However, it is much more serious topic than anything that could be made sarcasm of. Two decades of developing democratic system in Slovakia more or less successfully have been recently endangered while having already been on the right track. Wide public has gotten used to free press releases and non-censored articles that would directly, truly, and objectively try to evaluate government steps; however, recent laws, pursuits, and regulations attempt to silence the criticism and public disagreement published in the news.
There was a new law established last year that has started all this governmental push against free press releases in writing negative articles about the state officials. Of course, the negatives were not published with any background information that something has gone wrong and the public opinion as well as the NGO’s statements were showing most of the times that cases about some politicians contained non-transparent or possibly illegal practices. The response from the government was not solving the issue that the press attempted to publicize but to cover it somehow. The parliament launched the controversial law for automatic right to publish the opinion of the person that was mentioned in it despite to the fact that he/she would just try to defend himself with no valuable arguments. The controversial press law is suppressing the speech freedom on its’ fundamental basis and offers a bizarre opportunity for anyone to defend himself even with irrelevant or unjust arguments to be published (Mironov, 2009). This act strongly restrain journalists to publish their findings that could be backed-up from valuable sources; however, there is often no chance to prove it at the very beginning when the cause occurs or the evidence and witnesses are not willing to publish their names and step out of anonymous status due to possible punishment from the accused state officials.
Even further has the press freedom been threatened with high financial punishments that anyone from governmental cabinet can ask for suing newspapers companies. The connections among state officials and the same political coalition Minister of Justice Mr. Harabin and his long-term manipulation of judges sets almost certainty that most of the court cases with press companies are going to be resolved in favor to the state officials. Especially in the case when he personally was in the juridical process with one of the newspaper company. “Stefan Harabin is libel-happy – he has been awarded € 64, 467 in two actions this year. In the most recent case, Harabin didn't sue for a printed apology, but he did successfully appeal an initial ruling awarding him a much lower sum in damages. Further proof that money – and not personal honour – is the main motivation here” (Smith, 2009). The meaning behind is even worse than the law jurisdiction itself since it enables the governmental members not to demand the public apology but gives them a chance highly misuse the law to request financial rewards. These can seriously damage the Slovak press freedom since the news companies may suffer from financial troubles and will fear to criticize members of government just to avoid possible further penalties. Even meant-to-be an animated caricature joke of the Prime Minister Fico not having a back bone at the doctor’s visitation was the case that got sued and rewarded large financial fine from the editor of newspapers. “This year alone a total of €358,804 has been awarded to various high-ranking individuals, including Fico's two coalition partners” (Smith, 2009). It is highly predictable that with such coordination in state institutions including manipulated and non-objective justice the press liberty, speech freedom, and democracy as such may be continually deteriorating in Slovakia.
There is even a worse proposal of continual decrease of Slovak press freedom and democracy involving the internet video and multimedia movies being a topic to be censored on internet web sites. A recent EU legislation plan prepares a similar future regulation of internet movies as well; however, that has been a proposal for farther future and not in such strict version as the initiative Slovak Ministry of Culture prospects. There are large media companies that settled their business in Slovakia and operate these fun or attraction multimedia web sites from their local centers. Nonetheless, the government is going to launch the control over their operation and the content that is broadcasted. Even though these web sites do not mean to promote bestiality or under-aged illegal actions but rather concentrate on spectacular findings, extreme sports or youth hobbies, and show fun attractions and tips, their future existence is going to depend on governmental decisions whether it is good or not to show. It is needless to say that there is no right for the government to tell young generation what they should or should not watch unless it is illegal. Moreover, the internet does not know the geographical boundaries so the young people will download or watch medias from foreign web sites that do not undergo Slovak censorship. On the other hand, it is going to harm local media companies that will be highly disadvantaged in common market of media and easily replaced by their foreign competition since teenagers can quite easily avoid local limitations and watch the same media from abroad.
All these activities of Slovak government reducing press and media freedom in the country is strongly against development of open democracy in the country. In addition, many of these state involvements endanger moral thinking of Slovak generations to determine positive and negative happenings in the country movements. Every member of the government should be willing to take responsibility for his own actions and if they turn to be wrong and negatively viewed by the wide public, the criticism should never be suppressed or punished just to cover one’s disability, corruption, or bad intentions. Certainly not 20 years after the totality regime finished.
References
Mironov, M. (2009, November 1). Guardian: Fico zaraba na ukor slobodnej tlace. Sme.sk. Retrieved November 3, 2009, from http://www.sme.sk/c/5089807/guardian-fico-zaraba-na-ukor-slobodnej-tlace.html
Smith, D. (2009, October 31). Pricing out the free press. The Guardian. Retrieved November 2, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/ oct/31/slovakia-free-press-libel
