The International Federation of Journalists and its regional group the European Federation of Journalists today backed journalists in Slovenia who are threatening an all-out strike across all media next month after some key employers blocked discussions on a new national agreement covering journalists’ working conditions.

“The refusal of some media companies associated in the Chamber of Commerce to even talk about renewing national agreements covering journalists’ working rights is provocative and unacceptable,” said Arne König, Chairman of the EFJ. “Good journalism depends on maintaining decent standards in the workplace, but some of Slovenia’s media seem determined to reduce working conditions. Our colleagues are right to reject such an approach.”

The Slovene Journalists’ Union, which represents journalists working in both private and public media across the newspaper and broadcasting landscape, announced their plan to call a strike on October 3rd – the day of national parliamentary elections – because a group of media employers within the country’s chamber of commerce refused to discuss a union proposal to renegotiate the existing national agreement.

However, some employers – notably the country’s public broadcaster RTV-Slovenia – have indicated that they are ready to discuss a new deal with the union.

The EFJ is encouraging talks to restart in the hope of avoiding the strike.

“We can only hope that this confrontation can be avoided,” said König. “It would be tragic if journalists were forced to take action on one of the country’s prime news days because of the intransigence of some media employers.”

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The EFJ represents over 200,000 journalists in more than 40 countries