Slovene journalists association calls on government to rewrite TV law following referendum

A Slovene journalists association on Monday called on authorities to rewrite a law following the government's narrow referendum victory to regulate the state-run broadcaster, a move critics claim would bring the media under government control.

Nearly all of the referendum votes were counted with 50.2 percent of voters backing the law, while 49.01 percent were against it, the state-run Electoral Commission said.

Turnout was low Sunday, at 30.7 percent, and the remaining votes to be counted were not enough to change the results, the commission affirmed.

"An intelligent government would decide to draft a new law ... and seek broader support," said Grega Repovz, the head of the Journalistic Association, which most of the Balkan country's journalists belong to.

The law, adopted in June, requires that parliament approve members of the national television and radio Programming Board, which appoints the stations' director and editors and controls their finances and programming.

Previously, civil groups had selected most of the 25-member board of the Radio Televizija Slovenija, while parliament chose five members and media outlets chose three.

The government argues the law is needed to prevent board members from posing as independent when in fact they are pushing political agendas, the AP reports.