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.