Populists are threatening Europe’s independent public broadcasters

EVERY SELF-RESPECTING European country needs a public broadcaster. So after Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia in 1991, it gave Radio-Television of Slovenia (RTV-SLO) a mandate to report independently, unlike the state propaganda that passed for news under communism. Indeed, RTV-SLO has proved too independent for Slovenia’s current prime minister, Janez Jansa. For more than a year he has been browbeating the network’s journalists on social media. Wags have consequently dubbed Mr Jansa “Marshal Twito”, a nod to Josip Tito, Yugoslavia’s longtime dictator. His government wants to pass a new media law that will make RTV-SLO easier to control. 

The Netherlands’ national public news broadcaster, the NOS, also has its roots in a reaction against authoritarian propaganda, that of the Nazi occupiers during the second world war. The NOS has an independent board and a guaranteed multi-year budget. But lately Dutch public broadcasters have faced intimidation, too. Reporters have been physically attacked at protests and while reporting on covid-19 measures. In October the NOS removed its logo from its satellite vans after they were repeatedly harassed in traffic.

The problems in Slovenia and the Netherlands are typical of those that are increasingly facing public broadcasters all over...