On Our Radar

Slovenia & Colombia

28 August 2026

On Our Radar this week: Slovenia’s public broadcaster is pushed toward a liquidity crisis after the state withholds funds it is legally owed, and Colombia’s new government dismantles its national media system’s entire news output in the name of ending propaganda.

On Our Radar this week…

PMA is troubled by the deepening liquidity crisis at RTV Slovenija, brought on by the state’s continued failure to provide legally owed funding. On 15 August, Slovenia’s Ministry of Finance confirmed that RTV Slovenija would be permitted to draw only €9.5 million (US$11 million) from the state treasury’s short-term lending facility this year, instead of the €12 million (US$14 million) the broadcaster had been expecting under a prior arrangement. RTV Slovenija’s management has confirmed that it is now seeking commercial bank financing to manage ongoing costs. The liquidity crisis has been building for some time due to the state’s failure to meet its obligations under Article 30 of the RTV Slovenija Act which, since a December 2025 amendment, required the state budget to co-finance the broadcaster’s minority-language and music production programming as a statutory duty, rather than a discretionary allocation. This shortfall also arrives while the broadcaster’s longer-term funding remains unsettled; a separate bill – which would abolish the licence fee entirely and replace it with full state budget financing – remains stalled in parliament, with the Assembly’s own legal service raising constitutional concerns and a consultative referendum on the question now being called for.

As PMA noted when that proposal was first announced, moving RTV Slovenija fully onto state budget financing risks leaving the broadcaster’s finances subject to the government’s discretion rather than protected from it, a concern this month’s shortfall does little to ease. PMA calls on the Slovenian government to fulfil its legal funding obligations to RTV Slovenija in full and without further delay, and to ensure that public media financing is never used, deliberately or through neglect, as a means of exerting pressure on an independent broadcaster. Read more via RTV SLO.

Meanwhile, PMA is concerned by the Colombian government’s decision to eliminate all news and opinion programming across the country’s national media system. On 15 August, Technologies and Communications Minister Alexandra Falla and the new Inravisión (formerly RTVC) director, Ángela Mora, announced the end of the news and current affairs block that had run daily across public radio and television. Describing the decision as dismantling a “propaganda apparatus” left by the previous administration, they said future programming would prioritise culture, arts, and education instead. Just two days later, station directors at the 20 peace stations, along with Inravisión’s decentralised regional stations nationwide, were instructed by WhatsApp message to suspend news and current affairs programming and replace it with music-only programming centralised from Bogotá. The Colombian press freedom organisation FLIP has called on the government to reverse course, warning that the decision restricts entire communities’ access to information about their own territories, and disregards commitments made under the peace accord.

Despite the administration’s stated intention of removing the previous government’s editorial control over the organisation, we believe that removing news coverage altogether, particularly from stations built to serve communities still recovering from conflict, risks repeating the same challenges that existed under the previous administration. It does not secure independence, nor resolve a governance problem. It does, however, draw a distinct operational line between media and government.

PMA calls on the Colombian government to restore news and current affairs programming, honour the specific commitments attached to the peace stations under the peace accord, and pursue any necessary reforms to secure Inravisión’s independence through transparent, consultative processes rather than unilateral decree. Read more via Infobae.

PMA Advocacy Team