Christian Democrats Join SMER in Criticizing Media

The government is justified in criticizing a lack of objectiveness in the media, said Culture Minister Marek Madaric in a political debate program on commercial TV Markiza on Sunday. Furthermore, he criticized the way in which the media reported about government's criticism, which, in his words stated that "the cabinet informs that conditions for freedom of the press in Slovakia are improving, while at the same time freedom of the press is linked with some duties. The cabinet's opinion is that the quantity of biased and distorted information on its account is rising and it calls on the media to inform objectively," he said. "Within the planned revision of legal regulations governing activities of the press and media in Slovakia, the government is considering the introduction of a standard instrument of the right to respond, enabling the affected person or institution to immediately react to untrue information" he said.
Chairman of the opposition Christian-Democratic Movement (KDH) Pavol Hrusovsky said he was surprised that the cabinet adopted a resolution on the media policy in reaction to the situation. "I had my own experience with lack of objectiveness of the media in reporting about some matters, but it never occurred to me to restrict freedom of the media by a legislative intervention," he said.
According to the culture minister, the new press law should explicitly prohibit censorship and protect sources of information. Mr. Hrusovsky said he sees a problem with the media in Slovakia with tabloids squeezing out serious journalism. "This is what we should concentrate on, because a not merely ethical threat exists here," he said. In his words, journalists are not only writing about politics, they are becoming actively engaged in politics. He suggested to Culture Minister Madaric to cooperate with the Ministry of Justice and come up with some possibilities of accelerated proceedings concerning media problems. Together with the KDH, Mr. Hrusovsky wants to defend freedom of media as well as truthfulness of information.