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Ten months ago, the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Robert Fico, publicly said ”...Freedom of press is not an absolute law.” Today, Public Policy Institute is regretfully stating that the Draft Press Act approved by the Government and proposed to Slovak Parliament Session is a real attempt to fulfill the above-mentioned statement and restrict the freedom of the press.
The Proposal of the Press Act by the Cultural Ministry is not a standard European version of media legislation. The proposal is not a response to the requirement of ensuring freedom of the press, nor does it serve the interest of the public to receive information from different sources. It also fails to provide individuals with adequate means of protection before publishing information with inaccurate facts. The Draft also extends the authority of the Ministry of Culture – European recommendations require an independent institution to settle the disputes. Media freedom representatives of OSCE point out most of these facts in their statement.
Public Policy Institute is pointing out, with all the seriousness, the political background of this proposal. According to the Robert Fico rhetoric and his non-conforming attitude, his relationship with the media makes his motivation for standing behind the draft proposal very obvious. The statements of government representatives that this proposal is a service for citizens, not politicians, are in the way. The justification/substantiation of the draft is not standing either on certain number of legal disputes, on the legal protection of individuals, or on objective arguments that support this claim. In this context Public Policy Institute considers the draft of Press Act as an attempt of revenge by the state executive against the criticism of journalist and publishers.
Public Policy Institute prepared legal analysis of controversial proposal. We consider as the most important and inadmissible intervention into the independence and freedom of the press these notions:
Extent of right to replay. It does not contemplate or advance the public’s need, nor does it guarantee freedom of the press. It is beyond the European recommendation (Resolution74 (26) and Recommendation No.2004 (16) because it restricts the possibility of a publisher of a periodical to decline publishing a response. Wide ranging and imbalanced application of this right leans toward the restriction of the freedom of the press and would be an exception in the European Union. The institution of the right to reply actually, in this form, introduces the possibility of anyone’s reply without offering publisher a chance to ensure that the reply has any connection with published information. Without any rules, this could lead to publishing dysfunction in the print media..
Broadening of censorship extensions. The government is proposing to broaden censorship with the controversial concept of political opinion. It is the first time since 1989 that the Slovak legal system could assume differencing political opinion to be sanctioned.
Right to additional announcement does not have defined extensions of publishing. In practice what could happen is that the number of pages with final judgment would be more then the number of newspaper pages. Opposite to European recommendations, the draft obtains shortened list of cases when a publisher could decline the additional announcement. The proposal of law could be simpler and more obvious.
These are the reason why Public Policy Institute considers the Draft Press Act to be a distinctive intervention into the independence and freedom of the press and would lead to narrowing the ability of the public to receive information from different sources. It is a linear contradiction with the requirement of the free discussion and the true values we adopted as our obligation as a Member state of European Union.
Public Policy Institute demands to withdraw this proposal of Draft Press Act from the Parliament session.
Martin Kamenský
President PPI
For further information, please contact:
Katarína Krejčíková
PPI – project coordinator
katarina.krejcikova@publicpi.eu
publicpi@publicpi.eu
www.publicpi.eu |
