers

Audio/Visual Media

Media Institutions

Blogs/Civil Media

Excerpt from EUROPEAN MEDIA GOVERNANCE: THE NATIONAL AND REGIONAL DIMENSIONS, published by Intellect (http://www.intellectbooks.com).

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