Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 11/09/2022
Andrej Grah Whatmough, the director general of public broadcaster RTV Slovenija, addressed a public letter to President Borut Pahor and Human Rights Ombudsman Peter Svetina on 31 August urging them to condemn the hate speech that he believes some media resort to as a means of humiliating RTV Slovenija.
In his letter, Grah Whatmough singled out a column by Leon Magdalenc published in Dnevnik newspaper on 27 August in which the author was critical of the current and previous management of RTV Slovenija. He also mentioned an editorial published in the weekly Mladina on 12 August in which Grega Repovž, the editor-in-chief, labeled the hiring practices and conduct of RTV Slovenija over the past two years as criminal. Repovž added that RTV Slovenija must be purged, for the only way to normalize the situation is for everyone who was arranged a job there by the Democrats (SDS) to be fired.
In a recommendation adopted in 1997, the Council of Europe defined hate speech as all forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, or other forms of hatred based on intolerance, such as discrimination and hostility against minorities, migrants and people of immigrant origin.
In Slovenia hate speech is not a concept in law, the Slovenian police said. They added that the phrase is misused as a synonym for the public incitement of hatred, violence and intolerance, which is punishable by up to two years in prison under Article 297 of the Criminal Code.
In their view, the opinion pieces in Dnevnik and Mladina do not qualify as criminal offenses out of hatred as stipulated by the Criminal Code. Moreover, they said the police has not received any reports of a criminal offense.
The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman told Razkrinkavanje.si that assessment of individual cases of ethically objectionable communication was not within their purview, whereby the Ombudsman typically decides to issue a public appeal in cases when hate speech is targeted at a specific group of people who share a personal circumstance such as sex, race or faith.
They furthermore emphasized that RTV Slovenija cannot be a victim of hate speech given that the purpose of hate speech is to incite violence and intolerance against a group of people because of their ethnicity, faith, race, cultural affiliation, nationality, or sexual orientation. Employees at the public broadcaster may theoretically become victims of hate speech and they have legal recourse available if needed, they added.
The Office of the President of the Republic told Razkrinkavanje.si that the RTV Slovenija director general Grah Whatmough asked on 30 August for a meeting with President Borut Pahor concerning freedom of speech and condemnation of hate speech. They presume that Pahor will receive the RTV Slovenija leadership before 15 September.
RTV Slovenija did not return our request for comment by the publication date. We will publish their response once we have received it.
The claim by Andrej Grah Whatmough, the director of RTV Slovenija, that the Mladina and Dnevnik opinion pieces contain elements of hate speech is false.