Is press freedom in danger?

Is press freedom in danger?

Public officials should again have a right to reply, TASR learnt on Tuesday as members of the parliamentary constitutional committee approved an amendment to the Press Act prepared by coalition Smer-SD MPs Miroslav Ciz and Dusan Jarjabek. At the same time, the committee did not pass four amendments by opposition MP Ondrej Dostal (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS). For example, he asked that the amendment should not include financial compensation for the non-publication of a reply, that the right to reply should not be re-introduced for politicians, and that this right should be kept only in relation to incomplete, false and truth-distorting claims. According to opposition MP Alojz Baranik (SaS), the amendment is contrary to European law.

The authors said that by submitting the amendment they also aimed to open up a discussion on these issues. According to coalition SMER MP Ciz, a public official must bear a higher degree of interest in his person, but nowhere is it written that it is absolute.

The right to reply also for public officials was introduced into the Slovak legal order on June 1, 2008, during Robert Fico's (Smer-SD) first Government. In 2011, during Iveta Radicova's (at that time SDKU-DS) Cabinet, this institute was changed, leaving this right to natural persons only. Jarjabek and Ciz are returning it to the original state. "It is inevitable to stress that the topic in consideration only concerns factual claims. Replying to evaluation assessments is excluded. The institute of the right to reply has been part of the Press Act in some European countries such as France where the principle 'audiatur et altera pars' or 'hearing the other party' is applied," argue the SMER MPs. The Press Publishers' Association views this step as unnecessary. If Parliament passes the amendment, it could mean that media would be obliged to publish politicians' challenges to claims already printed, not just limited to missing or incorrect information.

In February 2019, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom managing director Lutz Kinkel warned against the risk of a massive policy "which would lead to increased self-censorship in Slovakia."

In February, the International Press Institute also pointed to the tendency shared by the whole of the Visegrad Four group, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia "to redefine journalism as existing to serve political interests rather than the interests of a well- informed society." Moreover, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe called upon the Slovak Parliament to repeal the amendment and protect media freedom. In its response at the time, the Slovak Foreign Ministry reassured the OSCE's Representative on the Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, that his remarks would be duly taken into account.


Martina Šimkovičová, Photo: TASR

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