Don’t Praise the Day Before Večer

When my grandfather Franček turned one hundred, the mayor, a journalist and a photographer came to his little house below the Pohorje hills. The news of yet another Maribor resident who had reached such a venerable age was published, where else, in Večer. That is the mission of a local newspaper. One whose lens and focus are very close to people. My grandfather’s wife Darinka always said that she needed Večer to know whether her city bus stop had been moved and what the opening hours of the duty shops were. True, most people today look up such information on the internet, but that in no way diminishes the importance of local media. It is not only about content, but about closeness between the medium and the people. Večer is a local newspaper.

But not only local

Večer is Maribor’s local newspaper. But Večer is not only a local newspaper. It is an important part of the mosaic that makes Maribor a city. The Styrian metropolis, which is not only a regional economic, administrative, cultural, sporting and social center, but also an extremely important counterweight to Ljubljana and its structural centralism, which stems from its position as the capital of a small country. A medium that not only covers the city and the region but is made by journalists and other contributors who live, work and breathe with their city and their region is the oxygen that sustains and supports all other forms of social activity and life. Can you imagine Maribor’s cultural life covered only by journalists and critics from Ljubljana? A football club that lives with its city and the microcosm of its supporters and fans, but depends for its media ratings on the attention of people who have seen the world in green since birth? Can you imagine tackling all the pressing social, economic, political, transport, environmental and other challenges and problems, not only in Maribor but also in Koroška, Prekmurje and other parts of eastern Slovenia, if the people of Maribor, Styria, Koroška and Prekmurje obtained their information only from Ljubljana newsrooms?

We usually talk about sovereignty in the context of states (and football), but it exists at other levels too. What good to Maribor is decentralization in the form of relocating one national agency or some obscure state office, or an airport that never took off, if at the same time it risks losing an important lever of its own influence, autonomy, authenticity and identity? They can send correspondents, you’ll say, but there are fewer and fewer of those too. And the few that remain, however excellently they do their work, cannot replace the loss of an independent source of information of its own for Slovenia’s second-largest city and the whole eastern part of the country. Information for itself and about itself. And their editors sit in Ljubljana anyway. Not that we Ljubljančani are local chauvinists by default (OK, perhaps with the exception of football); it is not a matter of bad intentions but of the (frog’s-eye) perspective from which we observe the world around us.

But who still reads newspapers?

Večer is the newspaper of Maribor and Styria. But it is also more than that. Večer is a national newspaper. It is an important part of the Slovenian media landscape. In a country where you can count the daily newspapers on the fingers of one hand, and for those not published in Ljubljana you’ll stop at the middle finger, losing one would do irreparable damage to its citizens’ access to information. Sure, sure, you’ll say, but who still reads newspapers? And that is true. There are fewer and fewer of us. That is also part of the problem, not only for Večer but for other print media, not only in Slovenia but all over the world, where we no longer form our opinions on the basis of information but choose our information according to our beliefs. The pluralism of opinions that is the driving force of a functioning democracy is slowly being replaced by a pluralism of facts that allows everyone to seek out the “truths” that confirm them in the positions, fears and prejudices they already hold. Technology, artificial intelligence and algorithms have accelerated this phenomenon and made it almost invisible. But technology doesn’t pull the strings by itself. Even with algorithms and artificial intelligence, it is ultimately about interaction between people. Including between those who manage and those who are managed. That in such a situation the danger of manipulation is not merely a theoretical threat is fairly obvious.

A pillar of defense against authoritarian populism

Many are critical of the media. Often rightly so. Many do not trust them, but this distrust is often a reflection of a wider revolt against everything that, in their eyes, represents an institution of the system that left them in the lurch. The causes of the dissatisfaction that led to such a reaction are also often legitimate and justified. We live in a world in which many really have been pushed to the economic and political margins. On the other hand, such uncritical criticism and such sweeping rejection of everything and everyone, including the media and the journalistic profession, can be dangerous. It creates ideal conditions for demagogic manipulation by those who exploit people’s distress in order to tear down democratic institutions and seize power. Independent and professional media, together with independent courts and an active civil society, are a pillar of defense against authoritarian populism, which is why they are also the first target of illiberal politics in subordinating and tearing down democratic institutions. Without journalists and media that work according to the professional principles of journalism, there is no access to reliable sources of information. And without that, there is no democracy.

And like all important things in life, professional journalism needs something to be paid, invested and taken care of: society must provide the material and other conditions necessary for it to function. This does not apply only to public media. It is not about taxpayers covering the losses of private media owners, but about creating the right conditions for their normal functioning. Media ownership must be properly regulated, monopolies and abuses prevented, above all illegitimate interference in editorial autonomy. If advertising, especially by public institutions and companies, is non-transparent, unregulated and unsupervised, politics has a handy lever for putting pressure on the media. The same goes for the precariousness of the journalistic profession, which is why safeguards and material conditions for journalists’ normal work must urgently be established. Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects not only freedom of expression but also freedom of access to information. Every reduction, every shrinking, every abuse of the media space that comes about because of our couldn’t-care-less attitude to such a strategic good as information carries a risk to our fundamental human rights and political freedoms. It represents a risk to democracy and freedom. Let us not delude ourselves that we will be able to fill the void left by the decline of professional journalism with the “sources of information” offered to us by the market and the internet, with clickbait tabloid platforms and politically controlled mouthpieces that at best make money from our naivety and at worst manipulate us in order to limit our freedom to decide our own fate.

Systemic problems that require systemic solutions

What prompted me to write, of course, was news of the current difficulties facing Večer, which is also my newspaper. Ever since editor-in-chief Matija Stepišnik invited me to contribute almost five years ago, I have responded to his trust, if not with the consistent quality of my contributions, then at least with the regularity of my writing. In these five years I have not once missed a deadline or skipped a slot. If Večer doesn’t tire of me, which they would of course be fully entitled to, I would like to carry on. The difficulties Večer faces, which could lead to drastic cuts in the newsroom and thus in the paper’s ability to maintain the necessary level of quality and professionalism, are to some extent specific and, I hope at least, temporary. On the other hand, they are structural threats facing all professional news media, at home and around the world. And because these are systemic problems, they need systemic solutions. A start would be for us to realize how dependent our freedom is on the existence of media that operate according to the principles of the profession and journalistic ethics. And then, as citizens, to demand that politics act accordingly. That it stop trying to subordinate and control the media politically and instead create the conditions for their normal functioning. Part of the responsibility of course lies with journalists and their professional organizations. Above all, we must demand that they remain faithful to the principles of their profession and that, in hard times, they do not look for shortcuts and solutions that would further accelerate the deterioration of the position in which journalists, the media, and with them we ourselves, have found ourselves.

But while waiting for politics to become more responsive and responsible, we readers can also do something. Times are hard and every euro counts, but the few we spend on buying a newspaper or subscribing to one medium or another are a smart investment in defending our own freedom of information and freedom to decide our fate. Finally, I would like to add my two cents and ask you for one thing. If you like reading me, subscribe to Večer and read me every other Tuesday. If I get on your nerves, subscribe to Večer and read it every day except every other Tuesday. And a happy New Year. To everyone at Večer and to all of you.