“Yes, I’m going to bring up the Media Freedom Act again.”

Yes, I’m going to bring up the European Media Freedom Act again. But when you find out why (just read on), you’ll understand.

You all know by now that I am continually confronting multinationals operating on the Slovenian market, who are discriminating against the Slovenian language as they go. My team and I have been giving a lot of thought to what we can do. Send a letter, urge, convene meetings, explain… all well and good, but unfortunately not enough.

It is through legislation that companies are compelled to introduce the necessary changes, especially those who confidently declare “we don’t have to”. Well, sooner or later you will have to.

First, there’s the national level. The Ministry of Culture has finally submitted the envisaged legislative changes for public consultation. I intend to take part in the process within the framework of my competences. I hope for an ambitious, sharp, unambiguous amendment of the law.

And then there’s the European level. With its European Media Freedom Act. And Article 14 on the coordination among regulators. I am determined to include a provision in this legislation – which will have the form of a regulation, meaning that Member States will have to transpose it exactly as it is agreed in the negotiations – that will simply force foreign companies to comply with our law, even if they are not officially established in, say, Slovenia.

How? On the basis of this provision, a Slovenian inspector, for example, establishing that Netflix is discriminating against Slovenian, an official EU language on the EU market, will be able to make use of official mechanisms to request the inspector in the country where the company has its offices or a head office (in the specific case of Netflix in the Netherlands) to put the matter right.

I really believe that this provision will be adopted, as at this point none of the other negotiators are voicing any issues with it. Of course, the process then continues with negotiations with the Member States and the European Commission, but I am confident that we will succeed – I am confident that I will succeed, because I understand how important this is! – and that, in parallel to the Slovenian legislative amendments, we will FINALLY make progress in this respect. Give Slovenian the place it deserves.

It is our language, our right and our choice.

And that’s what I spoke about in my contribution for POP TV’s 24ur programme today.

Greetings from Brussels

– Irena