The Prague Post Online: News: Support for Slovak media rights

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Support for Slovak media rights

A bill from Bratislava to amend press laws could limit editorial independence

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 23rd, 2008 issue

Slovak print media have a well-tested method for drawing the eyes of the public. In tense political moments when scathing critiques become so common they fail to even raise eyebrows, newspapers voice their protest through a last resort: the blank front page.

During the recent debate over a bill limiting the freedom of Slovakia’s press, the editors-in-chief of the country’s leading dailies have undertaken such measures all too frequently.

Championed by Prime Minister Robert Fico, the bill, which Slovak Parliament approved April 9, seeks to amend the current press law through a “right of correction and response” clause described by international watchdog groups as “severely restrictive of editorial independence.”

To voice their opposition to the bill, a majority of the country’s daily newspapers responded by removing all routine copy from their March 27 and April 11 front pages, replacing it with a proclamation describing the press bill’s “seven capital sins.”

“How would you like it if your favorite newspaper was not written by reporters, but by someone else? This could be the result of a press bill from the smithy of the governing coalition,” the statement read.

Czech media have also gotten involved. Sympathizing with their Slovak counterparts, the editors of five leading local periodicals printed an open letter April 15 urging Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič to veto the bill.

In Slovakia’s young history, March 27 and April 11 represented the third and fourth dates on which newspapers printed blank front pages in protest of the government’s attempts to limit press freedom.

During the reign of often-controversial former President Vladimír Mečiar, dailies twice printed blank front pages in 1995 and 1997, protesting against a proposed bill raising tax for print publications.

However, the row over the current press bill is unprecedented in that the blank front pages appeared just weeks apart.

Chilling effect

For journalists, publishers and watchdog groups, the principal problem posed by the press bill is its expansion of the “right of response” clause to the “right of correction and response.”

Designed to endow politicians as well as private citizens with the right to react to published factual statements that are proven false, the “right of response” clause is commonplace in most democratic countries in Europe, including the Czech Republic.

“This right has its concrete limitations,” said Miroslav Jelínek, chairman of the Syndicate of Czech Journalists. If a newspaper publishes a false factual statement that infringes upon the good name of a company or the personality rights of an individual, the afflicted parties may request that the periodical publish their response. However, “that response must correspond to the length and nature of the original text,” Jelínek added.

The Slovak press bill takes these privileges several steps further by introducing the right to correction, which can be invoked based on any minor factual error that isn’t necessarily related to personality rights.

“The right … can be invoked by anyone, even if the publicized information is true,” said Miloš Nemeček, chairman of the Slovak Periodical Press Publishers’ Association.

In addition, the length and placement of corrections can be equivalent to the original text, and newspapers face fines of up to 200,000 Sk (roughly $10,000/150,000 Kč) if they fail to abide by these restrictions.

“Slovak newspapers and magazines are therefore in danger of having their offices flooded with reactions from politicians and other celebrities, even when the published information is entirely factual,” Nemeček said.

While deeply critical of the press bill, neither the European Commission nor the watchdog Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has been able to negotiate its complete withdrawal by the Slovak governing SMER party, whose sweeping majority presence in both houses of Parliament enables it to push through radical policies.

“The minister believes the bill is a modern law that does not limit media freedom, but increases the responsibility of press editors and owners of other media,” Ján Škoda, spokesman for the Slovak Culture Ministry, announced April 11.

The push to limit the rights of the press stems from Fico’s aversion to the media, which have stepped up their criticism of his policy in lieu of a strong government opposition. According to Jelínek, such strains have their parallels in the Czech Republic.

“It’s obvious that [local] politicians who run into problems with public opinion and the media in their work would welcome a solution similar to the Slovak press bill,” he said. “[Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek] has already declared his effort to tighten press restrictions, and [opposition leader Jiří Paroubek] has proclaimed his intentions to raise the media’s responsibility countless times.”

If signed into law by Gašparovič, who is generally seen as sympathetic toward Fico’s policy, the press bill will take effect in June. Nevertheless, Jelínek says these chilling effects on Slovakia’s press freedom are only temporary.

“At some point,” he said, “politicians will realize that limiting media freedom in a democratic country is utter nonsense.”

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com

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