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IVO Comments on Quality of Democracy Barometer Results
Thursday 15 July 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, July 15 (TASR) - The Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) think-tank, which gave Slovakia a democracy mark of 3.4 in its Barometer survey for the second quarter of 2010, the same mark as in the first, said on Thursday that it focused on the way in which the media and political elites weathered the period before, during and after the June general election along with court rulings on libel actions between politicians and the media.
IVO's Miroslav Kollar saw a slight improvement only in the area of the independent public service media, which won court disputes against politicians. A case in point, according to him, was a decision by a Zilina judge against SNS chief and lawmaker Jan Slota and in favour of TV Markiza. The judge ruled that broadcasts concerning crimes committed by Slota in his youth were in the public interest and in line with ethical rules.
Kollar believes that the media, apart from Slovak Television (STV), which continued to depict the then government of Robert Fico favorably, acted in a way that couldn't harm any of the contending political parties. STV violated ethical standards by allowing Fico to attack then opposition parties instead of reporting on the global economic crisis. Moreover, during the unveiling of a new statue of Prince Svatopluk at Bratislava Castle STV focused only on Smer and not on its two other coalition partners as well.
IVO analyst Grigorij Meseznikov said that the think-tank in the lead-up to the election registered activities showing that the ruling parties tapped their administration advantages to improve their positions. This included news conferences at the Government Office in which Fico beamed election messages to voters; the commissioning of completed sports grounds and the opening of a new terminal at Bratislava airport.
The hand-over of power after the appointment of the new government was in order, but the outgoing government provoked qualms by activities such as the last-minute conclusion of contracts in time for the elections.
Meseznikov frowns on certain pre-election incidents and cases with an unclear background that haven't received due attention after election. Non-parliamentary party SDL, for example, allegedly sent out letters with the forged signature of Robert Fico urging his voters to vote for SDL instead of Smer.
The five walks of life monitored by IVO for evaluating democracy are the rule of law; the legislature; respect for human and minority rights; the independent public service media; and foreign policy in terms of the euro and transatlantic integration.
The marks range between 1 and 5, with 1 representing the optimal state of democracy based on standards and comparative criteria in the EU and Council of Europe.
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